Warner Brothers has become infamous for its disastrous adaptations of DC Comics properties, but with Aquaman, they seem to have finally found their stride. Aquaman is an all-around entertaining movie that, despite its two hour run time, keeps the audience interested with its stunning and dynamic visual shots of Atlantis and its neighbors. Though he is seen by many to be the superhero of ridicule, whose only power is talking to fish and breathing underwater, this movie takes Aquaman to the next level by showing his immense strength, supersonic swimming speeds, and much much more. While this film has its fair amount of cons, it’s undoubtedly to be considered a success.

One issue in particular I have is how the film feels cliche and too closely related to Black Panther with its storyline of a king fighting his brother for the throne. Furthermore, though purely my own opinion, I had trouble looking past Willem Defoe’s previous performance as Green Goblin while watching the movie. Conversely, Black Manta, Aquaman’s most well-known supervillain from the comics, is portrayed perfectly, and his engaging origin story allows the viewer to empathize with his hatred of Aquaman. However, I believe he should have been taking out of this movie almost entirely after his first few scenes. While in the beginning, a fight scene provides backstory to Manta’s unbridled rage against Aquaman, the later scene feels meaningless when he arrives, almighty and powerful, just to be defeated in less than a few minutes. This is disappointing providing that it should be a great climax and segway to the obvious sequel in which Black Manta is the main villain, but instead the character seemed to be of zero threat.

After thoroughly looking at all aspects, the best part of the movie undeniably comes in the end where Aquaman retrieves the McGuffin of the film, giving him the ability to return to Atlantis, defeat his unrighteous brother, and claim his place as king. While the Atlantean army fights the opposing force over an epic lava battlefield, an evil crab-squid monster battles a giant Atlantean sea dragon, and in the end, of course, good prevails. Though it can be cliche and the stakes at times feel low, Aquaman is a great film, and an amazing step forward for the DC cinematic universe.