Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Aquaman dir. by James Wan

2019; Scriptoriun Press; Volume: 29; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1353/art.2019.0028

1934-1539

Susan Aronstein, Taran Drummond,

Cinema and Media Studies

Reviewed by: Aquaman dir. by James Wan Susan Aronstein and Taran Drummond james wan, dir., Aquaman. Warner Brothers, 2018. Running time: 2:23. Batman has outstayed his big screen welcome; Superman has failed to gain box-office traction; and, while the Marvel Cinematic Universe has racked up hit after hit, DC's output has consisted mainly of flat and generic cash-grabs: critical and financial failures like Suicide Squad (2016) and Batman Vs. Superman (2016). 2017's Wonder Woman offered a glimmer of hope, suggesting that DC might be ready to compete with Marvel for critical and box-office acclaim, but Justice League, released five months later, fell flat. The DC Extended Universe clearly needs a new hero, and who could be better than the once-and-future king himself? Enter Arthur Curry, a.k.a. Aquaman, ready to save the DC Universe by reinvigorating the Arthurian legend for a movie-going generation raised on superheroes—with the added bonus of an amusing Easter-egg hunt for Arthurian scholars on the look-out for textual and cinematic allusions. Aquaman, directed by James Wan and written by a six-person team, focuses and extends the Arthurian resonances that have accrued to the tale over its seventy-eight-year history. The film begins when an injured blonde woman in a strange bodysuit (Nicole Kidman) washes up on the shore and is rescued by lighthouse-keeper Tom Curry (Temuera Morrison). But she is no ordinary woman; she is Atlanna, princess [End Page 124] of Atlantis. In a series of quickly edited sequences, Tom and Atlanna fall in love and have a child. As the couple listens to Hurricane-Arthur warnings on the radio, Atlanna suggests they name their baby Arthur. Tom queries, 'After the hurricane?' 'No,' Atlanna replies, 'after the legend.' Atlanna then proclaims Arthur's destiny: he is the 'true king,' chosen to find and wield King Atlan's lost trident and to bridge the worlds of land and sea. From these unsubtle Arthurian beginnings, the film builds a plot rife with references to the legend, moving from Arthur's magical birth and established destiny to a narrative that parallels his rise to power and the birth of Camelot. We begin with a once-great kingdom, fallen into chaos and riven by power struggles, and the myth of an enchanted weapon, the achievement of which will reveal the true king. We add a power-mad princely relative, Orm (Patrick Wilson), intent on gaining the throne through violence and treachery, and then introduce a wise counselor, Vulko (Willem Dafoe), to train young Arthur to assume his destined role. Finally, we throw in a quest to draw the trident from King Atlan's stony hands and, thus, bring peace and justice to both sea and land. As it tells its aquatic Arthurian tale, Aquaman cuts between two plotlines. The first is Orm's treacherous campaign to become Ocean Master, to unite the six kingdoms and wage war on the surface world. The second is Arthur's (Jason Momoa) reluctant quest, accompanied by Orm's rebellious fiancée, Mera (Amber Heard), to retrieve Atlan's trident and save both worlds from Orm's evil ambitions. In order to draw the trident from the stone, Arthur must prove his worth, not by blood, but by becoming 'a hero,' someone, as Atlanna tells her son, who 'is more than a king. Kings fight only for their nation. A hero fights for everyone.' In true Arthurian form, Aquaman pits might against right, Orm's violence against Arthur's worth. Arthur accepts his destiny, pulls the trident from the stone, and becomes the hero both realms need. Miraculously clad in shining armor, he rushes back to an undersea Battle of Camlann to defeat Orm (himself attired in armor that could have been ransacked from Boorman's storage room) and take on the mantle of Ocean Master. As fun as its underwater Arthuriana is, Aquaman is not a particularly good movie. Clichés abound; the abrasive rock n' roll score makes the film seem somewhat silly at times; and the eco-moral it tries to layer onto its Arthurian tale muddles the narrative. The quick-cut computer-animated fights are...