Borat Subsequent Moviefilm (2020)

Saying that 2020 has been a very weird year would be a wee bit of an understatement. Even if you look solely at American pop culture, this year has been wild. The COVID-19 pandemic pretty much killed the summer blockbuster season and is continuing to wreak havoc on Hollywood's scheduling. We've also seen the return of Bill and Ted three decades after their bogus journey, and The New Mutants finally got a theatrical release after it was originally supposed to have been released in 2018. But perhaps most surprisingly, 2020 has seen the unexpected return of Borat.

Yes, Borat, the wacky Middle Eastern journalist that pretty much everyone was imitating or quoting for a lot of 2006 and 2007. He was pretty much to the '00s what Austin Powers was to the latter half of the '90s. But never did I expect to see a sequel to that movie. In the aftermath of the movie's runaway success back in 2006, the character was essentially retired due to his popularity making it harder to pull off his usual antics. Besides, you can only catch lightning in a bottle once, right?

But here we are in 2020, and I just watched Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (yes, that is the full title) on Amazon Prime Video. And after all this time, Borat hasn't lost a step.

The government of Kazakhstan sent journalist Borat Sagdiyev (Sasha Baron Cohen) to the United States in 2006 to film a documentary about life in the United States. What it got was something that went completely off the rails. The finished product ended up as a highly successful comedy in America, but turned Kazakhstan into a global laughingstock that landed Borat doing hard labor in a gulag for the rest of his life as punishment.

Fourteen years later, the Kazakh government pulls Borat out of the gulag for an important mission. Borat is tasked with taking "Johnny the Monkey" — a chimpanzee that is both the country's Minister of Culture and its most renowned porn star — to the United States as a gift for Vice President Mike Pence in an attempt to redeem both himself and Kazakhstan.

But thanks to a rather unsettling mix-up, Borat arrives in America not with Johnny the Monkey, but his estranged 15-year-old daughter Tutar (Maria Bakalova). And without Johnny the Monkey, Borat is facing execution once he returns to Kazakhstan. Fortune seemingly smiles brightly upon him, however, when a news report about Donald Trump's connection to Jeffrey Epstein leads to Borat reasoning that Tutar would be a much more suitable gift. Tutar herself loves the idea, wishing to become a beautiful princess like she believes Melania Trump to be. So she and her father hit the road, traveling across the country, getting to know one another better and discovering just how much the United States has changed since our intrepid reporter was last here.

Much like the first movie, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm is most certainly not for everyone. It is extremely scatological at times, and plays up questionable cultural and racial stereotypes at other times. And it never misses an opportunity to be as crude and lowbrow as possible. But the absurd behavior of its two primary characters only serves to make the awkward situations they find themselves in even more bizarre, and thus much funnier than they would've been normally.

I'll confess that I didn't know if there was a place for Borat in the year 2020. It's not that there's nothing for Sacha Baron Cohen to work with. Considering how much has been going on in America since George W. Bush was in office and the early days of the War on Terror, there's a lot more for Baron Cohen to have a jab at than he did back in 2006. But not everything is quite the same as it was back then, either. Times change, after all. Not only are quite a few of the people Borat and Tutar interact with far more subdued and understanding than the gaggle of loudmouths and weirdos seen in the first movie, but political satire is so much more common now than it was fourteen years ago. The Daily Show, John Oliver's Last Week Tonight on HBO, Alec Baldwin's appearances as Donald Trump on Saturday Night Live, and the monologues of pretty much every late night talk show, have pretty much cornered the market on it, especially since Trump's administration is such an easy target. It's low-hanging fruit, y'know?

But maybe that's not so bad after all. Instead of jingoistic doofuses and sex-crazed frat boys, we've got jackasses on Facebook and Twitter claiming the Holocaust never happened and spewing conspiracy theories and false truths about the pandemic. Those idiots rightfully should be mocked, and that's why I'm glad to see Borat's resurrection.

