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Aquaman Spoiler Thread


Christopher

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I just watched the movie a few hours ago and thought I start a threat talking about it. I wish I did not have to run out to take a bathroom break halfway through (in the Sahara section), because I propably missed something really funny or interesting.

 

The initial fight (in the submarine) reminded me a lot of Bud Spencer and his comedic fightscenes, of all roles.

His way of casually tanking everything the bad guys threw at him? Totally Bud Spencer. I mean knocking the scared foe out with the door he is hinding behind? If there was a book about "Slapstick Fightscenes with Bud Spencer", that was propably right in there on the first 10 pages.

Despite the comedic undertones, it did get seriously near the end. It did set up a mid-movie fightscene, a character moment and a sequell or two near the end. He was stricken by uncertainty about that action through the entire film, regardless how many people told him that his decision was okay.

 

One common complaint about Aquaman is that "he is only relevant if the story is set in the ocean". But this movie made a really good job of setting up just how dangerous Atlantis was. I knew a Tidal Wave was comming the moment the birds were seen moving in formation.

I did not expect it to have been a worldwide event however. Nor that it would casually throw submarines, aircraft carriers and tons of ocean garbage onto land.

That is a weapon System with at least the destructive power of a nuclear weapon, but minus the fallout. And that was just Orm sending a warning. A casual use of Atlantis Military strengh, to speak in Hero games terms.

 

The worldbuilding for Atlantis naturally has to be compared to Wakanda from Black Panther. And I do not think it has to shy away from that comparision. Indeed they went one futher and developed not 1, but 5 Atlantean cultures. All with fitting weapon Systems and warfare Philosophies. The Atlan Sonic Weaponry in particular makes a ton of sense underater.

Well 4, unless you can call the Trenchers a "culture". I mean the Crab guys had more personality and I literally forgot their name.

Just think about the detailed thought that goes into "how do Atlanteans think about tears/sorrow"? Or their relationship to Lava as "underwater fire"?

A friend of mine complained about the logic of "fighting armies with your army to add to your strenght". But I think that fits into just about any History/Medieval Fantasy setting. Particular some of the Arthus Legend Interpretations (to continue a Theme). In those it is not uncommon at all to defeat a (potential) enemies, to have a united front before some big war. And usually if you go for the leaders, there is a decent chance you come out with a net-positive of forces.

It was also a nice touch that Miras Dad was not actually fooled by the "submarine attack" plot. This is not a universe where "secret Identity" can fool someone on the Skill- and Resourcelevel of Armanda Waller.

 

Their Tour the world part also showed that Arthur was quite versed in human cultures and even langauge. I think originally it was Wonder Womans side shtick to know all human langauges. Part of the whole "abassador to the world of men" thing. But Arthur used the Ocean to move around and could do so for years without drawing any attention. He propably drank in every single coastal bar on the planet. He did mention "happy hour ends soon" at one point.

And what I could see him doing: Drinking in one bar until happy hour ends. Swim 1-2 timezones further, to be ready for that bars happy hour. And if you can not find the way anymore, you propably know you had enough. We know he likes drinking since the Justice League Trailers.

 

As for his "speak with fish" things: It really is a serious power, if you are literally using shark cavalry. Granted that did not defeat the armies, as there was still plenty of vehicles in use. I think only the 2 royal guards still used living cavalry. Propably some tradition thing.

But it became a serious problem after he used it to ally with the Underwater Godzilla! This beast was a story Atlantean mothers tell their unruly children. And he brought it and the atlantean holy grailt to the fight!

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I watched it yesterday, and I liked it. Wonder Woman more or less did not disapoint. This movie I can describe as "good" as a comic book movie. Wacky tech/magic, parental/sibling issues, big set piece battles...all good.

 

It is the first DC movie that has turned away from the Darkness inside Night, while wearing black! Tone that they have been using. a solid 6 out of 10.?

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5 hours ago, Starlord said:

Solid, fun popcorn movie.  Best action and battle scenes in a DC flick so far.  A lot of great visuals.  I'd give it a B-.

 

PS:  Sad that he didn't waterski on the backs of dolphins.

 

No, but he did wind up in Super Friends orange and green.  My wife laughed; I think it could have used some justification like "orange and green are the colors of the united undersea kingdoms" or something.  Or a green helmet.  Anything to offset the garishness of the outfit.

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Their will be extreme spoilers in this, stop reading if you are just looking for opinions on whether good or not. I enjoyed it, I know people say WW was better, and probably is, but if I had seen this first, not sure I would agree. Definitely DC shedding the Dark Knight style of every hero.

