In the latest round of Warner Bros. DC Extended Universe (DCEU) news dumps, the AQUAMAN solo movie release date was pushed back to December 2018. The move puts it up against Sony’s animated Spider-Man movie (featuring Miles Morales) and possibly the HAN SOLO Star Wars standalone film. This type of fierce competition may cause the film to be pushed into 2019, leaving the DCEU with no films lined up for 2018, unless it gets moved up a few weeks for a November 2018 release instead. While this is not encouraging news, not surprising for WB/DC lately, there are still a lot of reasons to be pumped up for a trip to Atlantis.
The biggest draw right now is the man himself, Jason Momoa. He’s already a god among the nerd world, with his fantastic turn as Khal Drago in GAMES OF THRONES as well as playing the titular character in the CONAN THE BARBARIAN remake. He may not have the traditional look of the comic book version of Aquaman, but I have faith he will bring a real presence to the character.
Momoa seems generally excited to be a part of the DCEU, despite the mostly negative responses to the movies thus far. Whether it’s posting fun videos from the set or talking to interviewers, he seems to be everything a fan could want to bring a beloved character to life. It certainly doesn’t hurt that the guy is an absolute monster and naturally has an imposing superhero build. He will definitely be a force that can go head-to-head with Superman, Wonder Woman and Batman.
The next thing this movie has going for it is the setting. Atlantis is a surprisingly unexplored location in cinema and should be a real asset to director James Wan and his production staff. The visuals alone should make this movie interesting with so many scenes taking place completely underwater.
The early JUSTICE LEAGUE footage released was a small tease but definitely got fans excited to see Aquaman in his element. Director Zack Snyder has clearly been training his entire career to shoot an underwater scene. This movie needs to be pure adventure and teasing the lost underwater world is a fantastic environment to build an epic tale onto in the AQUAMAN solo movie. We have seen some excellent worlds brought to life in superhero movies, like in THOR, and the backdrops are widely regarded to be one of the best parts of the film.
Now scenery alone won’t make this movie successful, especially with any benefit of the doubt pretty much evaporated for the DCEU. One of the many things Marvel has been able to do so well is bring B-list heroes successfully into the mainstream and use their lesser known characters to make great movies. So far, DC has been unable to do this and since AQUAMAN will most likely be the first DCEU solo movie not involving the Holy Trinity, there is really no room for error. If they can make a character like Arthur Curry, who has unfortunately been target of many jokes over the years decades, work in a live action movie then it would really restore faith in this movie universe.
The strongest asset for this film will hopefully be Wan, who has crafted some of the best horror movies in recent memory (SAW, THE CONJURING, INSIDIOUS). Recently, when a horror guru was put in charge of a superhero film it worked out incredibly well, with Sam Rami and the original SPIDER-MAN Trilogy and Scott Derrickson with DOCTOR STRANGE. While I doubt AQUAMAN will be as groundbreaking as the first SPIDER-MAN movie, it is definitely a benchmark to aim for.
Wan’s credits also include FURIOUS 7 which boasts some stunning, extremely over the top actions scenes. Say what you want about that franchise but that movie was a very fun piece of entertainment which proves Wan will have no problem visually bringing the Atlantian prince to life.
Warner Bros. and Wan have a legitimate opportunity to create something that will be unlike anything we have seen on film before, let’s hope they don’t squander it.
Written by Tim Miller, DC Films Correspondent -- Click to read Tim's posts
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