Watching the movie, it feels like Baron Cohen hasn't been away from his most famous character for as long as he has. He easily slips back into the role, once again playing Borat as utterly wrong and misinformed about pretty much everything, but still likable and amusing. Unless you're predisposed to disliking this style of comedy, it's not hard to enjoy Baron Cohen's performance as Borat.

And I also can't say enough good things about his costar, Maria Bakalova. As far as I know, this is the first American role for the Bulgarian actress, and I'm excited to see more of her work in the future. She and Baron Cohen have a believable, enjoyable comedic chemistry together, and Bakalova herself is quite charming in the role. Even at Tutar's most crude, naive, and backwards, Bakalova makes the character adorable in her own way. I was also impressed with how well she handled herself, stepping in for Baron Cohen in situations where people may have recognized him and ruined the bit. She handles these moments like an absolute pro, and if it leads to more roles for Bakalova, she's earned them.

I honestly thought we'd seen the end of the Borat character in 2006. I figured maybe Baron Cohen could break him out for the occasional one-off joke somewhere, like when he showed up as Ali G at the Oscars in 2016. But I think now is the perfect time for the character to have made his return. Between the ridiculous stories we've heard about the Trump administration over the last four years and the American reaction to the pandemic, we kinda needed this lovable idiot to point and laugh at the insanity of it all. And I'm right there with him on it.

Final Rating: ***½

Host (2020)

The whole COVID-19 pandemic has thrown everything out of whack, hasn't it? Businesses are either closed or have severely limited what services they can provide, pretty much every sort of gathering and event for the rest of the year has been cancelled or indefinitely postponed, and "social distancing" has entered the public lexicon.

And since this is a movie review blog, I'd be remiss if I talked about the pandemic without mentioning how much of an effect it's had on Hollywood. Pretty much all of this summer's big releases have either been pushed back to 2021, or skipped a theatrical release altogether and been released on-demand.

While most movies that were in production have shut down until the pandemic blows over, it's also caused some filmmakers to get more creative. Such is the case with the new movie Host, which debuted today on the horror streaming service Shudder. Shot exclusively by its actors using their cell phones and laptops, it basically combines the setup for Unfriended with the no-budget, DIY aesthetic of The Blair Witch Project. And it's a pretty fun little flick to boot.

While quarantined at home due to the pandemic, a group of friends come together on a weekly basis through Zoom conference calls so they can still keep in touch. The call we're privy to is a bit different than their usual calls, however, as group member Haley (Haley Bishop) has brought in a medium (Seylan Baxter) into the call to conduct a seance.

But despite Haley's best efforts, she's the only one really taking it seriously. Emma (Emma Louise Webb) and Caroline (Caroline Ward) would rather drink wine and goof around with the Zoom app's features, Radina (Radina Drandova) is too busy arguing with her boyfriend, and Teddy (Edward Linard) just leaves altogether after only a few minutes to go hang out with his girlfriend instead.

And then there's Jemma (Jemma Moore), who decides to alleviate her boredom by concocting a fake story about being contacted by a spirit. But she'll soon wish she'd listened when the medium told them not to disrespect the spirit realm. Her prank draws the ire of a malevolent entity from the spirit realm, and this entity is going to take its anger out on everyone.

Clocking in at a slim, trim 56 minutes long, Host doesn't waste any time trying to accomplish its goals. It's a fun movie that never has the opportunity to wear out its welcome, instead choosing to lure you in with its simple premise before trying to spook the pants off you. It's a lot like a really good haunted house theme park attraction; you might not think too much of it at first, but Host can surprise you if you let it. There's some genuine scares and suspense to be found here. It's not perfect, but it's enjoyable, and sometimes that's all I'll ask for.