I thought the outfit actually fit and looked functional and good. Also, I believe the tidal wave was probably Xebel's doing, as controlling water is their power. I thought Mamoa was great and brought across a combination of nobility and vulnerability. He showed remorse over the death of Manta's father, realizing that Manta being his enemy was all on him. The storyline is almost straight out of the reboot from 4-5 years ago, including his mom being alive. Thought they did a good job of showing that Aquaman isnt a joke. I do have a problem with the timeline, a bit. When Mera first goes to him, it is after the defeat of Steppenwolfe, but he and everyone else acted like he had never been to Atlantis, so, other then Vulko, how would he have known about the boxes and the secret location he swam DIRECTLY to they were being kept. Thought they did a great job of showing just how powerful Mera was and for the most part Heard pulled her off. I liked the dichotomy of the 2 fights with Orm and Arthur, and that both ended with the same look on the "losers" face. Oh, and I loved the Kirbyesque look and I would compare, as above did to Wakanda and Asgard.

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SPOILERS AHOY!

 

I am a notoriously soft touch, and enjoy Aquaman getting some love so I am very likely biased here, but this movie was bonkers and I loved it. Someone described the visuals as LotR under the Sea, and yeah, it works as such! The comic books were heavily borrowed from and without shame! You want folks riding on seahorses? Oh yeah, we got that. Drum playing octopus? Heck yes! Five flavors of water breather? This movie borrowed from a lot of pulp craziness (Even touched on Hollow World with dinos) as well. I think a lot of credit has to go to the Director for being absolutely fearless in grabbing the material and then being good enough to make it work. It does dump a lot of backstory and doesn't always repeat itself, and it seems like everytime there was more than 6 minutes of talking somone broke through a wall- but I liked that too. The acting wasn't going to win any awards, but neither did it suck (Though the kid playing Teen Arthur was the weak link there imo, but hey he's young) but it actually had a stronger closing than the third act of wonder woman imo, and I adored Wonder Woman.

 

Black Manta is nicely set up to be in the sequel and made a good showing. Ocean  Master was the main villain for this, and while there will be inevitable black Panther and thor comparisons, Aquaman holds up fine (And in fact I think it was better than the first Thor).

 

 

 

I'd give it an 8.5 out o 10. Worth seeing once on the big screen and glad I did.

 

 

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I enjoyed the movie (like most posters).  I was really impressed with the costuming - Aquaman, Mera, Ocean Master and Black Manta looked like they stepped out of the comics onto to screen.  They made me nervous with Black Manta being handed that white armor and a gun...

 

Some minor nigglies.  Pushing the sub to the surface felt more like Superman (or Namor...) than Aquaman.  Jumping out of the plane seemed too durable for Atlanteans as well.  However, I can see the desire to power up Movie Aquaman to be competitive with the rest of the JLA.

 

I think we can kiss goodbye to any chance of an MCU Sub-Mariner movie, as it would seem clearly derivative.  Aquaman was presented with Namor's strength and toughness, and the hunt for the trident was akin to the classic search for Neptune's trident back in the '60s.  The Crab People seemed a lot like Attuma's tribes as well.  I can't think of much Classic Namor that was not covered in the Aquaman movie.

 

It's nice to see the DCU win one for a change.  MCU has plenty of choices for future movies anyway.

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Some of the things others didn't like, I thought were great.

Talk for five minutees in this movie? Someone WILL blow up or punch through a nearby wall

And that kiss during the battle? It was like Wan was saying "Hey, Micheal Bay- Hold my Beer"

 

I think it's best to say that this was "A Great Flick! A Good movie! And okay cinema" :)

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13 hours ago, Hugh Neilson said:

Some minor nigglies.  Pushing the sub to the surface felt more like Superman (or Namor...) than Aquaman.  Jumping out of the plane seemed too durable for Atlanteans as well.  However, I can see the desire to power up Movie Aquaman to be competitive with the rest of the JLA.

 

I think we can kiss goodbye to any chance of an MCU Sub-Mariner movie, as it would seem clearly derivative.  Aquaman was presented with Namor's strength and toughness, and the hunt for the trident was akin to the classic search for Neptune's trident back in the '60s.  The Crab People seemed a lot like Attuma's tribes as well.  I can't think of much Classic Namor that was not covered in the Aquaman movie.

 

In the reboot a few years back, when Cyborg became a JLer, Aquaman and WW both got major upgrades (she basically got upgraded to one tier down from Supes in invuln and strength, but had major combat advantages. one of the great things in the WW/Supes was her training him and the fight with Zod and his general right after arriving on earth so weakended, were great, as Supes would hold his own against one while Diana would kick the snot out of the other) both got major upgrades, and the search for the trident/finding his mom were straight from that, as were the deep ones etc. He, if anything, became more powerful then Namor, as he doesn't lose his strength by being on land (desert yes with dehydration, but not just normal land). It was actually a really nice boost for him and long needed.

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21 hours ago, Hugh Neilson said:

I enjoyed the movie (like most posters).  I was really impressed with the costuming - Aquaman, Mera, Ocean Master and Black Manta looked like they stepped out of the comics onto to screen.  They made me nervous with Black Manta being handed that white armor and a gun...

I was a bit confused about it first too, but then they made a sensible origin for the Manta-helmet out of it.

 

21 hours ago, Hugh Neilson said:

Some minor nigglies.  Pushing the sub to the surface felt more like Superman (or Namor...) than Aquaman.  Jumping out of the plane seemed too durable for Atlanteans as well.  However, I can see the desire to power up Movie Aquaman to be competitive with the rest of the JLA. 

