The last two blockbusters of the year also happen to have uphill battles to fight. Aquaman is hoping to reverse the negative perspective of the internet of all things DC, while Bumblebee wishes it were the first Transformers movie.
Aquaman
Aquaman has long been the whipping boy of every comic book universe. Known largely as an Aryan poster boy who can talk to fish and wears an orange/green spandex outfit. He has never had the same kind of draw that even C-list characters get. The fact that this top tier hero gets no love is a shame considering he’s one of the few heroes of the entire ocean.
Aquaman was cinematically introduced in 2017’s Justice League and the character never got a chance to shine and only proved to show the bravado of Jason Momoa in small segments. Now, with the help of director James Wan (Conjuring, Furious 7) Arthur Curry finally gets to headline his own movie.
Aquaman tells the story of Arthur (Momoa) a lost prince of Atlantis born of a Atlantean queen and a surface-dwelling father. Though, fate finds Arthur and he is called on to protect the humans he lives among from the war-hungry Atlantean ruler, Orm (Patrick Wilson). However, Arthur is far from ready and his own overconfidence continues to get in his way.
Momoa who’s clearly having the time of his life in this role (and life in general) isn’t quite a consistent-in-quality actor. His charisma nearly takes his into The Rock levels of likability, but he has a few movies ahead of him to prove that he can carry his own movie. Thankfully, the supporting cast is always around to bolster the events and keep the movie flowing smoothly.
Amber Heard, as Mera, is along for nearly the full runtime of the movie. While her arc is flat, having these two characters/personalities conflict and take an adventure together is fun to watch. It becomes similar in feel to Romancing the Stone. Outside of these two, there are some surprising actors, such as Willem Dafoe, Nicole Kidman, Dolph Lundgren and Temeura Morrison (and one cameo I won’t mention) that add necessary and needed strength to the script.
Patrick Wilson is a regular when it comes to James Wan movies, having been in the first two Insidious and Conjuring movies. As Ocean Master Orm, he is having a blast chewing the scenery. Thankfully, his villain has a reason for being and feels he is the hero of his own story.
Why have I talked so much about the actors? You are seeing this movie for one reason. Most of it takes place underwater! Even with some inconsistent CG, the movie still pulls you along for the ride and you soon get sucked into the action and spectacle of it all. The scenery you get with ancient cities, futuristic strongholds, beautiful shores and the darkness that lies in the ocean all expand the mythology that the audience needs without straight up telling you that the ocean is big and that there is so much more to the story than what we are seeing.
I worry that they covered so much ground in this movie, that a sequel couldn’t possibly go bigger. If they can beat the scope and the pure bombastic nature of this movie by even a little, then it’s already worth the price of admission.
Aquaman, by its very existence, is silly and bonkers to the point of being enjoyable. The jokes don’t hit half as hard as they’d like and mostly fall on the shoulders of Momoa’s frat boy antics early in the movie. Though, Aquaman stays in its swim lane as a modern take on the cheesy ’80s action movie that just happens to have an incredible sandbox to play in. If it were afraid to take the deep dive into everything that makes Aquaman and Atlantis unique, this would make for a terrible movie, but because it makes no apologies for what’s on screen, you can look past the dumb aspects and appreciate the movie for getting away with what is on screen. Aquaman lives in the sea, but gets a B.
Bumblebee
With Bumblebee, we now see the sixth iteration of the Transformers franchise. Let that sink in. While Michael Bay managed to surprise many of us with a decent introduction to the beloved series in 2007, there have been four sequels that seem to lose more brain cells as they go.
While every Transformers movie has delved into time-jumps and flashbacks, we now have a full-fledged tale of Bumblebee and his time on Earth before Sam Witwicky. The year is 1987 and Bumblebee is on the run from Decepticons. He finds temporary refuge as a broke-down Volkswagen Beetle, but is soon discovered by a wannabe independent teenager Charlie (Hailee Steinfeld). After getting over the shock of what Bumblebee is, the two form a bond that will hopefully get them through the intergalactic threats coming their way.
There’s one notable difference between the five other Transformers movies and this one – Michael Bay does not direct. Now, I’m not necessarily in the “Michael Bay is the worst director of all time” camp, though him stepping away from the franchise is the best thing for Transformers at this point. Instead we get Travis Knight, director of the amazing Kubo and the Two Strings. This seems like an odd pairing as he’s a little too high class to work on this current project. However, the first few minutes of Bumblebee proves that he is a fan of the classic cartoon and he proves to be the shot in the arm the franchise needs.
This is far from being a standard Transformers movie where giant grey robots clash for half the runtime and you can’t tell who to root for. In fact, there are a limited number of Autobots and Decepticons in the movie, so it’s easy to keep track of the risks that Bumblebee faces.
There’s actually not much focus on action in this movie. It’s front-loaded with a few great scenes and obviously ends with robot wrestling, but the majority of the movie is spent developing the friendship between Charlie and Bumblebee. I could see children getting a little bored. Thankfully, the movie has its fair share of chuckle-worthy moments to keep the pace moving. The flaws creep in as there are several padded scenes to extend the movie’s length. Truthfully, there’s not enough story here to fill in two hours and if it cut a few cheesy scenes (Bumblebee accidentally destroying a living room) it would make for a tight movie.
John Cena is in this movie, because how has he not been in a Tranformers movie yet? Surprisingly, he fits the series like the last puzzle piece that is finally found under the coffee table. His character gets quite a few funny lines and even gets a chance to speak exactly what the audience is thinking. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I hope he gets a chance to appear in any subsequent sequels.
This movie also goes out of its way to prove that it takes place in the ’80s. Just in case you forget that at any point in the movie, a classic ’80s track starts playing over a montage. This happens at least 23 times in the movie. To keep it in the ’80s realm, it even features a subplot about Charlie trying to impress the hot guy in school (who’s clearly 34), but embarrasses herself in front of the stuck up plastics (who might be 40).
If this were the first Transformers movie, everyone would be excited about it and to see where the franchise goes next. It stands with the first movie, and possibly above it as far as quality is concerned. Original fans are going to find a lot to like here and finally get to see more of what they love in the first five minutes than the series has shown so far. I wish it were more exciting and had some original action that could make it memorable. This prequel gets a Bumble-B.
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