I’ve long had a thing for Aquaman, he was my favorite comic book superhero when I was growing up. If you’d asked me then what superpower I wanted, it was none of that boring stuff like flying or super-strength — breathing underwater and talking to fish sounded awesome. So now out of the shambles of the DC superhero franchise comes a new Aquaman movie — I hope it’s more along the lines of Wonder Woman than the Bat-gloom and Super-morose po-faced stuff they’ve been turning out lately.
Pharyngula
Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal
Well, as long as it is better than Justice League.
I would say that it is impossible not to be better, but then I remember Superman vs Batman
You know, I’m sure they had to have had the script down and were shooting (or maybe even done shooting) when BP came out, but a heck of a lot of this looks parallel to the BP script. The childhood stuff, positioning Aquaman as outsider to Atlantis is decidedly different from how T’Challa was the quintessential insider in Wakanda. But if Killmonger had won and gotten to write a history favorable to himself, his story would be this Aquaman story without the underwater cinematography.
Again, I’m not saying that AM is ripping off BP, because both are ripping off Ivanhoe and Robin Hood and who knows how many other stories where brothers fight for the throne of some country or other. There’s always one outsider and one insider in those stories, and the hero has taken each form many times over the years. What I am saying is that it’s terribly unfortunate for DC that this movie has come out this year. They seem perpetually behind the curve, and it can only hurt them with this film.
@Kristjan Wager
I really wanted to hate BvS, but then I learned that that movie and I both had mothers with the same name. Suddenly all the hate left me, and I wanted nothing more than to sacrifice my life for my enemy. So here it is, I lay down all my life’s credibility: I loved BvS.
Now someone stab me with a kryptonite spear and put me out of my misery, eh?
Aquaman eh? You couldn’t hold out for someone to come up with Octoman and his sidekick Squid Kid?
Namor would kick his ass no matter what the crossover war said.
@Big Boppa:
We’ve already had Squid Girl.
I love Squid Girl way more than BvS & JL
Crip Dyke – YES! Squid Girl is all sorts of awesome!
Huh. The Aquaman I remember had short blond hair and a tight orange shirt, with a sawfish always instantly on call to cut holes in the boats of bad guys. And an underage sidekick called Aqualad.
No matter how cool they try to make Aquaman, I still can’t get over the fact that his code name sounds like a brand of toilet bowl cleaner.
Does the climax of the film involve the bad guy doing/getting the thing that the hero said all along was the irreversible disaster all along… yet the hero solves the problem by using a skill/magic/talent he hadn’t demonstrated before? Or does he just get more angry than the bad guy, and the bad guy sees this and gets scared and loses? Because the hero gets madder… like a pro wrestler?
My biggest problem with the trailer is Atlantis looks like it was designed by Thomas Kincaid.
davidnagle@10–
The climactic action set piece will involve the hero’s glowing powers smashing into the villain’s glowing powers, and the hero will win because he is better at constipated scowling.
@chrislawson:
Good observation, though as he’s dead I’m thinking it’s more likely the scene design was done by the same person who designed/decorated the W hotel in Mexico City.
Definitely check out some of the other photos there as well, particularly the water-themed staircase and bar area.
DC films have largely been pretty awful. That said, I’m anticipating Ava Duvernay’s take on Jack Kirby’s The New Gods.
Also I wholeheartedly believe actor Eli Roth with Spock ears would make an excellent Namor the Submariner.
I was dubious of Zach Levi playing Captain Marvel, but the trailer for Shazam genuinely looks fun.
Also Aquaman’s ability to talk to fish isn’t always that useful.
OMG that last youtube clip was amazing.
Who did that? Was that done professionally by the comedy channel or the cartoon network or what?
Given how much Jason Momoa is growling in all those scenes (including the one joke), I’m not terribly hopeful that it won’t turn into another BvS.
Crip Dyke @ 16: Cartoon Network did a lot of shorts featuring team-ups between their original characters and old classic cartoons.
Crip Dyke @6
Squid Girl was originally known as Squid Kid because Octoman was, of course, an equal opportunity employer.