Warner Bros. are desperate for James Wan’s Aquaman to be a hit. Their high profile mismanaging and interference with Justice League, which resulted in an underperforming and deeply underwhelming final product, put one hell of a dent in their reputation. As such, they’ll be hoping that Wan can capture some of the thrills that made Wonder Woman such a success. This means it’s hardly a surprise to hear Warner Bros. Film Chief Toby Emmerich, whose job may well depend on this pic striking gold, saying that he thinks Aquaman is great.
He made the comments to Variety in a recent interview, explaining the following:
“James created a totally original underwater universe. Just as Patty Jenkins did with Themyscira, James’ Atlantis is cool and compelling — unlike any world we’ve seen on film before, in a superhero movie or any other.”
“It’s not too hot or too cold — [Wan] struck a great balance between fun and jeopardy, edge and wonder, comedy and tragedy.”
I’m going to guess that Atlantis will be a teeny bit like a world we’ve see on film before, as we’ve already seen it in Justice League. And as for that second comment? Well, in my eyes it just makes the movie sound a bit bland. What does it even mean for a film to be balanced between edge and wonder?
Listen, I don’t want to be too harsh on Aquaman. Jason Momoa’s take on the character was one of the few unambiguously good things about Justice League and I have a lot of respect for James Wan as a director after his work on The Conjuring films and Furious 7. Still, the trailer they released at SDCC was very underwhelming, especially next to what we saw of Shazam!
Will audiences really go for an Aquaman solo movie, or could this be yet another high profile calamity for the embattled studio? We’ll find out on December 21st, when it swims (or flops) into cinemas.