Finally let that happen! During 2023, Hollywood superhero spectacles suffered several serious blows at the cinema box office, blows so strong that, even if only to a certain extent, they shook the foundations of the existence of this genre. Film failures Flash, Captain Marvel 2, Shazam: Wrath of the Gods i Blue Beetle they proved and showed that audiences are tired of this type of movies and that their dominance is (hopefully!) coming to an end. This series of financial disappointments at the end of 2023 was joined by Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom James Wan's sequel to the big hit from 2018, a film that grossed around $350 million worldwide in its first three weeks of release. True, that sum doesn't look bad at first glance, but when you consider that the first film made three times as much, it becomes clear that there is a problem. Film adaptations of Marvel and DC comics have become the norm, and for a long time now it has been obvious that the authors have nothing new to offer in the creative sense of the superhero department: what we get in most cases is a repackaging of already well-known narrative motifs. , which sooner or later had to cause fatigue among viewers, and even those mesmerized by this type of blockbuster.
Director James Wan, known for the horror series Summoning evil, he also directed the first Aquaman, and in the sequel, almost all the key actors from the first part are present - there is Jason Mamoa in the title role, as well as Patrick Wilson, Amber Heard, Yaija Abdul Mateen II, Nicole Kidman, Dolph Lundgren and Temuera Morrison. The screenplay was written by David Leslie Johnson McGoldrick, who also designed the previous part, and who has collaborated with Van several times in the past (he worked on the second and third Summoning evil), so it was to be expected that the same team would offer the audience an equally attractive film. But times are changing. In the past five years, there has been a fatigue with superhero content, it's already obvious. Also, which didn't help, DC is before the premiere of the new one Aquaman announced that it would be the last film in the franchise Di Si's extended universe (which began in 2013 with the film Man of Steel and includes 15 cinema titles), and that the whole story will be restarted with a franchise designed by James Gunn, the director of the superhero franchise Guardians of the Galaxy, which is still very popular (the third part of this series was the fourth most watched film in 2023, only ahead of it Barbi, Super Mario Bros. i Oppenheimer).
What's new? Aquaman As far as it is concerned, it is noticeable that Johnson McGoldrick did not bother much with the design. It is a routine story that, as expected, is narratively based on the first part. Black Manta (Jaija Abdul Matin II) is determined to take revenge on Aquaman for the death of his father, so he unleashes an ancient evil force regardless of the fact that this desperate move of his may lead - as it usually happens in films of this type - to a general Apocalypse. In order to defeat a superior opponent, Aquaman (Mamoah) is forced to seek help from his half-brother Orm (Wilson), the former king of Atlantis, with whom he is not on good terms. Van and his team play it safe, and offer nothing more than what is expected of them. The first half of the film looks like an underwater one Star Wars, another variant of oceanic The Lord of the Rings, all with the occasional admixture The eighth passenger i Abyss to tick off Van's horror pedigree as well. Paradoxically, the second part is more dynamic and at times more exciting than the first (to which the duration also contributes - new Aquaman is packed into "just" two hours, which is quite unusually short for a superhero movie), but it's clear from the start that we're being served a well-known fish stew. Everything has already been seen, and there is nothing that can be described with the adjectives "fresh" and "new".
After losing her legal battle with her ex-husband Johnny Depp, Amber Heard became one of the most hated women in America (and beyond), putting her appearance in the sequel in jeopardy, even though her scenes had long since been filmed by the time the verdict was handed down. Van, apparently, partially succumbed to the pressure, so the appearance of Mara, the character played by Heard, was reduced to only about twenty minutes, which, perhaps, had a positive effect on the film as a whole, because thanks to it, it became shorter, and therefore more dynamic. After all, the love scenes between Mamoa and Amber Heard were extremely unconvincing in the first part as well, so in a creative sense, the decision to minimize their interaction in the new film was correct. However, Mara still remains an important character, and Amber Heard was signed third at the checkout, right behind Mamoa and Wilson. There is a theory that part of the audience turned their backs Aquaman and the lost kingdom in solidarity with Depp (there was even an internet petition for Amber Heard to replace Johnny Depp in the film - which might not be a bad idea, because that way the story would be pushed even more in the direction of parody and comedy), although we will never to find out with certainty to what extent the appearance of the "notorious" actress affected the viewership. In any case, Amber Heard is still an important part of the cast, with the fact that her character is pale and uninteresting this time as well. Mamoa is undeniably a handsome man, with some comedic potential, but overall his limitations as an actor are obvious. That's why it's not surprising that the film is "taken over" by Patrick Wilson, who is, without a doubt, a proven quality actor - and this time the script also works well for him, since his character is the only one with some kind of development.
Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom is the final nail in the coffin of DC's attempt to overshadow Marvel. All eyes are now on James Gunn and Peter Safran, who are already heavily preparing to repackage the famous heroes in the upcoming franchise Di You are the universe., which will begin at the end of 2024 in series Commandos creatures i Waller, then continue with the cinema film Superman: Legacy, whose premiere is scheduled for July 11, 2025. Will Gan succeed in reinventing hot water? Hardly, though his work on films Super (2010) Detachment of written offs: A new mission (2021) and the Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy (2014, 2017, 2023) raises a certain hope that - if he is lucky - he will manage to find a way to weld the formula just as much as it is necessary to breathe at least a little freshness into the familiar and already "chewed" stories so many times . After the success of the series The Boys it became clear that superhero movies would have to change or they would slowly lose popularity and eventually disappear. If we're being honest, I'm more inclined to the second option (how many versions of Superman, Batman and Spider-Man does a person have to watch in a lifetime? - and this existing one is more than is objectively necessary), although it is certain that Hollywood, in which repackaging is, he won't give up his golden super-coke so easily.
