 Well hello movie fans, comic book fans, and lovers of pure epicness. We are now here for the sixth installment in the DCEU for DC Comics. Now how did this film stand out? Is it better than Wonder Woman? Is it better than Justice League? Is it better than Batman v Superman Dawn of Justice? I surely hope so. But let's talk about it. My name is Brandon Keith Avery and this is just my opinion. Hey guys, I want to thank you so much for tuning into my opinion slash review. For our Aquaman, I really do appreciate it. Now if you know me, you know that comic book movies are my most favorite movies of all time. They're my most anticipated. I can't wait to the theater to get to see them. When it comes to Aquaman, my expectations were pretty high, especially with that last trailer. I mean the five minute extended trailer that they released a number of months ago. That was cool. It was epic. I loved it. But that final trailer, it just did something for me. I would sometimes and I didn't have anything to watch, just queue it up and watch it a few times in a row because it was just that good. So I was expecting a good amount with this, especially with it being directed by James One. I'm a big fan of his. I've been following him for the longest time when he did Saw. He did Insidious. Of course, he did Conjuring 1 and 2. He also did, I said Insidious. He also did Fast 7 and I really wasn't a fan of that film, but that had a number of random circumstances that made it kind of difficult to make that film. But he also did Silence and Death Sentence with Kevin Bacon. One of those is a horror with the ventriloquist dummies. The other one is kind of like a revenge vigilante plot with Kevin Bacon. I mean the guy's filmography is fantastic. So I knew that he was in, well the film was in good hands. And people kind of trash on DC saying that their movies are horrible. They can't keep up with Marvel and things like that and that their whole film comic book franchise is dead. I don't think so, especially with this movie right here, Aquaman. Now I am a fan of the character. I have this blue rare right here, one of their animated movies, Justice League Throne of Atlantis. However, this film right here is loosely based on Jeff John's 2011 comic. And this film right here, it's okay. It's not one of the better DC animated films. I have like 30 of them and I wouldn't say that was in the top 10. But it is entertaining. So this film right here, Aquaman, to be honest with you, it's a mixed bag for me. It's not a mixed bag between the bad and the good. Because it's really not anything bad in this film. I can't sit there and say that when I was watching, I was like, oh, that sequence didn't work out right there. I didn't like it a lot. This is a mixed bag between the good, the great and the, okay, that could have been a little bit better. What do I mean by that? Well, for starters, they're very intro of the film. I was smiling ear to ear, literally like this for a good 10 minutes. I actually said to myself, like, damn, Brennan, how long you been smiling? Like, you're going to hurt your face or whatever, just relax with the very beginning of the movie. But I like the way they set up everything. I like the tone. I like to where they were explaining story, but at the same time, not going down in some sequential order of A, B, C, D, E, F, G. I mean, the audience, not the audience, but the film treated the audience like they were mature adults and was able to comprehend what was going on without it being, you know, force fed, you know, down our throat. So I really did like that. There is a narration by Aquaman, Jason Memorial, Arthur Kerry at the very beginning of the film, just setting things up. And I was loving every bit of it. Now, the next thing that I like, you know, is the sequence where he's a child underwater, not underwater, but at the field trip or whatever at the aquarium. And, you know, he's getting bullied. I love that sequence. So, you know, very beginning of the film, this thing did feel promising. But then it starts to dip a little bit when we finally meet Aquaman. You know, of course, he made just like a great intro. But his, you know, when it came to the dialogue and things like that, it came off a little, a little corny to me. Now, his presence on screen was great. I mean, he did look badass. He did like somebody that you don't want to double cross, that you don't want to piss off, or he may just throw you out of a window or until a steel door. So, you know, he fits within the role very, very well. He did that in Aquaman and he did a great job here. But I don't know for some of the decisions they made were kind of the dialogue and things like that early on in the film, especially when this intro, it did come across a little corny to me. And that is one of my first gripes in the film is when it comes to the dialogue, or I'll just say the exposition, you know, period. So this film, it has to explain a lot because, you know, you have this underground world of of Atlantis. And then you also have to transition back and forth on land. And there is a lot of explanations that, you know, has to take place to get the point across. But the execution there was it just didn't flow. It wasn't smooth. It felt forced. It just felt like, OK, we're done with this scene right here. And now it's just another exposition scene. And the characters just talk, talk, talking. And they were just kind of bland to me. And there were just really nothing to it. And I just kind of said to myself, like, man, this film should be called Aquaman Explainer Version because usually I don't I don't remember the excuse me. I don't know the exact term for this. But usually when a film has to explain a lot and they have to go through the exposition, they have a character in the film that is completely new to the world. And as you have a vet in that scene, explaining it to the new character, we, the audience members are experiencing this new world through the character in the film that hasn't seen this before or whatever. I mean, it's kind of like, you know, we're a team or whatever. They didn't necessarily have a character like that in this film. You could say that it was Aquaman, but at the