This Monday, Warner Bros. surprised everyone when they dropped the teaser trailer for Aquaman 2. The movie is set to debut in theatres in less than 100 days and we had no official footage from the film until this week. The teaser barely had any material. It was simply an announcement video for the upcoming trailer. The studio faced immense backlash for this as fans were angry that Warner Bros. has “released a trailer for a trailer”. Even director James Wan jokingly agreed to the ridiculous marketing strategy of the studio. Well, 4 days have passed and as the teaser promised we have the official trailer of Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. This marks the end of fans’ months long wait. One can celebrate the new trailer but I fail to see anything special in the upcoming Aquaman sequel.
The Aquaman 2 Trailer Introduces The Black Trident!
I think we can all admit that the Aquaman 2 trailer is a compilation video on everything wrong with the superhero genre. To start off with, the trailer’s tone tells us exactly what to expect from the film – unnecessary humor that puts the stakes to shame. Another trope that the Aquaman sequel adopts similar to other movies belonging to its genre are the horrible visual effects. I remember writing that the teaser offered some beautiful visuals which keeps my hopes alive for the DC flick.
Well, whatever hopes I had from Aquaman 2 are all shattered thanks to the trailer. The film looks so cartoonish. You can easily distinguish the difference between real locations and CGI backdrops. The visuals almost feels soft. The crispness of reality is missing from the film. If you’re going to make a film about underwater adventures then make an Avatar 2, otherwise don’t make one. The last thing I found problematic in the film is the plot. The first film had a Lost Trident and this time we have a Lost Kingdom.
Just like the first film Jason Momoa’s Aquaman will team up with one of the supporting actors (Patrick Wilson’s Orm) and go on an archeological exploration where he’d find some ancient relic which will help him defeat Yahya Abdul Mateen II’s Black Manta. This is just getting out of hand now. Not only is the sequel too similar to the first film but also to many other films. There is nothing that the sequel tries to offer us which is truly new. It is a repackaged product with bits and pieces of the other superhero films that only exists so Warner Bros. can mint another billion dollars.
What hurts the most is this is a James Wan directorial. He is one of my favorite directors of all time. The man is genius behind the camera. I never want to criticize any film that has his name on it. Unfortunately, Wan has become a puppet to the cruel co-operate system of Warner Bros. Hopefully his next venture will be an absolute banger.
Watch the full trailer for Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom on YouTube:
Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom is slated to release in theatres on 20th December 2023.
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