In keeping with my tradition of discussing DC shit here so as not to clog up "Just Watched" with endless capeshit discussion, I watched a camrip of Aquaman. I'm a little mixed on it. The writing is extremely lazy, being packed full of clunky "As you know..." dialogue and a story that can't decide whether it should be a jaunty, lighthearted adventure or a darker faux-Shakespearean struggle for power. I honestly suspect that it was a first draft. There are times when the designs of Atlantis and the undersea world look amazing, and there are times when Wan goes full Lucas and crams way, way too much shit into the frame, making everything look ugly, tacky, and incomprehensible, although I was relieved to discover that no other scene comes even close to matching the hideousness of Arthur and Orm's gladiator match. Momoa is likable and enthusiastic, but he's barely even acting in this movie. He's just coasting as himself. And the movie, instead of perhaps building Arthur's arc around his demonstrated character flaws, instead makes up some nonsense about how he would be the ideal king if only he'd learn to accept himself for being of two different races and the worthy heir to the throne. None of that is ever reflected in any of Arthur's lines or Momoa's performance.
As terrible as I may have just made it all sound, I did still enjoy Aquaman. The movie is charming almost in spite of itself. Everyone involved seems to be having a lot of fun, the visuals are imaginative and embrace the source material's silliness, the action scenes are mostly done well, and in general there's a childlike sense of exuberance and joy propelling everything along. But a movie having that sort of feel to it is not something that's easy to manufacture, which leads me to my final point here that WB needs to start working harder on the scripts for these movies. I'm beginning to think it's going to take yet another major failure for them to realize that writing actually matters. David Goyer is writing another script for the DCEU, despite being just as responsible for its early stumbles as Snyder. Even WW, easily the DCEU's best movie, wasn't exactly what you'd call written well. I'm not saying they need to get auteurs coming up with the next TDK or anything, but their current system of putting together a slapdash sequence of action beats, quips, and worn-out tropes just isn't sustainable.