same time, there was a left there was a lot left on the cutting room floor as far as, you know, great dialogue or exposition because we had Aquaman and Justice League or whatever. So they kind of just skipped over that. And, you know, it was OK. But, you know, they could have stepped it up just a little bit. It was kind of bland. And, you know, it kind of clocked me out. Now, something that I did find very interesting at the very beginning of the film and the rest throughout is the fighting choreography. They did that tough. I mean, they knocked it out of the park. It was early on. I mean, as soon as you see the first fight, you know, you're in for a treat, especially with Nicole Kipman playing Queen Atlanta. She can fight. She can box. She can handle her own. And I saw this and it was it was they say it was IMAX, but it really wasn't an IMAX theater. It was I call that live max because the ratio wasn't the full 70. The ratio wasn't right. It didn't have the full 70 millimeter screen. But the sound and that theater was popping. I mean, the base, I could feel it. I can I can hear every punch, every kick, every time someone stomped their foot on the ground. You can feel it. I mean, it was very, very impactful. And they did that very, very well. Something else that I loved in this film was the costumes, especially with black with black man. Now, his the guy that plays black man, I don't know how to pronounce his name, but he was one of my favorite in the whole entire film. He had a great presence. His name is pronounced Yahya Abdul, my teen, the second, if I'm correct there with pronouncing his name. And I like everything about his character. You know, what motivated him, whether it was a good motivation, a bad motivation. I think the film did a great job there. But when he was in his power uniform, when he was in his black man to uniform, I was just like, I said to myself, like, I cannot wait to buy this on 4k just so I can see the crisp details in his suit. Because I mean, this is some of the best costume designs that I've seen our year, kind of competing with Black Panther and not just with him as black man to but the other Atlanteans. When they're up on land, on dry land, that sequence where it's like one take and you can see the robotic act, often to say Aquian, Atlantean armor. It looked, it was nice. It was crisp. It was colorful. I loved it all. It popped even more when they were doing all their fighting and had all the choreography and things like that. So, you know, that was great. That was fantastic. As far as the cast is concerned, of course, I love Jason Momoa as Aquaman. Also like Willem Defoe as Volko. Some of the other characters. Oh, and Nicole Kidman as Alanta. She did great too. But some of the other characters just didn't do it for me as much like I don't know why they wanted to hire Dolph Lundgren as King Nearest in this film. I don't, you know, King, not King, but Patrick Wilson, who plays King Orm or Ocean Master. He's worked with James Wan a number of times in the past and pretty much all his films, The Conjuring and, you know, Insidious and things like that. And he did a great job in there. And also Patrick Wilson did a great job in the film Watchmen as the Night Owl character. As one of those retired superheroes. But for some reason in this film, I wasn't buying him as Ocean Master. I'm not saying that his acting was bad or anything like that. You know, it just he has somewhat of a decent presence on film. You know, he had the physicality there. But for some reason, I just wasn't connecting with him as the villain. I mean, he wasn't the greatest villain either. I mean, his I understand his motivation. He wants to, you know, take war on the surface world because they're polluting the oceans. But I mean that that was blatantly obvious. There was no plot point that needed to be expressed in this film to get that point across. I mean, it was just something we already know. A lot of people just living in the world world right now don't like the ocean being polluted. And so there were just really no true event there. There was nothing that happened to him that just sent him over the edge. It's like, I'm so angry with the surface world. I mean, it was just, I don't know, some foregone conclusion that you just have to know. And I just wanted a little bit more from that as far as Amber heard is Mira. She was fine, too. It was nothing great about her performance. It was nothing great about anyone's performance in this movie. The acting was fine. Some, you know, like I said, Nicole Kidman, Willem Dafoe, Jason Moore, they were great. But everybody else, it was just like, OK, you guys are just talking. I don't even think you memorize your lines sometime. It just seemed like you know, you're reading as far as Atlantis is concerned. It was great. But at the same time, I wasn't impressed. I do want to give James Gunn, not James Gunn, James Wan credit, because I know that this film is extremely difficult to make. I couldn't do it. So I don't want to just crap all over him, like, oh, yeah, it wasn't good. It should have did this. He should have did that. He didn't cross this tee over here. No, I'm not trying to be a whole or sound obnoxious. I know this is very difficult to do. But at the same time, I cannot say that when they finally dive into Atlanta and everything lights up like it didn't turn, I was like, whoa, you know, this is amazing. You know what I'm saying? I did that with Avatar in 2009, but I did not do that with with Atlantis here in this movie. It was still cool and I like the makeup of it. I like the story behind it and, you know, how everything came into place and how everything was organized and all that good stuff. But it just did not blow me away. It may blow you away. But something great about another great thing about this film is just like the character designs and the CGI when they are above water and sometimes below with me being specific. Let me just talk about the church monsters when they were on screen. The detail there was some of the best I've ever seen. I mean, it was, you know, like on point. It was scary a little bit. You know, the I was like, OK, I don't the creatures look just so ugly that