Like most of you, I was looking forward to finally getting a good look at James Wan’s Aquaman at SDCC. Then the trailer finally dropped and, well, it was okay, I guess. Perhaps it was a little overeager to please us with its cool one liners and epic shots, but it just looked like a slightly damp and less interesting version of Black Panther.
Now that the studio have firmed up their plans for the DCEU, though – sorry, Worlds of DC – the pressure has eased a little on Aquaman, but it still remains a key release on Warner Bros.’ superhero slate. I mean, who knows what effect one more high profile flop might have on the company?
So, perhaps hoping to keep whatever interest they drummed up last weekend going, the studio’s now released six hi-res photos from the trailer for you to feast your eyes on. Seen below, they show off Jason Momoa’s Aquaman being sassy to some submariners, him looking all serious at something, Nicole Kidman giving Temuera Morrison the ol’ googly eyes, Patrick Wilson as baddie Ocean Master, Amber Heard as the flame-haired Mera and, in what I’ll admit is a pretty cool shot, a load of underwater soldiers atop battle Great White Sharks.
Still, I can’t help but feel like there was a lot of overfamiliarity in that trailer. While the tale of a prince returning to seize the crown from an evil usurper is pretty much as old as fiction itself, it’s also something we’ve seen quite a lot of in superhero movies of late. As mentioned above, Black Panther took us to a hitherto unknown techno-magical kingdom with strange rules of succession, but Thor: The Dark World and Thor: Ragnarok both got their teeth into regal power struggles in strange kingdoms.
I want to be convinced that Aquaman is going to bring something new to the table. Really, I do. But at least right now, I fear that it’s going to be yet another DC washout. Do you agree? Let us know in the comments section down below.
