 It's the most wonderful time of the year, and no, I'm not talking about Christmas. Hey everyone, welcome to another installment, another movie review here at a WCG, my name is Devon Menedez, and finally, Jesus Christ, it's been too long I have been waiting since this announcement was made. Holy crap, finally! I was able to see the Aquaman movie, and I gotta say man, right off the bat I am not one to give grades or say this is a percentage rating, because I don't really believe in that sort of stuff. If you wanna see a movie, go watch it. If you don't like it, well, you didn't like it, move on, that's it, but this whole system of having to do percentages and reviews with numericles and all that stuff, not for me, I'll just tell you what I liked, what I didn't like, if I recommend it or not, that's it, just some friendly thoughts. I won't spoil anything, don't worry about it, just in case you wanna see the movie and then you wanna come back, that's perfectly fine with me, I'm just gonna geek out over quite possibly one of my favorite movies of 2018, yeah, I went there, and I know, I know, I'm probably getting some viewers that are like, what is this guy even talking about, that movie was horrible, that's your opinion, that's cool bro, here's mine. I absolutely love this movie, I, yeah, I'm gonna be a little bit biased, a lot of people that know me, whether it's in person or through the internet or this channel or other social media sites, you know that I am a big fan of Arthur Curry, I love the character I've been reading about Aquaman since the 90s, I've enjoyed every single animated adaptation, whether it be on the Superman The Animated series show, whether it be Batman Brave and the Bold or the Justice League series or hell, even the Throne of Atlantis comic book movie, animated movie adaptation, I should say. The character has always been something that I have enjoyed and looked forward to when I go into DC Comics or DC Comic adaptations. Now in 2016, imagine my surprise when the character was revealed to be a part of the, back then people were referring to it as the extended universe, but it's more of what was the name, Worlds of DC, the film universe, if you will, I just like to call them DC films, that's it. So imagine my surprise when the character got a cameo in BVS. That was freaking amazing. That was one of my highlights in the video that I made of that movie. And then to my surprise that he was going to be a part of the Justice League movie and surprise surprise, he was one of my favorite parts of that movie as well. Now, the character of Aquaman after so many decades. This is a character that has been neglected by everybody. Every mainstream outlet media, every professional reviewer, every mainstream fan, every casual fan, whatever, he has been ignored. He has been ridiculed in universe and out of, you know, in reality. He has been the subject of jokes, of parodies. The character has gone through the wringer. All thanks to that famous Super Friends cartoon. But if you actually go back and read the comic books, yeah, they tend to be a little bit silly at times, but for the most part, a good chunk of the material that has been published is quite freaking excellent and pretty dark. You had storylines like Search for Mira, Death of a Prince, stuff like that, where it's not all fun and games and the character has life and death equations to deal with, you know? It's stuff like that that has always appealed to me. And of course, the whole mythology with Peter David's run, whatever. I'm rambling about the comic book, but we're here to talk about the movie. But yeah, this is a character that has been ridiculed. They did a complete 180, by the way, with Peter David in the 90s. They redesigned him again with the Timverse in the animated series. Nobody bad in an eye. He was one of the first superheroes to get married. He was one of the first superheroes to have a kid and lose a kid, lose a marriage, lose a hand, get redesigned, now had a hard reboot with a new 52, has had multiple origins, nobody bad in an eye, like I just mentioned. Of course, you had an actor of Polynesian descent with Jason Momoa. And now people want to complain about that's not my Aquaman. Well, sorry to disappoint you guys, but technically none of the actors are your favorite superheroes because they're adapting the characters. But that is a subject for another video. I am ranting and I hate to rant. I am so sorry, but I needed to get that out. So yeah, the movie is an amalgam of storylines and plots that I have seen throughout the comic books throughout the history of the character that I thought was pretty well that I thought was pretty well juggled. One of the main aspects of this movie is taking a direct adaptation of the new 52 stuff that Jeff Johns did back in 2011. That I think embodies about 75 percent of the material used for this movie. You have the character of Arthur, who is a loner who