Aquaman Early Reviews: DC's Latest is Messy, Weird & Lots of Fun

The first reviews are in for James Wan's Aquaman movie. The DC Extended Universe (as it's unofficially known) kicked off in 2013 with Man of Steel, but is only now beginning to really focus on solo character adventures. That's not to say the franchise is leaving team-up movies behind; Birds of Prey is coming out in 2020, after all. Nevertheless, following the success of last year's Wonder Woman, solo movies featuring Aquaman and Shazam! have made their way down the pipeline, and films for characters like Batgirl are beginning to move forward again.

Up first, of course, is Aquaman, which follows Arthur Curry (Jason Momoa, reprising his Justice League role) on a journey to claim his birthright as the King of Atlantis and prevent war between the ocean's seven kingdoms and those who dwell on-land. Early reactions to Aquaman have been positive overall and painted the film as being a fun (if overstuffed) and unapologetically goofy swash-buckling fantasy adventure. Now, it's time for the professional critics to have their say on the matter.

Directed by Wan, the Aquaman cast includes Amber Heard (also reprising her Justice League role) as Mera, Patrick Wilson as Orm (Arthur's half-brother), Willem Dafoe as Arthur's mentor Nuidis Vulko, and Nicole Kidman and Temuera Morrison as Arthur's Atlantean mother and human father, respectively. To find out what critics thinks of the film, read on for spoiler-free excerpts from the first wave of Aquamanreviews. To read the full reviews, just click on the corresponding links.

Ultimately, Aquaman is a superhero origin story that separates itself from the rest of the Worlds of DC movies as much as possible - but not in a way that disparages the work of the directors who came before Wan. Instead, Aquaman stands on its own feet in a way that reflects Arthur's own journey of coming into his own as a superhero, separate from the other heroes of the land.

Your enjoyment of director James Wan's Aquaman will likely be defined by your expectations. It’s far from a perfect film, but it's so joyful and fun that you’d have to be in a really bad mood not to find something that’ll make you involuntarily clip your hands. Whether it’s the stunning underwater sequences and locations, Nicole Kidman and Amber Heard’s scene-stealing performances or Jason Momoa’s never-ending swagger, this movie is a crowd-pleaser.

Wan manages to marry Arthurian fantasy and swashbuckling adventure with camp in Aquaman, a film that feels a little like a miracle in Warner Bros.’ catalogue of superhero movies. Left to its own devices and mostly unconnected from the films that came before it, Aquaman is one of the weirdest, oddball blockbuster superhero movies ever.