Host was the brainchild of director Rob Savage, who was approached by Shudder with the idea of turning a two-minute video he'd tweeted back in April into a full-length movie. And despite the logistical nightmare that I'm sure making a movie in the United Kingdom while the country was locked down had to be, the whole thing was written, shot, edited, and presented to Shudder in a span of only twelve weeks. I mentioned the movie feeling very DIY, and I wasn't kidding. I was genuinely impressed with how well everything came together, considering that there was practically no crew and Savage was never actually in the same room as any of the actors. The cast set up their own makeup, stunts, and practical effects, filming everything on cell phones and webcams while Savage coached them remotely.

Taking that into consideration, I was blown away by just how much Host was able to accomplish in its brisk running time. The movie spends much of its first half setting up its characters and their dynamics with one another, and lets us feel like we're a part of their group. It all builds up to a second half where things really start getting wild. The movie ramps up the creepiness fast; there's no wasted time here. It goes from spooky to tense to frightening all in the span of half an hour, leading up to a completely balls-to-the-wall climax.

It's during this climax that Savage makes the most of his "haunted Zoom call" concept. For example, goofy camera filters are a lot less goofy when they're attached to an invisible malevolent entity. One character having a jokey backdrop of themselves walking into the room behind the real person starts off funny, but becomes frightening and a bit melancholy once we realize that the supernatural creature is picking everyone off one by one.

I honestly don't feel like I can say a whole lot about Host without risking spoiling it. That said, it's a fun, scary good time that I'll definitely recommend to anyone interested in watching it. I don't know how well it'll age once the whole COVID thing stops being topical. But as it stands now, Host is well worth the watch, especially if you watch it on a computer monitor instead of a big-screen TV. So go sign up for Shudder and check it out. And if I may quote the movie, "Happy spookies!"

Final Rating: ***½

Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) (2020)

I've recently learned that the old saying "don't judge a book by its cover" might actually be pretty good advice. To explain, I was in no way, shape, or form looking forward to seeing Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn). I've loved the Harley Quinn character since she made her debut on Batman: The Animated Series in 1992, but I got absolutely sick of seeing her all over the place after Suicide Squad put her on the mainstream map. And then there's Birds of Prey's advertising campaign making the movie look almost unbearably obnoxious, like it was going to double down all the things I hated about Suicide Squad. It all blended together to make a movie I was convinced that I was not going to enjoy.

But I did go see Birds of Prey anyway, because I'll go see every comic book movie no matter how bad I think it'll turn out. And you know what? It proved me wrong. The movie's flaws are right there for everyone to see, but I'd be lying if I said the movie wasn't also a whole lot of fun. It's an absolute blast, and I'm glad the movie was able to make me change my tune.

Since we last saw her, Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) has been unceremoniously dumped by the Joker. Dating that psychotic clown provided by her with a lot of protection, since nobody would dare cross him. But once word gets out that she's newly single, everyone Harley has ever wronged is out to get her.

Among her new enemies is Roman Sionis (Ewan McGregor), a narcissistic mob boss looking to take over all of Gotham City's criminal underworld. Part of his plan to accomplish this involves a diamond worth millions of dollars. The downside of that is that he sent his chief lieutenant, Victor Zsasz (Chris Messina), to procure the diamond, only for it to be stolen from him by teenage pickpocket Cassandra Cain (Ella Jay Basco). Harley offers to retrieve the diamond for Roman in exchange for her life, and he accepts... only to put a bounty on Cassandra as she leaves, just to spice things up.

Meanwhile, Dinah Lance (Jurnee Smollett-Bell) is using her status as both a singer in Roman's nightclub and his personal chauffeur to discreetly leak information to police detective Renee Montoya (Rosie Perez). And Detective Montoya herself is up to her neck in an investigation into a crossbow-wielding killer calling herself "the Huntress" (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), who's been cutting a bloody swath through all of Gotham's organized crime families with Roman being the next name on her list. All of these plot threads are slammed together, and Harley, Dinah, Montoya, and the Huntress are forced to team up to protect Cassandra and fight Roman and every other angry mobster in Gotham City.