doesn't really know where he belongs. He is a freak by human standards, and he is a freak by Atlantean standards. He's somewhere in the middle with no real direction. And I thought Jason Momoa played this pretty well. I genuinely enjoyed this hero without a course. And basically the journey that he goes through is that ship setting sale and setting straight for the eventual hero that he becomes. It is a journey that is worthwhile taking because you see the formation of this legendary iconic DC character. Now Jason does a really good job, but it was interesting to see all the voices that I kept hearing when the character was speaking. I did see some John's material with the new 52. I did see a lot of Peter David's influence, a lot of golden age cheesiness, a lot of elements that converged in a film that is audacious, wild, crazy and not afraid to do its own thing. And I got to commend it for that. James Wan took a gamble and, in my opinion, paid off. If you are a fan of this character, you know that the character has a history of just wild and crazy elements, whether it be this high tech civilization that people thought was extinct. Now is living underwater. You explore the mythology. You get to see the beauty of Atlantis and the richness of such a city that is a technological wonderland, if you will, but also is alive and breathing and it coexists with its citizens. Of course, you also see the whole thing with Ocean Master and all these other characters. But I think James was able to take the best elements of a character that really hasn't been explored all that well and form a cohesive plot that, one, gives us a clear hero journey element and two, establishes as a dominant force. And if you're brand new to the character, you're like, yeah, all right. He is a member of the Justice League. He is one of the heavy hitters because he truly is. He is basically an underwater Superman, if you will. And he has the royal duty of protecting 75 percent of planet Earth. One of the aspects that I really, really enjoyed was the worthy visuals, I should say. The visuals on these were crisp and detailed and absolutely lovely. I loved, and I'm saying lovely a lot, watching all the scenes in Atlantis and the different scenes on Earth, you know, on land, I should say, whether it was Sicily or the trench or Atlantis itself or Amnesty Bay in the eastern coast of the United States. All that stuff just looked beautiful. And it gave you a sense of how vast and rich the oceans are in this world where it can look totally different depending on the place that you're in. And I thought that was really cool. Now, one of the aspects I did not like was the fact that a lot of the earlier scenes at the beginning of the movie, the early computer graphics and all that stuff weren't as sharp, as clean as I would have liked them to be. And it all just looked very green screen ish, especially with Thomas Curry. And he and his scenes in the past and all that stuff. But it's only nitpicking. It looked great, but you could tell in certain scenes that, you know, it was a green screen, plus the character. The whole movie takes place in different timelines and they decided to de-age certain characters in certain scenes. For example, Thomas Curry, he at the beginning, Timora Morrison, you know that he is not a young actor, and yet they de-aged him where it was a little bit cringy. I don't know if it was a real wig or a digital wig or something, but it looked funky and I was a little bit like, OK, same with Willem Dafoe, which was a little bit too weird seeing him all young and doing his thing as a young bulgo. But other than that, the movie is fine. I have seen so many people taking jabs at this simply because it's not X or Y film that I will not name. You know, it's that kind of mentality that I try to stay away from. And I just I just like what I like. And I am giving you my honest opinion. I don't try to go into the whole war about which films are better and why this one sucks, because it's done by these guys. That ain't me. Every film I enjoyed most films that I watch and regardless of the competition or all that stuff, it don't matter. At the end of the day, these are just pieces of art meant to entertain and hopefully inspire people because there is a message to this movie. I really enjoyed basically the conservation effort to clean our oceans because they are dirty like you have no idea. We are horrible as a human species taking care of our planet. And just, you know, we've done a horrendous job. The sea is just filled with so much plastic, injury, sea life and contaminating our waters and all that stuff. It, you know, I loved that aspect of the film that in a subtle small way, that it probably helped spark some imagination on viewers to try and do something, I guess, to help clean our oceans. And the other aspect that I really enjoyed plot wise or the message of the plot, it was words, not conflict, you