Aquaman

Aquaman

When someone asks me about “Aquaman,” I always start with the scene where two opposing Atlantean armies face off and discuss the kingdom’s future. One side rides armored seahorses, which whinny menacingly. The other rides massive, laser-blasting armored sharks that can and d leap over submarines. “Aquaman” puts about as much stock in scientific accuracy as “SpongeBob SquarePants,” and that’s one of many reasons why I love it.

It takes a light touch to be this ridiculous. Directed by James Wan (“The Conjuring,” “Saw”), this entry is part of a robust subgenre of superhero movies, also including “Spider-Man: Homecoming,” “Thor: Ragnarok,” “Venom” and both “Ant-Man” pictures sweet, goofy, at times psychedelically weird films that mostly reject the sour gloom that gets mistaken for maturity. But they’re serious in their own way; if anything, “Aquaman” feels like a spoof and an operatic melodrama at the same time. Any film that can be both those things is some kind of force of nature.

His origin story fits into the continuity established by such earlier DC Extended Universe entries as “Batman v Superman” and “Justice League,” but this is Aquaman’s first solo big-screen adventure since making his debut 77 years ago in More Fun Comics No. 73 (cover-dated November 1941). It’s also the first movie to put him front-and-center, though not billed as such. Arthur Curry (played here by Jason Momoa) is a half-human/half-Atlantean who drinks too much and has long hair, tattoos and a pointy trident; sometimes he talks to fish but doesn’t make friends with them so much as scare predators away from them.

As written by David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick and Will Beall (adapting a story by Geoff Johns, Wan and Beall) from a character created by Paul Norris and Mort Weisinger, Arthur is a mixed-species loner who feels like an outsider among both surface dwellers and Atlanteans. This born of two worlds business has been done to death in comic books and superhero movies, but it’s taken a while for the idea to reach the big screen in live action probably because filmmakers assumed it was too weird or complicated to work. Tom Curry (Temuera Morrison), a lighthouse keeper, fell in love with Atlanna (Nicole Kidman), an exiled undersea princess who washed up on shore during a storm. They had Arthur together; she went home and was executed for treason.

The plot of “Aquaman” kicks into gear when the idealistic Atlantean Mera (“Justice League’s” Amber Heard) convinces Arthur to become what he was born to be: not king, exactly though that happens as well but rather uniter of the kingdoms, land and sea. Radical forces led by Arthur’s half brother Orm (Patrick Wilson) want to scorch Earth’s oceans as revenge for centuries of land-dweller pollution and militarization. Naturally our hero would rather just have another beer; his reply when asked if he wants war is the kind of profane self-assessment that made Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige compliment Wan’s DC movie by calling it “James Cameroonian.”

But even flathead screwdrivers can save worlds, as one bittersweet flashback makes clear. As with all Joseph Campbell-certified Fated-for-Great-Things heroes with mythically resonant first names such as Luke or Neo or Rey or Percival? Boadicea? Seigfried? Shazam! sorry: It’s hard to keep track after 11 years of Marvel Studios movies and six decades of DC ones Arthur must first retrieve a sacred relic from a monster-guarded place, in this case the trident of Atlan the Dead King from an undersea desert guarded by zombies.

The movie is too long and kind of repetitive (like most big-budget superhero movies), and the second half is more interesting than the first simply because it lets its freak flag fly. But still, Wan and company do a terrific job shaking off the algae from cliches. Instead of getting bogged down in plot details, they concentrate on characterization and performances, production design, costumes the look, the feel, the vibe of it all.

Every frame has such marvelous detail that you might not even catch it all on first viewing. The Atlanteans use their mouths to speak but there are no visible bubbles; just vocal distortion that suggests “bubbly ness.” When characters aren’t swimming at dolphin speeds they square off as if they’re standing on a sidewalk, bobbing ever so slightly. Lighting for the water dwellers is supplied by luminous deep-sea creatures; high technology is inspired by aquatic animals and plants; some of the battle armor features oversized crab and lobster claws; in one scene Mera wears a dress with a collar made of glowing jellyfish and a multicolored seagrass skirt you get it.

In an arena sequence we hear taiko drumming on the soundtrack while the camera moves to reveal a lone percussionist: a giant octopus. The fight sequences use 360-degree camerawork that’s so fast it creates surprise and delight rather than superfluous hype; we’re constantly surprised by where movements start and end, and there are multiple slapstick jokes woven into each encounter.

“Aquaman” embraces the childlike absurdity of armored Atlantean troopers coming up onto land and martial-arts-fighting their enemies in broad daylight presenting this mayhem as matter of factly as any kung-fu showdown from “Infra-man” or “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers” but instead of cross-cutting between multiple lines of action, the camera sometimes swims or flies from one location to another and back, most spectacularly in a chase-and-fight sequence set in a Sicilian seaside town, where combatants smash through walls of cliffside homes and scramble over tiled rooftops.

Momoa anchors the film, imbuing the big guy with surly charm he’s like one of those early Marlon Brando characters who was a jerk most of the time but so magnetic and wounded that you couldn’t help but care about him. The rest of the cast is just as committed, notably Kidman as Atlanna, who carries on as if she’s playing the lead in an ancient Greek tragedy; Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as David Kane, aka Black Manta, a pirate who swears revenge on our hero; and Willem Dafoe as Atlantis’ counselor Vulko, who advises caution and reason to no avail, and is like a second (aquatic) father to Arthur.

But the most remarkable aspect of “Aquaman” is the way it pushes back against the idea that every problem can be solved by violence. There are plenty of bruising fights on land and sea plus laser shootouts and aquatic infantry clashes but some of the most important showdowns are resolved peacefully, through conversation, negotiation or forgiveness.

Men cry in this movie too. And women. And when they do it’s not treated as a shameful loss of dignity but simply regarded as what happens when people feel pain or joy too deeply. For all its wild spectacle and cartoon cleverness including one villain whose helmet might have been designed by Dr. Seuss during his steampunk period this is an unusually quiet movie in spots; subversive even; evolutionary for its genre certainly.

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