The last time we saw Harley Quinn on a movie screen, I called the movie DC's answer to Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy. And now, four years later, she's appearing in what I would call DC's answer to Deadpool. But this time around, it's not a negative comparison at all. Harley ditching the dead weight of the Suicide Squad and Jared Leto's Joker would have been a decent enough change by itself, but add in an over-the-top sense of humor, a frenetic, almost chaotic energy, and a wafer-thin fourth wall, and you have all the makings of a cinematic carnival ride. Birds of Prey is a wild, colorful, and downright entertaining movie that I really enjoyed.

Harley says at the beginning of the movie that she's looking for a fresh start, and the "riot grrrl" aesthetic that director Cathy Yan brings to the movie goes a long way in establishing it. If it weren't for Margot Robbie, you'd almost never guess that this Harley and the one from Suicide Squad are the same character thanks largely to how Yan crafts the world around her. This is only Yan's second feature-length movie, but there's no signs of inexperience to be seen here. She has a unique eye for storytelling, comedy, and action, showing off all three as our adventure progresses. Yan constructs the movie in a way that makes it feel different from the other movies in the DC Extended Universe. It may not be as visually stunning as Aquaman or as awe-inspiring as Wonder Woman, but Yan gives the movie a vibe that makes it more entertaining than you'd expect it to be.

Unfortunately, I wish I could say the same for the script. Written by Christina Hodson, the script is all over the place in terms of quality. It's like a wild seesaw ride between great and crap, a shift that I found made the rest of the movie have to work harder to overcome. I can't say that I didn't particularly car for how lame Roman Sionis and Victor Szasz were, but I especially hate how Hodson wrote Cassandra Cain. The Cassandra from the comics was trained from birth to be a silent assassin with no need for spoken languages (to the point that she was both mute and illiterate for a time), before eventually finding her way to Gotham City and becoming the third "Batgirl." The Cassandra of Birds of Prey is a foulmouthed teenage pickpocket who's never even heard of the Joker and lacks all of the complexities of the character from the comics. It's like Hodson just picked a name at random from the comics and ran with it.

But Hodson does do right by Harley, I can say that. Not only does Yan make her look like a total badass (it helps that John Wick director Chad Stahleski helped choreograph some of the fight scenes), but Hodson also turns her into a fourth-wall breaking loon. I compared her to Deadpool earlier, and I still feel that's an apt comparison. (Since she's part of a team here, maybe it's closer to Deadpool 2?) But I could also say that Harley comes off like an insane Bugs Bunny. Harley bouncing back and forth between an off-the-wall clown and a bit more serious, outright mocking Roman's plans and diagnosing his inadequacies (she's got a Ph.D. in psychology, after all) while winking to the audience, makes for some genuine laugh-out-loud moments.

The cast, meanwhile, is a mixed bag. Chris Messina is forgettable as Victor Zsasz and Ewan McGregor is almost too cartoony for my taste. I frankly had a hard time taking McGregor seriously as our villain, if I'm going to be truthful. And Ella Jay Basco is, from my perspective, the worst part of the movie. I was already frustrated with how much they'd changed the character of Cassandra around so much, but I also found Basco to be pretty lousy. The more I saw her, the more I wanted the movie to hurry up and get to someone else. If the goal was to have Basco play an annoying brat that you'd want Harley and everyone else to ditch after the first twenty minutes, then mission accomplished.

The rest of the cast isn't so bad, though. Rosie Perez and Jurnee Smollett-Bell hand in fine performances, while Mary Elizabeth Winstead is really funny as the Huntress. But despite the movie's title, the Birds of Prey are secondary characters at best. The movie belongs almost exclusively to Harley Quinn and, by extension, Margot Robbie. Robbie was undoubtedly my favorite part of Suicide Squad, and she ups her game now that the spotlight is primarily on her. Free from having to play Harley as just Joker's girlfriend and nothing more, Robbie turns Harley into a comedic force of nature, a technicolor tornado you can't take your eyes off of. She completely carries the movie on her back, doing so in such a way that part of me had hoped they would've just made her the sole protagonist and not worried about the Birds of Prey. Robbie is nothing short of amazing in the role; I couldn't imagine anyone else playing a better live-action Harley.

