>>104790701I didn't even think it was pretty good.
So, he's how it is:
On the plus side, it shows that in some ways DC is learning. It's a fully fantasy story, not at all marred by any of the gritty realism that has plagued the DCEU so far. Momoa is fine enough and has moments of charm, and there are some really cool sequences with Black Manta. Additionally - especially in said BM sequences - there are some nicely shot moments and nice practical effects.
On the other hand, the CGI is swingy as fuck, varying from great to third act Black Panther level of cringe. There's also no real creativity in its fantasy worlds, or what the movie does with them - almost every other scene I found myself thinking "oh, okay, now we're going to do that one scene from [insert classic movie], but with Momoa and not shot as well. Okay." It doesn't help that these scenes are so shoddily tied together, there's no sense of progression - the pacing just snaps around from one set piece to another. The film promises and adventure, but there's no... motion. Every scene is like an isolated climax from another movie, without the connective tissue to hold it all together. Characters just teleport around the world for the next set piece (which are often really tonally inconsistent from one another), without any indication for how this happened, or sometimes even how they got out of the last situation. As a result, the characters never really have time to go through any kind of arc - they get new powers and stuff but they never change, especially Arthur and Mera (the latter of whom is fucking terrible, literally the most copypaste team mom "muh sarcastic comment" female character ever). The film seems to try to tell you that they're changing, but that's all it is, and in many ways even as static entities a lot about the characters is informed rather than shown - Momoa never really conveys the inner conflict that the movie tells you Arthur is feeling, for example.
