Nautical By Nature

After Making A Splash In Justice League, Jason Momoa Dives Back Into The Dc Universe With December’s Aquaman. Featuring A Fantastical Atlantis And Sharks In Armor, This Stand-alone Movie Looks Anything But Watered Down.

- James Hibberd

A SHIRTLESS, WET, TOWERING, GLISTENING JASON MOMOA strides through the dim corridor of a hijacked Russian submarine, pummeling villainous pirates, his every Hawaiian punch a tidal wave of cresting muscle and long, black, whip-snap hair. He’s a chiseled boulder rolling over the bad guys, until one foolishly dares to hit him back. Momoa pauses, and gives the pirate an amused look, like: Really? And you brace for what Aquaman does next.

Watching this sequence in an editing room on the Warner Bros. studio lot, the first thought that comes to mind is: This actually looks…really good.

“Were you a little bit surprised?” Momoa asks later, an amused gleam in his eye.

The actor says this because he knows—because everybody knows— that Aquaman, a.k.a. Arthur Curry, is still toweling off a few drops of skepticism. Sure, Momoa’s grunge-buff tattooed Aquaman worked in last fall’s Justice League, but it’s still unclear if the character can carry his own movie.

For so long Aquaman was, as director James Wan puts it, “the joke of the superhero world—people like to make fun of him.” Hanna- Barbera’s ’70s cartoon Super Friends portrayed the character as an ineffectual seahorse rider chatting with fish. Robot Chicken’s Justice League skits show Aquaman bullied by the other heroes (“You treat me like I’m not even on the team!” Aquaman whines). There were South Park and Family Guy gags, and that running story line on Entourage where out-of-work actor Vince begs his agent to find him any role other than starring in an Aquaman movie (“I’d rather do a play than this bulls---!” Vince huffed).