Birds of Prey is nowhere near perfect. Some of the acting is pretty bad and the script isn't exactly what one would call strong. But I can't overstate just how truly entertaining it is. The movie exceeded my (admittedly low) expectations and then some. It's an enjoyable, energetic, exciting spectacle that revels in being both entertaining and absurd. Birds of Prey is a fine entry into the burgeoning "girl power" niche within the superhero genre, and I'm looking forward to seeing just where Harley and her new friends go from here.

Final Rating: ***

Shazam! (2019)

Remember how Marvel Studios released a movie starring Captain Marvel last month? I bet you didn't realize that DC Comics has their own Captain Marvel too. No, really!

Their Captain Marvel made his debut in Fawcett Comics' Whiz Comics #2 in 1939, the creation of Bill Parker and C.C. Beck. He was a nearly instant success, his comics even outselling Superman's at one point in the '40s. But a combination of the dwindling popularity of superheroes following World War II and a lawsuit from DC Comics (who alleged that Captain Marvel was a ripoff of Superman), Fawcett Comics canceled all of Captain Marvel's comics by 1954.

He was eventually revived by DC Comics in 1972 after a little legal wheeling and dealing, but Marvel Comics had trademarked the "Captain Marvel" name in the intervening years. The original version's books were rebranded "Shazam!" as a result (eventually becoming the character's actual name during DC's "New 52" reboot in 2012), and the rest is history. The character was popular enough to spawn a live-action TV show that ran from 1974 to 1976 on CBS, and has appeared in in DC's animated work and the occasional video game (Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe and Injustice: Gods Among Us come to mind), but he's never been one of their top-tier characters.

But then Hollywood came knocking, and now DC's Captain Marvel is getting his own blockbuster movie. Of course, the name is different, but not much else has changed. And while the DC Extended Universe has gotten a lot of flack in the past for how weak their movies have been, but I'll tell you this: Shazam! is a hell of a lot of fun.

Fourteen-year-old Billy Batson (Asher Angel) has spent most of his life bouncing in and out of every foster home in Philadelphia. He never stays for long, constantly running away to search for the birth mother he hasn't seen in years. As the movie begins, he's dropped off at a new home that's populated by a few other foster kids. Among them is Freddy Freeman (Jack Dylan Grazer), a physically handicapped fan of superheroes who immediately welcomes Billy into their family.

Billy initially dismisses Freddy and his other foster siblings since he's not planning on sticking around for long, but he can't help but save Freddy from some schoolyard bullies. The bullies end up chasing Billy into a subway car, where he is magically transported to a cave called home by the ancient wizard Shazam (Djimon Hounsou). The dying wizard has spent centuries searching for someone pure of heart to inherit his powers and defend the world, and Billy is his last hope. All Billy has to do is say the wizard's name, and he is transformed into an adult superhero (Zachary Levi) with a multitude of amazing abilities.

An astounded Billy returns home and reveals his situation to Freddy, and the pair start exploring the adult Billy's new superpowers. Their training videos end up going viral online, and Billy starts irresponsibly using his powers to start busking around the city.

Doing so, however, draws the attention of Thaddeus Sivana (Mark Strong), who was called by the wizard as a child in 1974 but was deemed unworthy. He was left immensely bitter by the rejection and has spent every moment since then obsessed with claiming that power he believes is rightfully his. While Billy spends his time doing parlor tricks with his powers to tourists, Sivana accomplishes his lifelong goal and finds a way back to the wizard's cave. He steals a mystical orb that imbues him with the demonic essence of the Seven Deadly Sins, returning to Philadelphia determined to force Billy to surrender the powers of Shazam to him.

