Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Jason Momoa, Amber Heard, Dolph Lundgren, Nicole Kidman, Patrick Wilson, Willem Defoe, Randall Park, Temuera Morrison, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Graham McTavish,Michael Beach, Julie Andrews.

It would not be unfair, unkind or malicious to suggest, openly state, that of all the D.C. comic book heroes to have come and gone, stayed around and become iconic, Aquaman had probably the worst of starts, and continued throughout to receive unjust treatment within the realms of ideas, attention and delivery, the character was a joke, a seismic buffoon brought to life as a foil for the grittiness portrayed in the golden and silver ages of comic books.

It could be argued that the character was a scapegoat, ripped apart from the beginning, never given a writer of passion who could see the absolute potential and therefore make the character one who could stand shoulder to shoulder with the likes of Wonder Woman, The Joker, and even later versions of Harley Quinn, until Geoff Johns came on the scene.

It could be argued that the paramount of issues to resolve was that of getting in a writer who would do the film and the concept of Aquaman justice, no doubt inspired by the sterling work produced on the D.C. graphic novels, there is possibly only one person alive who could bring so much vivid energy to life and thankfully for D.C., Geoff Johns took the task on head first and has given the fans and the general cinema going public an electrifying film which kicks above the undeserving Batman V’s Superman and comes close to capturing the mood encouraged by 2017’s Wonder Woman.

There is no doubting the sincerity of this particular production, the dangers of conceiving a film that uses the ocean and seas as its main setting is one on which many would shy away from, but with the right technology to hand anything is possible, and it is in this unknown quarter that some of the film’s finest sequences truly stand out. The difficulties of realism within the boundaries of fighting within an underwater setting answered, the belief in the main character absolutely crucial, the supporting cast to be of the calibre in which the audience will connect with fully; it is a combination of all in which the film’s makers learned from the heavy mistakes of Batman V’s Superman: Dawn of Justice and has given the year of heroes its final glorious bow.

It is hard to imagine anyone else portraying the half-Human, half-Atlantean other than Jason Momoa, especially as he frames the angst and the trepidation of his origins with particular grace but it is also to the supporting cast in which the film stands out, Amber Heard as Princess Mera is in fine form, Dolph Lundgren stepping out of the shadows of his time as one of the hardest men on screen with a dash of wonderful perspective, and Patrick Wilson receiving a wonderful gift of a part, one that he has fully deserved to inhabit since he was part of the cast of the fantastic Watchmen film. All these elements combining to make a story come to life and in which is finally fitting for a superhero who up until Geoff Johns came along, had been treated arguably without reverence.

An exceedingly good superhero film in which to round off 2018, like Wonder Woman in 2017, the D.C. cinematic universe has been in its approach to attempt to match the house of Marvel in its output and belief with Aquaman, one fully deserving of a trilogy of films.

Ian D. Hall