So it’s finally come to this; The DC Extended Universe is dead in the water.

Speaking of water, it’s tragically ironic that this cinematic universe’s final bow is taken with an overdue sequel to its most commercially successful offering, 2018’s Aquaman. Following suit from the previous three DCEU movies that released in 2023 (wow), Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom also doesn’t appear poised to recoup its production budget. Many will be quick to blame that oft-sensationalized superhero fatigue (a myth, for the most part, as streaming data, third-party offerings, non-cinematic mediums and other such metrics out of 2023 can attest), but it probably didn’t help that the fledgling DC Studios’ new co-head, James Gunn immediately promised a full universal reboot that would ultimately see the DCEU scrapped entirely, and replaced with the brand new ‘DCU’ continuity. It’s kind of hard to invest in a multiversal-scale DCEU movie like The Flash, for example (originally planned as the reset vehicle that would launch the DCU, before DC Studios even ended up scrapping that plan, following The Flash’s box office failure), when you know going in that none of it is going to matter in the end.

Gunn’s arguably premature DCU announcement thus left Warner Bros. Discovery in their latest tumultuous spot when it comes to trying to wrangle a shared, live-action DC franchise. The result is WBD essentially abandoning the DCEU as soon as Gunn and fellow DC Studios CEO, Peter Safran took charge in late 2022, and got to work on a rebooted, centralized DC media universe. This corporate desertion of the DCEU came complete with limited marketing for its four remaining 2023 movies, further dragged down by a year full of entertainment industry strikes. Truly, that’s the kind of bad luck that only Warner Bros. and its constant corporate upheaval can deliver.

What was I talking about? Oh yeah, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. As you can see, the saga surrounding this unintentional final chapter for the DCEU is much more interesting than this sequel itself, with Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom trading its 2018 predecessor’s incredible ambition and scope for a watered-down (pun not intended), boilerplate superhero buddy comedy that’s serviceable, and instantly forgettable. Even more inexplicable is the fact that Warner Bros. Discovery clearly meddled with the final product of Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom throughout, as many of its subplots appear hastily resolved, Amber Heard’s scenes have been blatantly hacked out wherever possible, and most confusing of all, the movie’s main tie-in song is Steppenwolf’s, “Born to be Wild.” Yes, seriously. That by itself is the most plain, depressing evidence that Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom just gave up on whatever it truly wanted to be, shiftlessly leading the DCEU into its grave with a total lack of enthusiasm, and even less dignity.

2018’s original Aquaman was capped off with protagonist, Arthur Curry triumphantly defeating his ruthless half-brother, Orm, a.k.a. Ocean Master, and realizing his destiny as the ruler of undersea kingdom, Atlantis. This is helpfully and cheekily recapped at the very start of Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, as Arthur cheerfully recounts the highlight moments of the first Aquaman movie to his new, bouncing baby boy, Arthur Jr. Then the baby pisses in Arthur’s mouth, twice. That should tell you where Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom’s narrative priorities are at pretty early on.

Like an apathetic exiting employee, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom approaches its otherwise world-scale conflict like a middle manager that just found out their office is going to be shut down in a month; It still shows up to work, but it’s completely checked out, doing the bare minimum, and just hoping that it doesn’t have to answer any questions before it can leave. I guess through existing as another mostly disconnected DCEU addition, much like its 2018 predecessor, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom at least avoids the pretense of setting up future storylines in this dead cinematic universe, a courtesy that Shazam! Fury of the Gods, The Flash and Blue Beetle didn’t see fit to extend across their own thoroughly pointless post-credits scenes earlier in 2023. At least I can somewhat forgive Blue Beetle there, since it was originally positioned as the DCU’s retroactive first movie, only for DC Studios to ultimately backpedal, and make it just another DCEU dead end once Blue Beetle also failed to make any money at the box office.

“Even Arthur himself too often feels bored with his own sophomore solo adventure in this sequel.”