I can't say that I was all that familiar with Shazam before seeing the movie. I'd heard of the character, sure, but my previous experiences with him have been the video game appearances I mentioned earlier and a 2005 episode of Justice League Unlimited where he fights Superman. But I went into the movie excited because of how good the trailers were, and I was far from disappointed. Shazam! not only rivals Wonder Woman for the title of "best movie in the DC Extended Universe," but is genuinely one of the most entertaining superhero movies I've seen in a while. It's wonderfully charming, with lovable characters and a real emotional weight to it. It felt to me like a more modern, more comedic take on what Richard Donner did with Superman in 1978, and I am never gonna complain about something like that.

Shazam! is the third feature-length movie from director David F. Sandberg, and I thought he did a great job at the helm. He plays the movie more for comedy, which is a refreshing change of pace considering how seriously most movies in this genre seem to take themselves nowadays. The movie actually plays like a superhero version of the classic Tom Hanks movie Big, right down to a fight between Shazam and Sivana going over a giant piano on the floor of a toy store. That isn't a bad thing either, since it makes for an entertaining time at the movies. The DC Extended Universe gets a lot of well-deserved flack because of how unrelentingly grim Man of Steel and Batman v Superman were. While that doesn't necessarily apply to Wonder Woman or Aquaman, Shazam! does its own part to break the mold. It's not a bleak, dreary tale with no hope, but instead features characters that truly care for one another and a superhero that's actually having fun instead of feeling miserable.

I also liked that Sandberg focuses more on developing the characters instead of letting the special effects dominate the movie. The more the movie progresses, the more you want to see where Billy and his foster family go and how they grow together. Yeah, we've got the standard "hero vs. villain" effects-heavy showdown at the end of the movie, but it's still done in such a way that it feels like a logical conclusion for the paths the characters have taken.

The screenplay goes a long way in helping that, as well. Loosely based on Geoff Johns and Gary Frank's comic book story that rebooted Shazam as part of DC's "New 52" relaunch, the script by Henry Gayden (from a story by Gayden and Darren Lemke) has a huge amount of heart in it. It doesn't feel like your typical origin story, mainly because of the strong emotional depth of the movie. It's best exemplified by how Billy and Sivana are polar opposites of one another. Billy was abandoned by his mother and spent his whole life searching for her before stumbling into a family that loves him unconditionally. Sivana, meanwhile, spent his whole life searching for a way to get rid of the father and brother he hated, and was found by a group of monsters that use him for their own nefarious ends. Billy's powers were gifted to him, though he believed himself unworthy of them; Sivana stole his powers and greedily sought more. They're two sides of the same coin, their arcs moving in such a way that makes the story more fascinating to watch as it plays out.

But perhaps the best part of Shazam! is its cast, all of whom hand in strong performances. I really enjoyed Faithe Herman as Billy's enthusiastic little sister Darla, while Jack Dylan Grazer is fantastic as Freddy. He's really funny in the role and proves himself to be the perfect sidekick for both the teenagew and adult versions of Billy.

Mark Strong, meanwhile, brings a real sense of menace to the character of Sivana. The movie establishes that Sivana's fatal flaw is how much he covets power because of how ineffectual he felt as a child. Strong effortlessly shows that, playing Sivana with all the jealousy and anger someone like that would feel towards people he felt looked down on him, and how corrupted he is by the power he has.

And that brings us to the two actors playing Billy Batson. Asher Angel is perfect as the teenage Billy, bring some serious feelings of longing and melancholy to the character. His loneliness is front and center, along with some of the ego he develops as the videos of his superpowers go viral, and Angel makes it all believable. Zachary Levi, on the other hand, is hilarious as the adult Billy. Not only does he convincingly play an adult version of Asher, mannerisms and all, but as his viral notoriety go to his head and he starts showing off more, Levi gets funnier and funnier as the movie goes along. He's obviously having a blast playing Shazam, and it's an infectious kind of fun.

