Geekery: 5 Minute ‘Aquaman’ Preview Dropped at NYCC
Watch as Arthur Curry and Mera receive a message from Atlantis in the largest desert on Earth. There’s also never before seen footage in this extended sneak peek of the undersea kingdom, Black Manta, Queen Atlanna, and some frenetic action scenes.
Jason Mamoa’s take on Aquaman was one of the better parts of Justice League. There has been some hope for his solo film because of that and some shifts in the production team, but the hype just doesn’t seem to be there for it. This new footage doesn’t really help. Momoa continues to look awesome as the character, and does a decent job at making him just enough of a smart ass that’s navigating a new universe. That’s not enough to carry such an ambitious movie, though.
The story presented, again, feels stale because the film studio is behind the curve. We’ll see if director James Wan (Saw, The Conjuring, Insidious) and the writer’s room behind the script can pull something interesting out of story about a guy of secret origins that doesn’t exactly want to rule a kingdom, but takes the task on anyway and grows into a great ruler via struggle.
The other big take away from this look is that while Zack Snyder is not attached to it, the movie is definitely going to feature DC’s ubiquitous rough looking CG. That’s not great news for a movie that’s going to be spending a lot of time in an under water fantasy kingdom.
Momoa is joined by Amber Heard as Mera, Willem Dafoe as Vulko, Temuera Morrison as Tom Curry, Dolph Lundgren as Nereus, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as Black Manta, Patrick Wilson as Orm/Ocean Master, and Nicole Kidman as Atlanna.
Aquaman swims into theaters December 21.
