Around this time last year, the DC Comics cinematic universe was supposed to come together with the release of Justice League. Unlike Marvel, the DC movies didn’t take the time to introduce various members of their superteam in solo movies first. The end result was a messy movie featuring a team of poorly defined characters.

No one knows what the future holds for DC Comics movies. If there’s a clearly defined plan, no one at Warner Brothers is sharing it. But Aquaman’s new solo movie helps fix one of the problems with Justice League by turning its lead character into a hero audiences will be invested in.

Jason Momoa has played Aquaman twice before. He first appeared in a seconds-long cameo in Zack Snyder’s dreary slugfest, Batman V Superman. Of the many mistakes Snyder made in that movie, he at least got the casting of Aquaman and Wonder Woman right. In Justice League, Momoa finally got some dialogue but he was written as a superpowered broheim rather than the King of the Seas.

Director James Wan has said in interviews that he set out to make Aquaman fun. That goal stands in stark contrast to Snyder’s superhero movies. For the most part, Wan pulls it off. Aquaman mines a lot of familiar material, but it is a competently made entry in the superhero genre that never fails to entertain.

Unlike Batman or Superman, the general public is unlikely to know Aquaman’s backstory. After decades of reinvention in comic books, the character lacks a definitive origin. Geoff Johns, who has written Aquaman comics for DC, synthesizes common elements from several takes on the character. The result is a movie jam-packed with mythology and world-building.

It turns out that Aquaman’s family gives Thor’s a run for it in the dysfunction department. Nicole Kidman and Temuera Morrison portray Aquaman’s parents. She’s the queen of an underwater kingdom and he is a humble lighthouse keeper. The story of these star-crossed lovers could be a movie of its own. Aquaman’s parents are background characters, but the audience ends up caring a lot more about them than the latest iteration of Thomas and Martha Wayne.

Aquaman is raised by his father on the surface when his mother is forced to return to her kingdom to keep him safe. Although he never visits Atlantis, he receives training from Atlantean mentor, Vulko, played by former Green Goblin, Willem Dafoe. Meanwhile, Aquaman’s half-brother grows up in Atlantis preparing for the day when he can lead his armies against the surface world.

The two brothers finally meet when an Atlantean princess, Amber Heard with Little Mermaid hair as Mera, recruits the hunky Arther Curry as a reluctant hero. Aided by Vulko, they set out to find an ancient trident which will unite the undersea kingdom behind Aquaman so that war can be prevented.

Momoa and Heard are beautiful people with limited acting abilities. Like Dwayne Johnson, Momoa can compensate with loads of charisma. The script doesn’t demand much of its lead actors and the case is stacked with over-qualified supporting players like Kidman and Dafoe. Aquaman’s brother is played by Patrick Wilson and Dolph Lundgren (having the best Christmas season of his career with this movie and Creed II still in theaters) plays Mera’s royal father.

Aquaman also features an origin story for the hero’s best-known villain, Black Manta. Yahya Abdul-Mateen II plays a pirate who acquires Atlantean technology to settle a score with Aquaman. If the movie has one plotline too many, this is it. While it’s fun to see Abdul-Manteen in the full Manta costume, this character could have waited for the sequel. I suspect he was included here because a sequel is anything but guaranteed.

I don’t think viewers are likely to mind the dense story because Wan keeps things moving at a brisk pace. Once Arthur Curry finally agrees to accompany Mera on her mission, they are off to the races. The underwater scenes are visually spectacular calling to mind the best elements of Avatar or the Star Wars prequels. The land-based questing delves into Indiana Jones territory. Nothing here is ground-breaking in anyway, but it is as much fun as Wan promised it would be.

If you’re an Aquaman fan, you will probably get a thrill out of seeing Momoa emerge in the familiar orange and green costume. If you are one of the many who never cared for the character or thought he was a joke, Aquaman just might convince you that he is a worthy hero deserving of his own franchise.

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