And I could say something similar about Shazam! as a whole that I said about Levi: it gets better and better with each passing moment. By the end, you don't want it to be over because it's 131 minutes of pure fun. I honestly can't say enough positive things about the movie; I hate to sound hyperbolic, but it's true. And while Shazam! might be left in the dust once Marvel's Avengers: Endgame is released in three weeks, I'm happy that DC could provide us with an entertaining diversion before we get there. There's plenty of magic in Shazam!, and you'd be doing yourself a favor by checking it out.

Final Rating: ****

Aquaman (2018)

Out of all the superheroes in the DC Comics pantheon, Aquaman has to be the one with the worst public perception. The creation of writer Mort Weisinger and artist Paul Norris, he debuted in 1941, but has spent much of the last few decades as a punchline. A lot of people must've never seen anything other than his appearances on the old Super Friends Saturday morning cartoon from the '70s and '80s, because "Aquaman is lame because he talks to fish" is one of the hokiest, most tired jokes out there.

A movie based on Aquaman was even a recurring gag on the old HBO show Entourage, with a lot of humor stemming from how unlikely such a thing would happen in real life. But here we are, talking about the second movie featuring Aquaman in a major role. And it's a solo movie too! And you know what? The Aquaman movie is not a joke; it's actually pretty great.

The movie begins with a brief prologue taking us to Massachusetts circa 1985, where lighthouse keeper Thomas Curry (Temuera Morrison) finds an unconscious woman washed up on the shore during a storm. She awakens and introduces herself as Atlanna (Nicole Kidman), queen of the mythical underwater kingdom of Atlantis. The two fall in love and eventually conceive a son they name Arthur.

Atlanna, however, is soon forced to return to Atlantis to fulfill her side of an arranged marriage. Her young son grows up to be extraordinarily strong and fast, and finds he can telepathically communicate with aquatic life. He hones his abilities and becomes a skilled warrior under the tutelage of an Atlantean named Vulko (Willem Dafoe), but ultimately chooses to stay among the surface dwellers after discovering that his mother had been killed once the king of Atlantis learned she'd given birth to a surface dweller's child.

Cut to the present day, a few months after the events of Justice League. The adult Arthur (Jason Momoa) has styled himself into a sea-faring vigilante the media has nicknamed "Aquaman." He is approached by Mera (Amber Heard), the princess of another underwater kingdom. She comes bearing a warning, that the reigning king of Atlantis, Orm (Patrick Wilson), plans to instigate a war with the surface world with the combined armies of the Seven Seas.

Knowing nothing good could come from Orm's war, Mera has sought out Arthur so that he may use his status as Orm's older half-brother — and thus the rightful king of Atlantis — to challenge Orm's claim to the throne and prevent the war. He is initially hesitant to accept, still bitter about his mother's death. He's convinced to help, however, when a massive tidal wave manufactured by Orm wreaks havoc on much of America's east coast.

Their initial attempts to step in don't quite go as planned, and Arthur and Mera soon find themselves on the run. While they search for a mythical trident that will help Arthur stake a proper claim as king, they must avoid the machinations of both Orm and "Black Manta" (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II), a dangerous pirate armed with experimental Atlantean weapons and a personal grudge too settle with Arthur.

I've never been a big Aquaman fan. Nothing against the character, but I've never been really drawn to him. I haven't read any of his comics, and I missed out on quite a bit of his appearances in animation. My only past real experience with Aquaman before his big-screen debut last year was Alan Ritchson's appearances as the character on four episodes of Smallville. But I did like Jason Momoa's take on the role in Justice League, I'm a fan of the director, and I'll see pretty much every comic book movie that comes out, so I wasn't about to skip this movie. And truth be told, I can't say that I was disappointed. The movie feels like a throwback to the cheesy comic book flicks from the '90s. Sure, not all those movies were good, but that isn't an insult to Aquaman. Far from it, because Aquaman takes that and makes itself a hell of a lot of fun.

