Movie Review: "Aquaman" Swims in His Jeans

I repeat: Aquaman swims in his jeans.

That’s not a joke. It’s not a pun. It’s not a metaphor. It’s not a double entendre. If anything, it’s a public service announcement. Arthur Curry, the half-man half-fishgod known in DC Comics as Aquaman and played in James Wan’s film by Jason Momoa, swims in denim bootcut jeans.

And not merely jeans, either. He charges through the water at immense speed with no shirt and a pair of jeans held up by a belt, latched with a giant buckle, and a pair of leather shoes on his unflippered feet.

Late in the flick, he gets a proper swimming outfit comprised of a gold chest plate and scaled leggings. And at one point, he dives into the sea wearing a loose linen pant. It’s never remarked upon.

I don’t raise this to mock Wan’s attention to detail, or to comment on the suspension of our disbelief at his many fantastical visual wonders, or to compliment the buckwild costume design. It’s just… it’s all I can think about. Which, I suppose, tells you all you really need to know about Aquaman.

We first met Momoa’s Arthur Curry in Justice League, and once again, it’s his charisma that keeps this thing afloat. At the start of the picture, we learn how he came to be, thanks to the underwater queen of Atlantis, Atlanna (Nicole Kidman), making it with a normie named Thomas (Temuera Morrison) on land. Atlanna is arrested for betraying her species, leaving Thomas to raise their son alone. Good-hearted and swole, Arthur grows up to be the seafaring vigilante dubbed "by social media" as "Aquaman". But if this were real and social media had really been responsible for christening him, we’d all be calling him "Sea Zaddy".

Anyway, Sea Zaddy is summoned by Atlantis’ own Mera (Amber Heard) to challenge his estranged brother Orm (Patrick Wilson) for the kingdom’s crown and keep him from waging war. Down in the water, Orm is demanding people call him "Ocean Master", the only title less intimidating than "Aquaman". When he first says it, Rupert Gregson-Williams’ score drops a literal "bum-bum-buuum", and you get an inkling that director Wan is having a bit of fun here, even if screenwriters David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick and Will Beall are largely playing it straight (save for a few winking lines of dialogue for Momoa).

To defeat Orm, Arthur and Mera have to find a magical trident, and so begins nearly an hour of thumb-twiddling, beginning in the Sahara and leading them to Sicily, which is at least interrupted by a brilliantly playful foot chase. Really though, you’re just waiting for the wild final act, when Wan and his screenwriters fully embrace the Totally Metal promise of this Aquaman concept, and we get to witness Arthur fighting fishmonsters and Mera straddling an Orca as she rides into a psychedelic subaquatic battle. It’s great fun, finally.

Wan’s depiction of Arthur’s nautical powers—speaking to creatures; breathing underwater; jeans-swimming—and his sunken kingdom of Atlantis is cheerfully cartoonish, making Aquaman the acceptable amount of silly for a movie called Aquaman. Sure, it doesn’t hit the heights of modern DC standard bearer Wonder Woman, but it blazes a new trail in heavy bathing suit attire.

3/5

In Australian cinemas Boxing Day. Rated M for fantasy violence.

Header Image: Warner Bros. Pictures