These DC movies are getting better. It must be something in the water.

Aquaman (M)
Ticket purchased (3D version seen)

In some ways Aquaman is a movie that shouldn’t work. Those of us of a certain age will mostly remember Aquaman from the Superfriends TV show, where he was mostly just tagging along; ‘talking to fish’ wasn’t high on the Justice League’s list of needs in the 1970s. Combine the League’s possibly-least-interesting character with the hit-and-miss nature of the DC Universe’s recent movies, and you don’t exactly have an enticing recipe.

The first act of the movie isn’t terribly strong, either. Aquaman’s first battle with the Big Bad looks like it was played out on an Xbox rather than being part of a Hollywood blockbuster, and my heart sank a little watching it play out. The film also features Willem Dafoe as Vulko, the vizier to the King of Atlantis (and secretly Arthur’s mentor), but he seems to have been told to play Christoph Waltz playing Vulko instead of just being in character himself.

There is also an odd ‘speaking under water’ effect that’s been applied to all the voices while the characters are in Atlantis; this can make the dialogue difficult to understand at times, as King Blublublublub orders the blublublub to fetch the blublublub. (At least, I think that’s what they said.) But get past these points and the movie picks up markedly, briefly taking on an Indiana Jones-style relic hunt before Arthur returns to give the villain what-for.

At the beginning, lighthouse keeper Thomas (Temuera Morrison) rescues an injured woman who turns out to be Atlanna, Queen of Atlantis (Nicole Kidman). He takes her in and their relationship blossoms in front of a dodgy CGI sunset, eventually bearing a son, Arthur/Aquaman (Jason Momoa).

Atlanna’s other son, Orm (Patrick Wilson from Watchmen), is trying to unite the separated kingdoms of Atlantis in order to wage war against the inhabitants of the Earth’s surface. To that end, he recruits pirates led by Black Manta (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) to stage a false-flag attack to help make his case. His bride-to-be, Mera (Amber Heard), heads to the surface to convince Arthur to return to Atlantis and put an end to the war.

Once away from the heavy CGI, the movie feels a lot better. Our heroes take on a quest to find the mythical trident owned by Atlantis’ former king, which can only be wielded by the true heir to the throne. (Much like the story of another king named Arthur.) Their quest takes them above ground where the CGI is subtler, thus making the movie much more enjoyable to watch; a simultaneous rooftop chase and fight sequence is particularly memorable, and helps you to settle in and enjoy the remainder of the film.

Atlantis itself is also more memorable than other settings in the DC Universe films. Rather than the grim-dark grimy settings from Batman v Superman and Justice League, the undersea world is a vibrant world of neon pinks and glowing blues, an underwater version of Avatar’s Pandora (and mirroring the addition of more colour in the more recent Marvel movies, like Thor: Ragnarok). Above the surface it mostly seems to be raining, so we don’t get away from dark, brooding set pieces entirely, but at least Aquaman looks a bit different to other films.

I also felt Momoa and Heard had good chemistry as our heroes. Heard’s Atlantean costume is a bit heavy on the fan-service side (at least as much as you can get in an M-rated film), but she’s a competent character who can hold her own, and Momoa is believable as both the laid-back, beer-drinking Arthur and the glaring, ass-kicking Aquaman. (There are also enough shirtless scenes with Momoa to offset Heard’s plunging neckline.) I would have liked him to get a little more dialogue instead of mostly being snarky, but as he himself says in the film, he’s a blunt implement; everyone else does the talking, he just gets to smash stuff.

So Aquaman isn’t brilliant, and still isn’t as good as the Marvel movies; Warner still has a way to go before DC catches up in that regard (or even matches the greatness of Wonder Woman). But it’s a perfectly acceptable popcorn blockbuster, it has a sequel hook (early in the credits) so we might get more of it, and if you’re not totally over superhero flicks and need something to tide you over to Captain Marvel, you could do a lot worse.