The new Aquaman movie is still over a month away from hitting North American cinemas, but for audiences in China, Arthur Curry’s solo debut will be arriving as soon December 7th. Moreover, in anticipation of this launch, some fans got an early look at the James Wan-helmed film, and for the most part, the responses are pretty promising.
Gavin Feng took to Twitter to report on reactions to a 25-minute preview screening in Beijing, and while this footage doesn’t sound like it had a lot of plot to offer, viewers were apparently treated to some compelling action that’s earned comparisons to both Lord of the Rings and The Matrix:
“Warner Bros. China showed 25 mins footage of Aquaman in Beijing premiere. All those are action scenes, so it’s hard to say how narration is. But the fight is really good. The best reaction I’ve seen so far is James Wan give audience the LOTR & The Matrix level battle.”
Given the fragile state of the DCEU right now, this film could use all the positive buzz it can get, but going by another of Feng’s tweets, Wan’s direction is already earning some converts.
“A media friend said he loved the tone, ‘so dark on the ground but so bright in the sea. James Wan is the man who saves DC universe.’”
Of course, no film’s going to please everyone, and Feng also spoke of at least one detractor. It seems that this particular viewer didn’t care much for the trailer either, so perhaps you can judge for yourself whether his warning is worth heeding.
“Saw a guy who pointed out the negative side he thought: CGI could have been better. He is not very satisfied with what trailer showed but the footage didn’t make much difference.”
In any case, the preview seems to have left most of its viewers feeling pretty satisfied, and what’s more, this isn’t the only good omen that Aquaman has received in these last couple of weeks. Earlier this month, for example, a handful of responses to the first screenings of the Jason Momoa-led flick surfaced online and gave us plenty of reasons to be optimistic, with several social media users praising the work as the DCEU’s best entry to date. So despite the less-than-dazzling opening weekend previously predicted for the film, Momoa and Wan may be able to follow through with those sequel plans after all.
We’ll see if the DCEU’s Atlantis warrants any future visits when Aquaman hits North American theaters on December 21st.
