In Review: Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (2023)

By Tim Robins on December 24, 2023

Review by Tim Robins

In Shakespear’s Julius Caesar, Brutus says, “There is a tide in the affairs of men which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune”. Alas for Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, that boat has sailed. There is no way that I can turn the tide of negative criticism the film has received, but neither am I prepared to bury it at sea. After all, where Rotten Tomatoes and respectable British newspaper critics have given the film very low ratings, 86% of Google Users liked it, so there.

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, or Aquaman 2 for brevity, is a sequel to the surprise box office hit Aquaman (2018), which was based on the adventures of Arthur Curry aka DC Comics Aquaman, a very much the chiseled adult who young boys back in the day aspired to be. Aquaman appeared two years after Marvel’s aquatic mutant, prince Namor, and, in the 1950s, was even given Namor’s backstory to become a half-human-half Atlantian who could breathe on land and underwater.

Aquaman 2 picks up where its predecessor left off, with Aquaman (Jason Mamoa) and Mera (Amber Heard) plus a newborn baby playing happy families in their lighthouse home – a decision that puts Aquaman at odds with his Kingly duties, very much a post Covid dilemma between home and office. Meanwhile, Aquaman’s brother Orm (Patrick Wilson) is languishing in an arid, desert prison where he was consigned after he was overthrown by Aquaman and his legions of crustacea and cephalopods.

More meanwhiles, The Manta is still seeking revenge for the death of his father and has now acquired evil, green supernatural powers capable of unleashing an emerald pseudo-deity, the ruler of the Lost Kingdom of Necrus. By an amazing coincidence, Necrus is a kingdom of undead people. I’m not sure why it became lost, I suspect mostly to memory and someone forgot where they put the map. But now it’s back, and threatening the Earth’s climate by smelting an evil green ore kept in the vaults of Atlantis, among other places.

I say Aquaman 2 is a sequel but it is actually several different sequels edited into one. The first is a typical superhero punch em’ up, with so-so CGI fight scenes interspersed with MCU quippery. The second is a tattoo and trident buddy movie, in which Aquaman and his brother resolve differences over McDonald’s with a side-order of cockroaches, an unhappy meal indeed, although Orm seems to enjoy what his brother mischievously calls “land shrimp”. From there on in, it’s “bare bants” all the way.

There is a third, grimmer film almost totally submerged on the cutting room floor. The tales of familial conflict seem to originally have been much darker in tone than the film we have eventually gotten to see. Scenes of Orm tortured in prison, for example, in no way suggest the lighthearted relationship that he develops with his brother. Occasionally, you can see where the film splits off into an alternate movie. At one point, Manta’s reluctant sidekick, Dr Stephen Shin (Randall Park) gets horribly killed by The Manta – or does he? Wait! Re-shoots to the rescue! The good doctor emerges with no visible injuries, let alone a missing spine (which The Manta’s Bond villain dialogue implies).

When Aquaman 2 is not trying to decide which frames to use, it is busy deciding what scenes it can steal from other movies. A giant, hopping insect jungle bug pursuit? That would be King Kong. An undersea city of roguish pirates? That would be a Star Wars cantina populated with cast aways from the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, all led by a cross between Jabba the Hutt and Dexter Jettster. This derivative storytelling actually makes the film fun and holds the fragmented plot together. No need to ask why anything is happening, it is happening because that’s what happens in these kinds of movies.

However implausible the characters, the performances are fine, although Dolph Lundgrin’s line delivery as King Nereus is dead in the water. The biggest disappointment for boys and girls is Mamoa, who seems to have missed body day at the gym and lumbers about the place looking like a West coast surfer crustie. In the film, where we get a face full of the supporting casts’ pecs and nips, Mamoa is mostly off brand. This isn’t a bad thing. The amount of performance Enhancing Drugs required to meet Hollywood contracts for some performers playing superheroes has become a documented, if not often admitted, disgrace.

What didn’t disappoint was a lot of the character design. The first Aquaman film created a wonderfully imagined undersea world. The kingdoms here are a little low key but there is still the albeit only partly realised opportunity to explore an underwater Middle Earth, this time complete with a Sauronesque super villain goblin king.

There’s a discussion to be had about how Warner failed DC, and the studio’s mid-production changes of course; the desperate re-writing and re-editing all to no good end. Everyone involved in the film with an online presence seemed to have washed their hands of Aquaman 2 before they had even seen it. Those who did, were left scrubbing away like Lady Macbeth.

All I can say is that, at the end of a tiring day, I happily slumped down in front of the screen, latte in my hand and up for an adventure that was easy on my eyes and easier on my mind. I left the cinema with a slightly quizzical smile on my face. Only in the movies can you expect to see an octopus ride a giant, albino seahorse to rescue humanity from global warming!

Tim Robins

• Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom is in all good aquariums – sorry, cinemas – across the UK now

• Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom Official Site: aquamanonimax.co.uk

• Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom Special by Tim Seeley (AmazonUK Affiliate Link)

Discover the shocking events that connect the smash-hit Aquaman movie to the eagerly anticipated Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom! Aquaman balances his duties as king and as a member of the Justice League, all while planning a wedding! Black Manta is on the hunt for Atlantean tech to help rebuild his armor! Orm plots to escape his Atlantean prison! Three action-packed tales crammed into a single special.

Tim Robins

A freelance journalist and Doctor Who fanzine editor since 1978, Tim Robins has written on comics, films, books and TV programmes for a wide range of publications including Starburst, Interzone, Primetime and TV Guide.

His brief flirtation with comics includes ghost inking a 2000AD strip and co-writing a Doctor Who strip with Mike Collins. Since 1990 he worked at the University of Glamorgan where he was a Senior Lecturer in Cultural and Media Studies and the social sciences. Academically, he has published on the animation industry in Wales and approaches to social memory. He claims to be a card carrying member of the Politically Correct, a secret cadre bent on ruling the entire world and all human thought.