At the helm is James Wan, who honestly isn't the first person I'd think of when it comes to directing a movie like this. He's no stranger to action movies, having made Death Sentence and Furious 7 in the past, but I've always associated him with the horror genre. The guy co-created the Saw, Insidious, and Conjuring franchises after all. But Wan is a talented filmmaker no matter what genre you put him in, and he shows it with Aquaman. Starting with a 30-second sequence at the movie's beginning that sees Atlanna fight off a number of Atlantean soldiers in Arther's childhood home in one unbroken shot, we can see that Wan means business.

Wan's direction here is outstanding, filling the movie with one visually stunning scene after another. Whether it be the action sequences or even just the digital set design, Wan builds a movie that is amazing to look at. The undersea scenes, especially Atlantis, look like an aquatic version of the world from Avatar, a visual feast blues, purples, greens, and golds looking absolutely beautiful. It's also helped by the movie's amazing cinematography, which makes the movie look even more incredible if you see the movie in 3D like I did.

And as I said before, Wan might be particularly recognized for his horror movies, but he knows his way around an action movie too. I already mentioned Atlanna's fight at the beginning of the movie, and it gets even better and more exciting as we progress. There's a scene where Arthur and Mera fight Black Manta and the Atlantean commandos in Sicily, the heroic duo are pursued by and brawl with their enemies on rooftops and through homes with neither side being able to really get the upper hand until the very end of the scene. It reminds one of the thrilling parking lot chase scene from Wan's own Death Sentence. The scene is amazing, and just when you think it can't be topped, the movie ends up proving you wrong.

The cast is a mixed bag, though I can't complain much about what I disliked. Dolph Lundgren (who appears in a small role as Mera's father) and Temuera Morrison put forth likable performances, as do Willem Dafoe and Nicole Kidman. Yahya Abdul-Mateen II isn't bad, meanwhile, but he's forgettable. He only has three or four scenes in the movie, with maybe only fifteen minutes of screen time in the whole thing. Most of that is action scenes where he was most likely replaced by a stuntman or a CGI stand-in for the scenes where he's in the Black Manta armor. But I will say that whenever they get around to making Aquaman 2, I hope to see more of what Abdul-Mateen can do.

I also can't say I particularly cared for Amber Heard. She and Jason Momoa don't have much on-screen chemistry together from what I could tell, and her performance feels sorta one-note.  The whole "Mera thinks Aquaman is an idiot and the surface world is uncivilized, but then she changes her mind over time" thing and the belligerent sexual tension concept are played out but could be blamed on the script, but I didn't think Heard did much to make it tolerable.

But I will say, though, that we did get two fantastic performances from our hero and our villain. Patrick Wilson is no stranger to superhero movies (having starred in Zack Snyder's Watchmen adaptation), and he's also turned up on several of Wan's past movies, so I was excited to see him turn up here. He plays Orm as the ultimate douchebag. If the movie had been made in the '80s, he'd be accused of doing his best impression of William Zabka. Wilson plays Orm in such a way that you can't wait for Aquaman to put him in his place and punch him right in the mouth. It's rare that I've seen Wilson play a bad guy, and I kinda hope he does it more often in the future because I thought he was great.

Speaking of great, I can't say enough good things about Jason Momoa. He was one of my favorite parts of Justice League, and he does another awesome job here. Momoa plays Aquaman with a charming likability, but even when he's cracking jokes and being kind of a goofball, he always makes the character feel like a total badass. One gets the feeling that if you met this Aquaman in real life, he'd be the life of the party and your best friend if he liked you, but God help you if he didn't like you.

If there were any lingering jokes about Aquaman being lame, then James Wan and Jason Momoa have killed them dead. The movie has its flaws, sure, but they're easily overlooked because the movie is just so much fun. Aquaman never ceases to be exciting, providing two and a half hours of pure, unadulterated entertainment from beginning to end. So if you're on the fence about Aquaman, unsure about whether or not you should check it out, I'll totally recommend seeing it. It's most certainly worth your time.

Final Rating: ***