know, words, not fighting. Words can solve issues instead of just tackling them with violence. I would rather talk things out and not have to rely on fists or weapons or just combat or just fighting because, you know, at the end of the day, this is all we've got and we I hate to see people not getting along. And I want people to be a little bit closer to each other. So I really appreciated the message, especially especially coming from a character that has been so marginalized in the past and has been ridiculed that I thought, you know, it was pretty, it was pretty nice to see that on screen. But regardless of all of that, I thought James Bond did an amazing job, like I said, with the cinematography. And I loved, I absolutely love the fight choreography and the stunt work used in this movie, whether it be a scene with Atlanta fighting Atlantean soldiers on the lighthouse, where there is a frenetic 3D fight effect going around and all that stuff, or you see Merck with his elite soldiers chasing down Mira and Arthur through Sicily or underwater sea battles. Those are fricking amazing to behold us because, you know, there is no gravity or well, yeah, there is gravity. But you know what I mean? There's no there's no central point of a character just standing there because anything or everything can be an angle. And I thought it looked amazing. You didn't get lost like other fights tend to do or other scenes tend to do, I should say, I should say. You had a clear focused scene as to what these guys were doing, especially at the end with our main villain and our main hero duking it out. It just looked amazing. And I loved every single bit of it. I have to admit, I got a super teary eyed watching this movie because I, you know, I've been following this character for so long to see certain aspects, whether it be Amnesty Bay, whether it be Salty the Sea Dog, whether it be Aquaman doing his telepathic communication with the animals or the fish, I should say, whether it's just seeing Mira and Arthur together on screen, this awesome power couple that I have been a fan of, it just hit the geek spark hard, man. I absolutely loved it. Patrick Wilson, by the way, did a phenomenal job as Ocean Master or he was frightening and convincing. And and there was an air of conviction to him like this was a worthy cause. And to some extent, yes, Atlantis is a city that is full of fanatics. But at the end of the day, he kind of did make a point. He did make a valid point as to why he wanted to invade Earth and teach the or the surface to teach the surface dwellers a thing or two about what they have been doing and the threat that they feel is imminent from the people of every nation, every country. Because even though they don't know when Atlantis exists, you know, they're running out of space, whether it be by contamination or submarines or explosions or whatever the cause may be, they're running out of space. And, you know, a cornered animal will strike back. So I really appreciated and I really loved Patrick Wilson's just on screen bravado as one of the coolest comic book villains, in my opinion. And speaking of cool comic book villains, Yaya Abdul-Mateen II, the holy crap, the dude just killed it as one of my favorite DC villains of all time. Black Manta was everything I could have wanted from his origin story. You know, it was reworked a little bit, but, you know, the essence of it was there and the origin with his dad and all that stuff. But, man, he just killed it on that role. You could really see the ferocity of this character that had something tragic happen to him. And he blames the character of Aquaman for for this event, for this tragedy. And, you know, he was Black Manta from the beginning all the way up to the end of the film. Every scene that he was on, I paid close attention to and just seeing his arch nemesis, basically, you know, aside from Ocean Master, the two main villains that everybody always mentions when it comes to Aquaman, you've got Ocean Master and you've got, of course, Black Manta and seeing these two characters fighting for the very first time in, like, cinematic history, that was pretty special and then brought a tear to my eye, especially when you do see the suit and the way everything is meticulously constructed and the science behind the laser eyes, all that stuff. James did a fantastic job of detailing everything in a way where it made sense and it was natural and organic. Like I mentioned, the film looks beautiful. The sound is something I wanted to mention as well. Rupert, who did the soundtrack for Wonder Woman, he did a phenomenal job as well. I love, I completely loved this soundtrack and the heavy use of bass guitar and low riffs and all that stuff to signal, you know, the depths and, of course, Aquaman himself did read interviews where Jason said that he based his character or his attitude or persona on heavy metal music, like Metallica and stuff like