I am unsure how much of a Powerup that really was. People only keep underestimating his Brick powers, because the only other Brick is Superman. Wich is OP incarnate. Or a few growth bricks, wich are hard to compare too.

Marvel at least has a bunch of Bricks (Colossus, Hulk, Thor, Power Man) to compare everyone too.

Underwater Swimming on that level is like Supermans Flight.

The strenght and durabiltiy was about "showing he is usefull outside of water". Plus to survive deep sea pressure and temperatures is a heck of a lot of durability. Think of him as beigh at least as tough and strong as the submarine. Wich was not actively being steered to resist at that moment.

 

They also explained why they kept down there too - "only Nobles can breath both air and water" is a very good explanation for why they had not conquered the land before. Occupations are hard if every soldier needs the equivalent of a space suit.

 

21 hours ago, Hugh Neilson said:

I think we can kiss goodbye to any chance of an MCU Sub-Mariner movie, as it would seem clearly derivative.  Aquaman was presented with Namor's strength and toughness, and the hunt for the trident was akin to the classic search for Neptune's trident back in the '60s.  The Crab People seemed a lot like Attuma's tribes as well.  I can't think of much Classic Namor that was not covered in the Aquaman movie. 

They pretty much namedropped that both are just adaptations of the Arthus Legend. Arthur Curry even has the reference in his name.

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I'd say that Aquaman's strength level in his first appearance was roughly equal to Superman's strength level in his first appearance. (With similar rationales for their strength: Coming from high gravity/high pressure environments.) He deflects a very large caliber shell with his arm and punches through a submarine in that issue. The character just didn't benefit from nearly as many massive power upgrades over the years.

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From Comic Vine

"Aquaman possesses great superhuman strength sufficient to toss a tank or punch a hole in a submerged submarine. It is generally accepted that Arthur can lift well over 100 tons, as it's evident when he pushed a tectonic plate downward onto the trench in Aquaman #4, towed a boat with the waves pushing down onto it in Aquaman #7, and sucker punched Superman in Justice League #16. Even before the New 52 he is depicted carrying really massive objects appearing to have great amount of weight such as an oil rig platform and a city block of Sub-Diego (as shown in picture) which both weighs easily hundreds of tons. His strength enables him to demolish through anything from thick wood to heavy metal and would take reinforced barriers to have a chance of slowing him down. Aquaman's strength is on a category that allows him to defeat and hold his own in a physical fights against brute powerhouse characters like Olympian, Slig, Wonder Woman, Triton, Lobo and Superboy.


In Throne of Atlantis, he has shown to be able to punch Superman, and take on Wonder Woman. He has been shown among other things lifting a transatlantic ocean liner (around 160000 tons) on land, throwing an enormous cargo ship at the Dead King and throwing a nuclear submarine from the bottom of the ocean to the surface. Perhaps his most impressive feat of strength yet would be when he went toe to toe with a legendary hero* and held his own."

 

 

* Link llisted as Hercules, Dc version

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He also has the advantage, to a lesser degree, that WW has. He has been superbly trained in combat. I like that the portrayal now is that both of them are near or equal to Batman in HTH and superior in weapons, though Batman's skill probably has a lot more underhanded/dirty tricks and theirs are more war/duel style.

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spoilers ahead !

 

I have just come back from it. It was the best film I have seem at the cinema this year. It was the only film I saw at the cinema this year.

I got the ticket and a drink for under £10 so that was a good start.

I came out thinking 'somebody has been paying to the criticism that DC films have had up to now'. Aquaman saved people. during the film. The Russian sailors who were smart enough to lock themselves in the torpedo room. And you see the, being brought back alive. And also during the fight in Italy.

And they kept it lighter in tone.

I am also reminded of the remake of Clash of the Titans. The reveal of the Kraken was a letdown in that movie. The mythical monster here ? Played very well. You only see bits to begin with until the final fight.

I think the casting of the ancillary roles helped with Nicole Kidman and Willem Dafoe adding to and not distracting from the others. Dolph was not a distraction but you could believe he was a king.

I did not recognise Ocean Master until they were on the surface in the final fight. Oh that's who it is. And a good reason to end the fight where it did.

They gave Black Manta a decent origin story. WW2 frogmen keeping it in the family.

The special effects for Atlantis and the various peoples were good.

Was the plot see through ? Is that not the same type of Russian sub that Black Manta and Aquaman were in earlier ? Yes it is. But the script writers kept things simple to understand and I think that helped a great deal.

So I will get this film on DVD. It is well worth repeated viewing.

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42 minutes ago, death tribble said:

Is that not the same type of Russian sub that Black Manta and Aquaman were in earlier ? Yes it is.

I actually think it wasn't meant to be a subterfuge. I think we were supposed to realize that was the same sub Manta had taken. As Mera points out, it was all a little to coincidental and her father and audience aren't supposed to be that stupid. Of course Ocean Master is making a setup. I liked that they used the scene with Mera to show that her father wasn't an idiot and knew it was a setup.

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