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom meanwhile had clearly gotten the memo before its release. Even Arthur himself too often feels bored with his own sophomore solo adventure in this sequel. He simply decides that being King of Atlantis sucks, and he’d rather joke around with his infant son, and presumably party it up on the surface. This not only negates most, if not all of Arthur’s character journey from the first Aquaman movie, but also from throughout the DCEU as a whole. Say what you will about the DCEU’s many abandoned projects, but at least its other flagship heroes nonetheless saw some growth across the movies we did get; Henry Cavill’s Superman found his confidence amid a wave of existential controversy, Ben Affleck’s Batman found happiness and faith in humanity as part of a team, Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman learned to bury her grief over her lost WWI-era love, Ezra Miller’s Flash gained maturity and family closure after learning not to meddle with time, and even Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn became a more self-assured, independent anti-hero. Sure, Arthur has a baby and a crown now, but even by the end of Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, he’s still the same cranky, drunk frat boy that he was when he first sauntered into a central DCEU role within 2017’s Justice League.

Thus, with no ability to achieve true character growth in this sequel (not that it would matter anyway), Arthur is simply left to bumble around, being a reluctant hero on a mission to clean up a mess that he inadvertently caused, namely through the rise of David Kane/Black Manta as his archenemy. Does Arthur learn a lesson from this climactic battle with Black Manta? Does he take any responsibility for his indirect murder of Black Manta’s father, as depicted during the first Aquaman movie? Does he ultimately influence the wider world in any meaningful way? Nope! Instead, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom leaves Arthur to trudge through an adventure that should be grand and impactful, but instead unfolds like just another day at the office; An office that Arthur and co. don’t even seem at all thrilled to be a part of.

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom frequently lets down its lead hero, and its lead villain for that matter. This is especially frustrating when you see that director, James Wan’s impeccable undersea world building remains a highlight in this sequel, even when the rest of the production feels like it’s phoning it in.

If nothing else, Warner Bros. Discovery saw fit to leave both the foundational story treatment, and the visual-heavy set pieces of Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom alone. That’s a plus, since several of the more inspired elements behind Jason Momoa’s proposed story treatment, and James Wan’s ambitious world design, managed to survive a heavily compromised DCEU sequel that must now double as an abrupt finale for this cinematic universe. While Warner Bros. sadly axed Wan’s awesome-sounding Aquaman horror spin-off, The Trench as well, a movie that presumably would have filled in a lot of blanks surrounding how Black Manta amassed the staggering resources he wields in this sequel (Black Manta was supposed to be the main protagonist of The Trench), at least some of that cancelled spin-off’s ideas possibly could have made it into a couple of highlight scenes in Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, from blood-feeding prison wardens, to a seedy, violent ocean floor den that basically functions as an underwater Mos Eisley.

The amazing imagination behind so much of the first Aquaman movie’s world and character design nonetheless feels like it was cut in half in this sequel though. Black Manta suffers most on this note, left to function as a patsy for the evil Black Trident, a convenient macguffin that might as well be a One Ring for underwater Sauron. This completely strips away all of the depth and nuance that has defined numerous battles between Aquaman and Black Manta throughout decades of DC Comics lore, creating a sequel antagonist that’s far more plot device than true villain.

This is perhaps an unintended side effect of Jason Momoa’s foundational story pitch for this sequel as well, namely that it’s a very blatant commentary on a rather timely real-world issue; The ongoing climate crisis. Momoa’s original idea was for Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom to not even feature a villain, and merely be about Arthur’s mission to unite Atlantis with the surface, so they could all work together to combat climate change. I can see why Warner Bros. Discovery insisted on making Black Manta a catalyst within this climate storyline though, both because it otherwise would have had Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom more openly copying Marvel Studios’ Black Panther movies, and because a movie about circular arguing and climate policy would have undeniably been very boring, on top of likely feeling like an overwrought lecture to the audience.

With the collapsing DCEU leaving this sequel as the old DC regime’s last movie standing however, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom ultimately suffers from the opposite problem in its final product; It waters down its climate change commentary so heavily that a fittingly hopeful message is hastily relegated to a quick ending speech, while Black Manta’s climate-heating plot is purely pushed forward by fictional myths and monsters. Had its climate-themed conflict been more grounded, and Black Manta’s character made more effectively humanized, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom could have been a surprisingly hard-hitting DCEU climax, even if it couldn’t set up any future projects in this aborted cinematic universe.

