I watched Aquaman 2 so you don't have to *minor spoilers*

To get the elephant out of the room faster, yes Amber Heard is still in the movie but her role got reduced down significantly, which made for some really awkward moments where she was suppose to talk but either they had another character say her line or she was just awkwardly silent.

Now with that out of the way, I might as well post all the positives first before I get super negative about it because it's pretty bad. The CGI is better than your average MCU movie, some of the fight chereography were well done, I chuckled at some scenes, the actors and actresses in the movie were giving it there all (even hammying it up), and finally I do appreciate that this movie tones down on its humor and only does it when it's appropriate. I'm so sick of MCU humor of "omg, did you just see what I see?" with it's "observational humor" and always constantly undercutting it's serious moments. This movie, at least, doesn't do that which is an honest nice change of pace.

As you can tell I dug deep in trying to nitpick and find anything I liked about the movie because holy shit, three words that best describe this movie: lame, boring, and uninspired. If you have super hero fatigue, this movie will not cure it. If you hate the MCU plot formula, this movie follows it to a T. And somehow, this movie is more boring than the first one, I didn't know that was even possible. This movie tries really hard to build a bonding relationship with Aquaman and his brother and it just falls flat. And they somehow made a really cool villain like Black Manta even more lame than he was from the first movie. Overall, nothing worked in this movie.

My friend was with me, the one who watched 2 test screenings for the movie, and he confirmed that Mera had a much bigger role in the movie the first time he watched it. The movie is much closer to how he saw it the second time, where the focus was on Aquaman and his Brother relationship as oppose to it being about Aquaman and Mera trying to balance their life of taking care of the baby while ruling Atlantis at the same time. From my friends opinion, the first test screening had a better more concise story, but was overall still a bad movie. I personally give it a 3.5/10, you have to turn your brain off and then throw it out of the window to truly enjoy it.

Prestoff posted...

To get the elephant out of the room faster, yes Amber Heard is still in the movie but her role got reduced down significantly, which made for some really awkward moments where she was suppose to talk but either they had another character say her line or she was just awkwardly silent.

But what about the real elephant in the room: Does Black Manta kill the baby?

The first one was poop and this one seems no different.

AlveinFencer posted...

But what about the real elephant in the room: Does Black Manta kill the baby?

Funny enough, my friend heard that in one of the other test screenings for this movie, there was a version where Black Manta does in fact kill the baby. And through all the movie magic BS, they did manage to ressurect the baby. Test audiences hated it soo much, that could explain why they changed that.

Prestoff posted...

And through all the movie magic BS, they did manage to ressurect the baby. Test audiences hated it soo much, that could explain why they changed that.

I think audiences are starting to tire of child immortality in movies, where even if a kid dies they're just going to pull something out their ass for a resurrection.

Only wanted to see because I also think Black Manta is a really sick villain. But here you say he is lame! Tragedy!

Drunk_Cobra posted...

Only wanted to see because I also think Black Manta is a really sick villain. But here you say he is lame! Tragedy!

They could've done soo much with him, but he's basically a "MCU throwaway villain" tier. If I didn't know Black Manta as a character, I would've immediately forgot about him.

So Aquaman's brother killed countless people in the first movie and wanted to kill the entire surface world...and now Aquaman is bonding with him?

Prestoff posted...

I personally give it a 3.5/10, you have to turn your brain off and then throw it out of the window to truly enjoy it.

Sounds like it indeed.

Charged151 posted...

So Aquaman's brother killed countless people in the first movie and wanted to kill the entire surface world...and now Aquaman is bonding with him?

Sounds like it indeed.

To be fair, it started out as "my brother is the only person that would know where Black Manta is because he worked for him in the first movie". My friend said that in the first test screening he went to, Aquaman's brother does "betray" him at the end of the movie and he ultimately does get killed off while Black Manta's character does get saved with Aquaman apologizing for killing and being so cold hearted against his dad. In the newer movie, the opposite is true. Aquaman's brother gets "redeemed" by Aquaman letting him go into hiding and Black Manta's character dies off because he refuses to get saved by Aquaman. My friend says both times he watched the test screening, it was still a bad movie but the first test screening honestly sounded like a better movie, because the concentration was more on Aquaman and Mera's relationship as oppose to Aquaman and his brothers. It doesn't really make much sense for the brother to get a redemption story because of all the shit he did in the first movie and got changed that way because of the Deep vs Heard trial.

Charged151 posted...

So Aquaman's brother killed countless people in the first movie and wanted to kill the entire surface world...and now Aquaman is bonding with him?

Tbf Loki go the same treatment in the MCU

Charged151 posted...

So Aquaman's brother killed countless people in the first movie and wanted to kill the entire surface world...and now Aquaman is bonding with him?

Loki.jpg

Crimsoness posted...

Tbf Loki go the same treatment in the MCU

I mean... I didn't like Loki's situation either. I'd also argue he was never redeemed.

Unmarked spoilers below.

He killed countless people in the service of Thanos and before in Thor 1.

Loki being let out of jail by Thor in Thor 2 led to Loki deposing Odin and ultimately led to Hela being released (prematurely) in Thor 3, leading to the death of Asgard.

Heck, only reason he helped Thor in Thor 2 was to avenge his mother who died because of Loki. In Thor 3, he tried to stab Thor in the back multiple times, even if it was mostly played for comedy. Still mostly comes off as a villain who swiped the Space Stone when it was convenient.

Then Thor 3 ended and he was headed off to Earth with Thor. I see no scenario where he would not end up in a place like the Raft after heading Thanos's alien invasion in the first Avengers movie considering people like Zemo end up there for far less. Of course, Thanos got to him first and we never got to see that realized.

As for the Disney+ Loki who exists due to the time heist in Avengers Endgame, I've only seen Season 1, but he wasn't redeemed in any way there. Instead, he was mostly paling around with the Female Variant of himself, Sylvie, who like himself also was a villain who by killing He Who Remains, unleashed many variants of Kang on the Marvel Multiverse.

So yeah, I still consider Loki (all variants for what it is worth, although particularly the first Loki and Sylvie) a villain.