On Saturday, December 22, 2018, I saw the Aquaman movie in 3D at the Security Mall AMC theatre at the 7:30 p.m. show.  I was charged $15.49 which I thought was a bit much, but I felt it would be worth it to see Jason Momoa’s animal magnetism on the big screen.

I never saw Jason on “Baywatch”, but I did see him as the villainous werewolf in the movie “Wolves”.    Filmmakers did not pretty him up as movie leading men are prone to be.    In close-ups, he looks like a seafaring guy with lines in his face that could have come from working in the sun and wind.

Jason is not a pretty boy, but a gritty man on the order of a Charles Bronson-type who commands the screen when he’s on it.   Even without the hair, he would still look like he could kick ass and take names later.

Arthur Joseph Curry (played by Jason Momoa) didn’t start out as Aquaman.   He was just a fun-loving average guy who enjoyed fishing and guzzling gigantic beers with his lighthouse dad (played by Temuera Morrison).   Despite kids teasing him as he grew up because of his ability to communicate with sea life and his special abilities in water, he was always rescuing people who were in trouble in the water.   Otherwise, he just wanted to live an ordinary life.

But he’s no ordinary guy because of his mother.   However, his human father never told him about his inhuman powerful mother Atlanna who was queen of Atlantis (played by Nicole Kidman).   She was forced into a loveless marriage with the then-current sea king and left her lighthouse keeper/sweetheart to protect her human baby.

The queen’s legitimate heir to her throne and Arthur’s inhuman step brother, King Orm or Ocean Master (played by Patrick Wilson) starts a war with humankind because of humans polluting the oceans he says.   But it seems to me that he just wanted everybody to recognize him as king.    He uses fear tactics to bully all the other sea peoples into war with the land humans.   Some of the nonhuman beings under the sea resembled the mythical traditional mermen/women with fish tails while the rest were walking on legs like humans and they all could live and breathe underwater.

A great scene was when the sea creatures brought all the pollution and trash back to the coasts so that humans could see how much they have polluted the oceans.

Arthur’s advisor as he grew up human was Nuidis Vulko, (played by Willem Dafoe), who trained him in the skills he would someday need as king of the sea.

Mera is Vulko’s powerful daughter (played by Amber Heard) who comes to Arthur for help to stop the coming war between sea creatures and land humans.   He wants no part of this war but is forced into it by his step brother harming humans.   Mera is aloof at first because she doesn’t know Arthur.   All she knows is what her father has told her about him.   Arthur becomes Aquaman after he passes the test of retrieving the royal trident that no one else could do as well as saves his mom’s life with Mera’s help.

Director James Wan did a great job of getting that story told as a love and action story.   He pulls it all together so it’s full of fast-paced action and no way boring.

The actors make you believe they are underwater, and it doesn’t hurt for the special effects to make their hair move in water every time they are supposed to be in water.   You can tell a ginormous amount of money was spent on the special effects for this movie.   The visualization was done by a multitude of companies including Lucasfilm.   The powerful drum-busting music was wonderful throughout the movie.

Written by Rosa L. Griffin