“Aquaman”: good old illogical Thriller

The film industry loves to flirt with nostalgia. First of all, this feeling is focused on all sorts of sequels-prequels and other sidequels, clinging to the already famous franchise. But the trick of “Aquaman” (Aquaman) is not even that he is part of the growing cinematic universe of DC. His trick is that the plot he brings the viewer back to the days of militants 80-90s, who wanted to watch with his mouth open.

In the first minutes after the session, I wanted to write a review of this kind: “Six reasons to go to “Aquaman”: 1. Wet half-naked Jason Momoa and also wet, but alas, less naked amber heard;2. Deliciously traced underwater world; 3. The plot of the disney cartoon about princesses; 4. A sudden despatch of mod’s “It’s No Good” somewhere in the middle and no less sudden Sigur Ros; 5. Absolutely indianojones desert with underground caves and artifacts;6. Bright and juicy picture, giving a sense of celebration.That’s all, there is no need to go anymore.”But such a text, alas, would not be suitable even for our numbered themes “Cinema for the weekend”, although it fully reflects what is happening in the film.A couple of hours later I was covered.Yes, in the cinema almost every third film is a stupid action movie, around some comics, sequels, restarts and nothing new, all parasitic on something old. To find something that is not a pity to spend three or four hours of his time (considering road and entering the court), it is difficult.You can turn your nose up from the multicolored blockbuster obscurantism, breathlessly remembering Tarkovsky or, I do not know, Fellini. You can admire, for example, exclusively Cohen (I love Cohen, if that), looking for references to the film classics of the past in their paintings and trying to understand why the curtains are blue-this is the decorators of the fabric was not another or in color really makes sense. You can really sit and think about the movie. Everything is possible, nothing is forbidden.

But it is also not forbidden not to think. And this dominance of action, bright fighters, juicy and absolutely idiotic from the anatomical and physical point of view of battles — it is just focused on those who watch movies not in order then to puzzle over them. It is for those who, understanding the unreality of the picture and the stupidity of the script, wants to relax the soul, laugh at the sagging logic, admire the skill of stuntmen, CGI artists and composers, for a couple of hours to get into a completely different, artificial and non-existent world and simply have a good time. To leave the cinema in a more upbeat mood.
Aquaman is one of those movies. It was handled by James Wang, Director of “saw”, “the Spell”, “Astral” and the seventh “fast and Furious”. And the fast and furious legacy is immediately visible: the film opens with a scene with a Russian submarine. This scene, in General, immediately makes it clear what to expect from a thrash film in the best traditions of the eighties and nineties militants. What, in fact, differ from them current marvel and designee DIY? Pipelining? Yes, except that she’s the only one. Well, and better special effects. All the differences are over.

In “Aquaman” a simple superhero story, which is repeated from time to time in recent comic blockbusters-the struggle for the throne. Marvel’s “Thor: Ragnarok” and “Black Panther”are based on the same theme. And Aquaman, fortunately, looks like Thor, not Panther. This is a film that does not try to be something more, to carry some cultural message, no — it is a purely entertaining movie, created to make the audience laugh, admire the special effects, enjoy the music through a well-tuned audio system of the cinema and, perhaps, learned a few cool references. That’s all. Nothing more is required of him. And in this category-exclusively entertainment cinema-it is good.
In the picture the length of two-plus hours, managed to mixed a cocktail from tons of different movies. Here you can catch the Fleur of “James bond”, scenes in the desert with artifacts wildly reminiscent of “Indiana Jones”, the underwater world of Atlantis is drawn with more love and with more care than Pandora in Cameron’s “Avatar”, the love line is strictly according to the canons of American romcoms, a couple of scenes almost completely copied from disney’s “Moana”, “Rapunzel” and “little Mermaid”, interspersed with horror filled classic, but working scarecrows, and the final mess on the scale of fighting the battle for helm’s pad “Lord of the rings”. This is a wild, furious medley, unexpectedly organically assembled in one film with only one purpose — to please the viewer.

And at the center of it all shines Jason Momoa. Powerful guy in the format of “wardrobe” and with a mane like a Dzhigurda, he simply is the perfect picture of this type. He looks great in simple moments of life, when he drinks pint after pint with his father in a small coastal pub, and in comical situations, and in shots with a high concentration of epic and pathos, and, of course, in action scenes. The film is built around Momoa, his charisma of a simple guy who twirled all this underwater game of thrones on big and fat, but, so be it, a beautiful girl is still willing to help.

The role of a beautiful girl and a red-haired wig went to amber heard. The wig already hinted at disney references, and the filmmakers managed to fit them into the plot remarkably well. From its individual, Measures, withdrew many run modern superheroine, capable for themselves to stand up and continue to move to its goal despite nor on that. The dynamic of the relationship between Merah and Arthur, Momoa’s character, is superclassical: “You are an uncouth dork, but as time goes on I see that there is something in you after all.” The romantic line is deliberately grotesque and predictable, like the whole film, and therefore does not seem superfluous. In this quintessence of entertaining thrash, a softer romance would have looked like a third leg sewn out of place. And one more plus: Papa Merah was played by a delightful redhead Dolph Lundgren.Villains a lot. All boilerplate, but zamotivirovannye on the most the top, the right, in principle, for moreover, to was, whom to beat. Drawn, again, with love and effort — like everything in the film. Fights drive, creative, with the right share of physics-denying idiocy and with the right scattered here and there moments with the use of improvised materials – they fell in love with our audience since the days of Jackie Chan. Wine icicles Will remain forever in my heart, as strange as it may sound. In General, in ingenuity on parts of blows and small details “Aquaman” on order surpasses released until films DC.

The team of the characters of the older generation in addition to Lundgren included Willem Dafoe and the delightful Nicole Kidman. The old guard did not draw attention to themselves, allowing the main characters to frolic, and still looked great on the screen. From Defoe have indeed caring mentor, which want trust, and Kidman was able to combine in his character and harsh Queen, which not alien battlefield, and loving, gentle mother.The underwater world is stunning. My knees are weak from the sight of sperm whales floating past skyscrapers since the video game “Vishosk”, and whales among the architecture of “Aquaman” gave me in full. Atlantis and other underwater kingdoms are drawn psychedelically, juicy, brightness and palette resemble inserts with Akali from the clip ” Pop-Stars “(I warn you: the link Korean pop), they abound with cool details like playing the drums octopus, extinct ichthyosaurs, trains in the form of Moray eels and so on. There was even room for steampunk robots.

I understand that it was drawn on modern graphics tablets, but I still want to say that the concept artists paint were good toxic. The underwater world also allowed operators to frolic: the camera flies around the characters in all dimensions and captures events even from impossible angles. On events on land, Wang’s signature camera and editing techniques also apply — many battles are mounted as if filmed by a single sinking.
James WAN has given the film a childish and unrestrained imagination, which did not have previous pictures of DC. He was having fun, you can feel it. And he did everything to entertain the audience. Wang created from “Aquaman” what was not expected from the film — a high-budget disney tale about princes, not princesses. That’s just exploding helicopters forgot.