Directed by: James Wan
Written by: James Wan, David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick, Jason Momoa, Thomas Pa’a Sibbett
With a worldwide gross of 1.152 Billion, 2018’s Aquaman became the DC Expanded Universe (DCEU) highest-grossing film. Although it has mixed critic reviews, audiences showed up for Jason Momoa and the battles under the sea. Director James Wan delivered a fun film with some neat sequences and did a fair job in setting up this sequel with the storyline of the Black Manta (played by Yahya Abdul-Mateen II). There are four writers on this film including the lead actor, Jason Momoa. It must have been a challenge to deal with the social backlash against the leading actress Amber Heard (who plays Mera) and the cancel culture demanding she not be in the film. I, too, wondered how much of her screen time would be cut and quite frankly I didn’t feel they cut much at all. Bottom line: is this a good film? No. Are there story rewrites they could’ve gone with to elevate this film? Definitely.
Now here comes the spoilers…
Arthur Curry, aka Aquaman, is now a parent to a baby boy and the film quickly catches us up with his challenges in being a new parent, being a new king, and being Aquaman. He loves being Aquaman so he easily neglects his duties as king, yet he loves his son, so he spends every free minute he can caring for him. These scenes are where I think they cut the most of Mera, as they spin a minor narrative that Arthur is a single parent. I think they initially were going to try to kill off Mera, but the rest of the film would have been either heavily edited or required expensive reshoots. The whole family is intact with Arthur’s father and his mother (Nicole Kidman) being together. We jump to Black Manta aka David Kane searching for Atlantean artifacts when he discovers the black trident that possesses him and grants him power to destroy Arthur.
Five months later, Manta attacks Atlantis and breaks into its orichalcum reserves to power Atlantean machines. Usage of orichalcum, which emits high quantities of greenhouse gases, has raised planetary temperatures and caused ocean acidification which is killing sea life and heavily mutating the wildlife and fauna on land. Arthur needs to track Black Manta down and needs the help of his half-brother Orm (Patrick Wilson) to so do. He breaks his half-brother out of a desert prison and breaks many laws in the process, putting his throne at risk. They begrudgingly team up to track down Manta for the greater good, with the writers doing a decent job balancing whether or not Orm would turn on Arthur or not.
We get to the culminating epic battle sequences and it feels rushed and with no real emotional weight. Even when Arthur’s son is kidnapped and his father is nearly killed by Black Manta, you still don’t feel they handled this to the fullest potential. Here is what I would’ve done: Let the son be presumably killed off during the battle. In truth, the son is taken by another to be revealed villain for a future film. Arthur and Mera split up thus solving how to get Amber Heard off future productions and in the story you push that statistics of parents staying together after the death of a child are very slim. You suddenly give this film an emotional gut punch to the audience and a bittersweet ending with Aquaman reluctantly addressing the world while breaking down emotionally when he sees kids in the audience. This would have Aquaman reach dark places as a character and open up a third film to multiple storyline possibilities.
Yes, killing off a child is very dark and also breaks an unwritten rule for superhero films. Yet the end credits scene reveals his son is still alive and taken someplace where he cannot speak to fish. We need to expand the possibilities with the writing and open up a deeper emotional connection to who Arthur Curry is and when he has lost everyone he loved, and see who he will choose to be. With four writers on this story, they left so much room for character development but chose visual spectacle instead and the response from audiences around the world will be a direct correlation of the box office take.
Thanks for reading Writing Movie “WRONGS.”