The CFHW 2021 Movie Alphabet Challenge – Film A

What Is It About?

The Queen of Atlantis gets washed up in a storm and is rescued by a lighthouse keeper who nurses her back to health.

They fall in love and have a baby, Arthur, who is half-human, half-Atlantian but their two races mixing is forbidden so the Queen is eventually forced to return to Atlantis in order to protect her lover and son.

Arthur grows up, knowing his heritage thanks to an Atlantan Elder who secretly comes to the surface to teach him. He can breathe underwater, is super strong, and can manipulate water in interesting ways to his own advantage.

He uses these skills to help stricken sailors in the local seas, answering distress calls and pulling stranded vessels back to safety.

Meanwhile, underwater, his half-brother Orm, is bitter and angry and wishes to unite the seven knigdoms of Atlantis and wage war on the surface world.

Mera, Orm’s betrothed, begs Arthur to help, but he refuses until an attack almost kills his father.

Furious, and wanting only for the fighting to stop, Arthur joins Mera in an attempt to find the legendary Trident of Atlantis, defeat his brother, and bring peace and unity to both of his worlds.

What I Thought

This film was pretty good fun. It didn’t try to take itself too seriously, there were plenty of laugh out loud moments and lots of action to keep it all going.

Having Jason Momoa as the lead was great, he’s a very physical actor which lends itself well to the character, and he’s also mighty pretty to look at. (Well, right up until he gets his golden Aquaman armour, and then I confess to mostly just giggling at him a lot…)

It was fairly predictable, but not in a bad way – it made for an easy watch, which was exactly what I was looking for at the time.

We had fun spotting the scenes that were clearly designed to look extra cool in 3D format, but unlike some movies, it didn’t ever distract or detract from the film – we only spotted it because we were looking for it.

I really loved all of the fish-based underwater ships (I was going to call them spaceships then, but they are obviously not for space. They’re just very futuristic looking so my brain jumps to outer space.) and also the various deep sea creatures that the Atlantians used as steeds (giant dragony seahorses!!!)

If you want a fun water-based adventure with a bit of eye-candy and lots of fish, then I recommend giving this a go some time.

Score Out Of 10?

I give Aquaman a very respectable 7 out of 10.