Sadly, that’s not the movie we got in the end. Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom is ultimately more aimless than a bored housewife on a pool floaty. It can still be a good-looking, semi-fun superhero adventure at its best, but too often, there’s just nothing behind all of the empty gloss, particularly when the original Aquaman aimed so much higher with its depiction of a hidden underwater world that refused to deal with us filthy surface humans.

On account of having to largely sideline its female lead, following Amber Heard’s highly-publicized court battle against her ex, Johnny Depp, and the uncomfortable revelations it brought to life regarding Heard’s character, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom leans heavily into its themes of fatherhood and brotherhood. Maybe this was always the plan, but it’s hard not to get the impression that it’s a natural reaction from having to cut most of Mera’s scenes.

Instead of maintaining that Arthur/Mera rapport from the first movie then, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom instead employs a faithful superhero sequel story device that’s been thriving since Blade II and X2: X-Men United at the turn of the millennium; The hero must form an uneasy alliance with the villain or villain faction of the previous movie, in order to stop a larger threat to both of them. To that end, with no other way to combat Black Manta and his Black Trident powers (supposedly), Arthur has no choice but to bust his power-hungry half-brother, Orm out of prison.

“Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom is ultimately more aimless than a bored housewife on a pool floaty.”

What follows is a studio-approved, Lethal Weapon-style mission to save the environment from an increasingly revenge-obsessed Black Manta, who is building climate-devastating weapons using ancient metal, Orichalcum. This means a lot of bickering, a lot of uncomfortable banter during action scenes, and a not-so-surprising reconciliation effort between Arthur and Orm. I suppose this is a decent way to leverage Patrick Wilson’s considerable charm as a renewed anti-hero, while also effectively playing off of Momoa’s half-breed frat boy schtick as this movie’s eponymous hero, something that does admittedly evolve the strained dynamic between these two half-siblings.

This central sibling rivalry also, surprisingly, ends up being one of the strongest story elements behind Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, even if the uneasy hero/villain alliance between brothers feels doubly cliched in a sophomore superhero movie. Still, I suppose that the Arthur/Orm bickering is no more cliched than the rest of what happens throughout Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. From that perspective, Momoa’s and Wilson’s respective delivery does build some solid jokes, and lend itself to some genuinely fun action scenes. Like I said, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom is at least glossy enough to pass muster as a disposable superhero blockbuster. It just falls so short of the lofty ambitions behind its much more impressive 2018 predecessor.

(NOTE: The ‘spoiler’ section, when clicked, discusses whether Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom has any post-credits scenes, whether it features any additional DC characters of note, and whether it sets up any future projects within the DCU.)

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom is a middling, disappointingly forgettable conclusion to director, James Wan’s Aquaman movies, and the respectable ten-year run of the DC Extended Universe. This studio-tampered sequel hovers slightly off the back of its strong sibling rivalry between Arthur and Orm at least, as well as some more decent worldbuilding from the imagination of its director. With many of its best moments and commentary no doubt lost on the cutting room floor however, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom merely shuffles on as a passing distraction, and a final shrug from a dying cinematic universe that never figured out a true path for itself.

So far, we don’t even know if an inevitably-recast Aquaman is planned to be a part of DC Studios’ rebooted, all-new DCU to come, even as rumours swirl that Jason Momoa will be given a new role within it as spacefaring bounty hunter, Lobo. Despite Momoa’s Aquaman not ultimately realizing the full potential of his DCEU saga however, it’s worth remembering just how much Momoa and Wan accomplished in service to this character. Even in a lesser sequel, Momoa’s Aquaman is at least a strong, appeaing hero, built from a DC Comics personality that was often considered to be a joke, and a relic of the campy earlier days of the comic book industry. If nothing else, the DCEU finally made Aquaman cool, and we can always be thankful for that.

I guess all that’s left then is to pour one out for the poor old DCEU. It had lots of ups and downs, with outstanding gems like Wonder Woman. Shazam! and The Suicide Squad, along with fumbles like Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Justice League and The Flash. I’ll say this; The DCEU always kept it interesting. Too bad Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom wasn’t a very interesting conclusion for it all.