Having failed to defeat Aquaman the first time, Black Manta, still driven by the need to avenge his father’s death, will stop at nothing to take Aquaman down once and for all. This time Black Manta is more formidable than ever before, wielding the power of the mythic Black Trident, which unleashes an ancient and malevolent force. To defeat him, Aquaman will turn to his imprisoned brother Orm, the former King of Atlantis, to forge an unlikely alliance. Together, they must set aside their differences in order to protect their kingdom and save Aquaman’s family, and the world, from irreversible destruction.

It’s not been a good year for superhero movies, with even the Marvel juggernaut hitting its first real rough period with their movies getting poorer reviews, and more importantly, not selling as many tickets as before. DC have often lagged behind Marvel in the moviemaking stuffs, if sometimes more in the organisation than the actual quality, but the first ‘Aquaman’ movie was good for my money – really entertaining and leaning in well to its slightly bonkers underworld premise. Can lightning strike twice with ‘Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom’?

Sadly, this sequel is nowhere near as good as ‘Aquaman’. Despite Jason Momoa giving it his all again, he appears to be the only thing about this movie that doesn’t feel phoned in, from the other performances to the script to the frankly quite shoddy special effects. For a production that cost $205million you expect the visuals to look better than a video game cutscene. In terms of the plot, it centres on the return of Yahya Abdul-Mateen’s Black Manta from the first movie, who has returned seeking revenge on Aquaman for the death of his father, all while using a cursed trident to increase global warming. This forces Aquaman to work with his half brother Orm (Patrick Wilson), who in the first movie was the main villain, to stop him. Various fight sequences follow, primarily underwater, and you’ll have to have been more invested than me to have cared about how things panned out – I was frankly a little bored.

‘Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom’ is a disappointing sequel to one of DC’s better movies, and it leaves us in the curious position where I think my favourite comic book movie of 2023 was ‘The Flash’!

Rating: 2/5

Directed By: James Wan

Starring: Jason Momoa, Patrick Wilson, Amber Heard, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Randall Park, Dolph Lundgren, Temuera Morrison, Martin Short, Pilou Asbæk, John Rhys-Davies and Nicole Kidman

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt9663674/