At the start of this slightly belated sequel to the surprisingly successful 2018 original, Aquaman is juggling his life as a family man (cute baby alert) and as a somewhat disgruntled and disillusioned King of Atlantis, but with the swift reintroduction of Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as scowling single-minded nemesis Black Manta, Aquaman finds himself having to break out his imprisoned brother and form an uneasy alliance with seemingly everything at stake. The strengths here remain the same, namely the strong performers, including a well-cast (if slightly ageing) Jason Mamoa, along with Nicole Kidman, Temuera Morrison and Patrick Wilson. It is noticeable that the female characters are clearly sidelined, and there is also again a constant distracting tension between the sheer scale and ambition of the visuals and the cartoonish quality of the finish. The fact that everything seems to be designed to emphasise the overscaled size makes the virtual and physical sets look somewhat empty. With so many styles being juggled - including domestic comedy, mismatched buddy movie, sci-fi action epic, environmental treatise, etc. - the film never nails a consistent tone, from which it might have benefitted. The action sequences, however, are lively enough as expected from James Wan, but as a standalone from the rest of the DCU it feels more like wrapping up a bit of unfinished business than a glorious conclusion to Zack Snyder's run of overseeing the DCU.
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