Even Jason Momoa’s renowned charisma can’t save sorry, soggy Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom

After the DC stinker The Flash and other recent Marvel misfires, superhero movie fatigue is finally here, writes Leigh Paatsch.

AQUAMAN AND THE LOST KINGDOM (M)

Director: James Wan (The Conjuring)

Starring: Jason Momoa, Patrick Wilson, Amber Heard, Nicole Kidman

Rating: *1/2

Splash and burn

There’s no swimming around the fact that the original Aquaman was a billion-buck-grossing blockbuster.

But that was back in 2018, at the tail-end of a fabled era where it was simply impossible to release a superhero movie that was not a super-hit.

As we now all know, that licence to print money at the box-office has since been revoked. There is a growing consensus that screen superheroes have run their race.

Everyone still game enough to have anything to do with a superhero movie – whether they be filmmakers, actors or audiences – is tired. Exhausted, even.

Therefore the large-scale lethargy of Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom could not arrive at a worse possible time. (Particularly for the DC Comics movie stable, still yet to be forgiven for letting off that mid-year superhero stink bomb called The Flash.)

The opening credits have barely finished rolling for Lost Kingdom before problems start emerging all over the screen.

The most immediately noticeable issue is that Jason Momoa as Aquaman won’t be charming his way out of trouble with his considerable charisma. The movie’s silly screenplay simply cannot play to Momoa’s strengths, as either a cracker of quality gags, or a kicker of bad-guy butts.

Jason Momoa as Aquaman and Patrick Wilson as his half-brother Orm in the dud superhero sequel Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom.

A turgid, unappealing story centres on the struggles Arthur Curry (aka Aquaman) is facing now that he must balance the drudgery of life as a househusband on dry land with the drudgery of life as a ruling monarch on the ocean floor.

While Aquaman is wondering where all the fun went, he fails to notice that a once-vanquished enemy has now returned to active evil duty.

Black Manta (Yahya Abdul-Mateen) has never really gotten over Aquaman killing his dad, and has recently acquired an ancient trident which has powered up his fighting skills to intimidating new heights.

In fact, Black Manta is now such an aggressive adversary that Aquaman must take the desperate measure of calling for back-up from another past enemy, his exiled half-brother Orm (Patrick Wilson).

Once the battle lines are drawn between this trio, the movie locks into a gormless groove best described as “boringly annoying”.

A lot of screen time is chewed up by Aquaman and Orm making the tricky transition from adversaries to allies. Even more screen time is squandered on Black Manta bellowing orders and threats at his underlings.

Nicole Kidman (as Aquaman’s mum) and Amber Heard (his wife) make intermittent appearances for no apparent reason, while the movie strangely keeps trying to set itself up as an undersea version of Star Wars, before just as suddenly forgetting all about it.

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom is in cinemas now

ANYONE BUT YOU (MA15+)

***

General release

Glenn Powell and Sydney Sweeney make an appealing couple in the Sydney-shot rom-com, Anyone But You.

Most will find this to be a better-than-average rom-com, and not just because of the better-than-average looks of a tremendously telegenic leading couple. No, Anyone But You succeeds on its own limited terms by actually being funny more often than expected, and always delivering upon its promise of a mind-clearing distraction for those so inclined. The plot constructed here is a roundabout rehashing of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing. That’s not so important.

What does matter is that the chemistry shared by stars Sydney Sweeney (from TV’s The White Lotus) and Glen Powell (Top Gun: Maverick) is confoundingly contagious and always believable. Sweeney plays Bea, a hot law student. Powell is Ben, a hot finance bro. The pair enjoy one heck of a one-night-stand before things go horribly wrong. Then, as the rom-com fates would have it, Bea and Ben meet months later at the wedding of mutual friends in Australia. The pair bicker and bond all over the city of Sydney and its extended surrounds before things go horribly right.

This movie certainly won’t change your life. But it just might make your day. Sometimes, that is enough.

MIGRATION (G)

***

General release

Animated comedy Migration is one of the better family options for the holiday period.

This lively, colourful and accessible animated adventure goes about its business very pleasingly indeed. With so few options on offer for very young kids at the cinemas this summer, this should prove to be the most popular and effective choice.

The story is very easy to follow. A close-knit clan of Mallard ducks from the big smoke reckon it is high time they took a family holiday, and decide to fly all the way from a wintry USA to the sunny Caribbean. The dad (voiced by Kumail Nanjiani) isn’t so keen on the long-haul flight idea. The mum (Elizabeth Banks) and their kids couldn’t care less.

Though the trip turns out to be far more life-threatening than anyone might have envisaged, the dangers posed to the birds (and the many friends and foes they make en route) never spoil the wacky-go-lucky vibe in play here. Nice stuff.