that. So it makes sense to use that bass motif where you have characters like Wonder Woman, which is more heavy, electric and Superman is more piano subdued music. You've got Batman with high orchestra and this character, you know, the bass guitar. I thought that was a pretty clever little twist. The music, a lot of people were basically bitching and moaning online. I get it. You're not a fan of this pit bull toto remix or whatever, but it's a tongue-in-cheek joke because the characters need to go to the Sahara. They need to go to Africa. Ocean to ocean, all that stuff. It was a fun little joke and I think the joke flew over everybody's heads. I don't know. The music was awesome. The cast was electric. I loved, there's just so much I could talk about. Nicole Kidman was excellent as Atlanta. Amber was fierce, loyal, just a pure badass and a beautiful person to see as Mira. Mira is one of my favorite comic book ladies of all time and she, yeah, she played the part perfectly. She held her own and she did her thing and, you know, just an all-around badass and I wanna see more characters like that in future comic book movies and future movies as well. I also really enjoyed Will and Defoe's take on Volko. It was a little bit different from the source material. I was expecting, you know, a little bit more of a rounder persona, but still it looked pretty awesome and I'd love the scenes of him training a young Arthur. Which, by the way, that's probably one of my second negatives of this movie. The child actors that they used, a young, I'm gonna say nine-year-old Arthur and then a 15-year-old or 16-year-old. I wasn't too much of a fan of the scenes made me cringe a little bit. But everything else, you know, was pretty fun. This movie, I like to make jokes about comparing movies and in my head how I see them. And I guess for this movie, if I were to take certain aspects of Gladiator and mix them with Indiana Jones inside of a comic book DC movie, that's sort of what you would get with Aquaman. I love the idea of the hero's journey of redemption and just finding the way to restore his faith and balance and status on the world because he is a superhero. He is a character that people look up to. And to lose that faith and not see himself as the hero that he's always meant to be, I really enjoyed seeing the journey of him discovering that aspect and, you know, becoming a great character, a great hero. So overall, I'm not gonna rate this. I'm not going to give it a grade or a number or anything. I'm just gonna say that if you wanna have a fun time, please support this movie. Please watch it. If you're a fan of Aquaman, this is a must watch. And you're probably really excited about the idea of a character that has been so such a heavy underdog, man, to finally get his due in a movie that is brimming with personality, gusto and flair that I absolutely loved. Guys, for me personally, the hype was real. This movie was real. Everything about this was just fricking fantastic. Don't let the haters bring you down. Don't listen to that noise. Go watch the movie and enjoy it because it is fun. It is a fun movie. And it does stick to the formula of fun movies. It's wild, is ambitious, and it has fun doing its thing. It can be crazy and downright hilarious, but at the same time, it honors the source material. Seeing Arthur Curry with the hero suit, with the Aquaman suit, definitely brought a tear to my eye. And it was literally reading a comic book, reading comic books, which I'd love for this character. Seeing that for the very first time on screen, you know, it was just a magical experience. And I got to thank James Wan for doing this. And I got to thank Zack Snyder for bringing Jason Memorial into the DC Films universe and introducing Aquaman in Batman V Superman, which led to all of this. So I am extremely happy. I, oh man, I don't know. What do you guys think? Have you seen the movie yet? I know I did see it a little bit earlier compared to other people, but regardless, I know a lot of people are watching it and I wanna know your opinion on it and what you thought of this review slash admiration for the character. Did I miss anything? Probably, I don't know. I really enjoyed this. Hopefully you enjoyed this review and you took something different out of it compared to other people just bashing or just being trolls on the internet. I don't know. That's not my type of mentality. I'm here to have fun and entertain you guys in whatever way possible. So yeah, that's it for me. Thank you guys once again for liking, commenting and subscribing to what we can keep them. And thank you for sharing this content. Hit the notification bell so you know when new videos pop up, follow me on your favorite social media platform. And that's it. That's about it. I have got to go. Yeah, I gotta go. I will catch all of you on our next episode. I wish you guys the very best. God bless and we'll see each other next time.