you don't even want to look at them because you feel like you're going to get infected. And there was one scene in the trailers where there was like a big giant red light with water waves and they're going down in the red light and there's a bunch of fish and monsters going around. Things like that just really stood out to me in this film. And you know, it was great. There was just another moment that, you know, a number of moments where I would just smiling ear to ear like this. So, you know, that's kind of what I'm saying when I'm saying this between like a mixed bag because let's talk about the soundtrack. The soundtrack at times, the score was great. It was epic. It was the right music to set the tone. What was what was going on? But then at the same time, that the choice of music was horrible. You know, when they're bouncing back and forth between like a superhero, somewhat origin film, it's like an extra adventure that the heroes are going on. Like this is Indiana Jones or the Goonies or something like that. When they were doing their adventure things, I was not feeling the music. It was just kind of cornered to me. And I was like, man, who chose this song choice? You know, I'm not really, I'm not really feeling this right here. Another great thing about this, the film was funny. I did laugh a number of times. And the last of the graph I'm going to just talk about is some of the action in the trailers were more impactful in the trailers than they were in the movies. I was a little annoyed by that, but I did get over it. But then again, you know, I love my superhero landings. I love all my poses and things like that, especially when it has to do with martial arts and they have that all throughout this film. I mean, when Aquaman, you know, when he was getting into his groove or whatever and then fighting and doing all this poses, I was loving it. I think at one time I kind of did like a little move right here just because I was in the mood or whatever. And that's just because it was just a great sequence in the movie or whatever. I talked about the fighting as well. And I liked that as well in the training sequences with Willem Dafoe as Volko. You know, that was great. I wanted a little bit more, but it was choreographed very, very well. And I also just wanted to give James Mars some credit with the set. The set design was great. I mean, there was sometimes, of course, they use a ton of CG on this film, but there was other times when I was like, man, this is real. I mean, you know it's a set. They're not building ancient ships and things in Atlantis and where people can physically fight and things like that. But the sets ground at the film and just made it more greedy, especially when they're doing all these fighting and things like that. Some of this, the power scaling was off a little bit. I kind of said to myself one point, OK, why is Aquaman losing to this one person, but somebody else over here that's supposed to be weaker than Aquaman is able to defeat three of the people that only one was able to defeat Aquaman that maybe are registered wrong or comprehended wrong. But that, you know, that is something that kind of stood out to me. But in the end, guys, when Aquaman, you see it in the trailer, well, Aquaman is filing this Aquaman costume to get the golden trident and he stomping it down. At that point right there, it was just nothing but, you know, glorious cinematic masterpiece, epicness, you know, to me at that point off from the end of the film. When he finally became the true Aquaman with all the powers, I was loving it. He was powerful. It was just bad ass when he was in the middle of the war in the middle of the ocean flying around, swimming around, punching things and swimming real fast, like a dolphin and all this good stuff using his powers. It was nice. It was epic. I loved all the sea creatures. I loved the giant monsters and things like that. I mean, you know, it was great. It was great. I told what I said. I wasn't going to talk about them to great, but I just thought about it. Early on in the film, the transition between them going on land and in excuse me, going on land and into the ocean back and forth on land between the land is that was a little drawing. But then again, at the very end of the film, when Aquaman is doing his thing, it's freaking fantastic. I loved it. I know it seemed like I complained a lot in this film, but guys, it really is a great film. I was able to nitpick a lot. I didn't do that intentionally. I'm just trying to be honest with you. I did enjoy the film a lot. If you are interested in seeing it, don't let me deter you away. Still go to see the film. If you had no interest in seeing this period before you saw this video, you heard anybody talk about it, talk about it. It may not be for you, but it is something I really did enjoy as I still enjoyed Wonder Woman and Justice League slightly above. Well, not slightly, but more than this one. But I definitely enjoyed it more than Batman v Superman, Donna Justice and Justice League and not Justice League Suicide Squad. As far as man is still concerned, I don't know. I have to think about that. But if I had to rate Aquaman out of a one out of 10, this is really hard, but I'm going to give it a 7.5 out of 10. Yes, a 7.5 out of 10. When I see it again, I may bump that up to an eight, but right now it's just a 7.5. But guys, that is just my opinion for Aquaman. Do you want to see it? Have I turned you on? Have I turned you off? Do you agree with me or do you disagree with me? Let me know down in the comment section below. Let's get this conversation going and keep it flowing. If you liked this video, go ahead and give me a thumbs up. If you don't, that's fine. But you can still subscribe to my channel. You can also look me up on social media, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. All the good stuff is right at the bottom of your screen. And I made it very easy by providing links to all that down in the description box below. But guys, I just want to thank you again for tuning into my opinion slash review for Aquaman. And before you go, don't forget there, my name is Brennan Heath Avery. And that's just my opinion. Peace.