Post by Spooky Ghost Ackbar on Dec 16, 2019 19:35:39 GMT
This has probably all been said before, but I rewatched AQUAMAN last night and got to thinking about why it doesn't really work for me. The conclusion I came to is this...
Aquaman wants to be about two things at once: Stopping Orm, King of Atlantis from attacking the surface. And Arthur becoming king himself.
To do this, the stories merge, becoming Aquaman must stop Orm's attack by becoming king himself.
This doesn't work. It would be like telling the story of an American becoming the leader of China to prevent China's current leader from attacking the US. He doesn't know the people, the culture or the society. And he only spends a day there in captivity. It makes no sense.
But that's not all. It also wants to be about finding a mythical artifact in the Trident. Now, this plot line could have easily merged with the initial one of stopping Orm: Arthur must recover the Trident to stop Orm's attack while Orm also must recover it to launch the attack. In this version, not only does Arthur's quest make sense, he is also in direct competition with the villain. Raiders of the Lost Ark works so well because Indy is in direct competition with the villains. Here, the villains don't even know Arthur is looking for the Trident.
The story results in a muddled Act Three where Arthur already has the Trident and Orm isn't even Ocean Master yet. Where's this dreaded attack on the surface? Shouldn't Orm be at full power here with the stakes high because that long hyped attack is in progress? Nope. Just a big ugly battle of cgi monsters that means nothing.
In the end this movie falls flat because it tries to pack a whole trilogy into one movie. They really should've saved the Arthur Becomes King story for the sequel.
Its still endlessly amazing to me that professional screenwriters, directors and studio execs can miss such glaring story issues in such major blockbuster movies.
Aquaman wants to be about two things at once: Stopping Orm, King of Atlantis from attacking the surface. And Arthur becoming king himself.
To do this, the stories merge, becoming Aquaman must stop Orm's attack by becoming king himself.
This doesn't work. It would be like telling the story of an American becoming the leader of China to prevent China's current leader from attacking the US. He doesn't know the people, the culture or the society. And he only spends a day there in captivity. It makes no sense.
But that's not all. It also wants to be about finding a mythical artifact in the Trident. Now, this plot line could have easily merged with the initial one of stopping Orm: Arthur must recover the Trident to stop Orm's attack while Orm also must recover it to launch the attack. In this version, not only does Arthur's quest make sense, he is also in direct competition with the villain. Raiders of the Lost Ark works so well because Indy is in direct competition with the villains. Here, the villains don't even know Arthur is looking for the Trident.
The story results in a muddled Act Three where Arthur already has the Trident and Orm isn't even Ocean Master yet. Where's this dreaded attack on the surface? Shouldn't Orm be at full power here with the stakes high because that long hyped attack is in progress? Nope. Just a big ugly battle of cgi monsters that means nothing.
In the end this movie falls flat because it tries to pack a whole trilogy into one movie. They really should've saved the Arthur Becomes King story for the sequel.
Its still endlessly amazing to me that professional screenwriters, directors and studio execs can miss such glaring story issues in such major blockbuster movies.