Starring Jason Momoa, Amber Heard, Patrick Wilson, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Nicole Kidman

Directed by James Wan

Warner Bros, out now

When a human lighthouse keeper rescues Atlantan royalty they become parents to the one true king of the seas.

OK, here’s the good news. For those who felt that Batman vs Superman and Justice League were too dark and dour, Aquaman is fun all the way, with a hero that certainly doesn’t take himself too seriously. The bad news is that thematically it is all over place, plundering scenes from countless other (better) movies and flip flopping between genres minute by minute.

I could probably list over 50 of the most blatant references (I certainly ticked them off while viewing), but the most obvious are Pirates of the Caribbean, Indiana Jones, Warlords of Atlantis, At The Earth’s Core, Roger Moore James Bond, Star Wars: Episode I, The Da Vinci Code, The Lord of the Rings, Gladiator, Jupiter Rising, Flash Gordon, Pacific Rim, The Little Mermaid… you get the picture(s). I can forgive the on the nose ‘young man called Arthur removes the trident from the trench to be one the rightful leader’ as that’s just part of the character’s DNA, but every other aspect has been consciously added to this big, stinky, fish stew, where everything has been thrown in, shells and all.

Jason (Game of Thrones) Momoa is engaging as Arthur Curry, while Amber Heard has her ‘fish out of water’ (ho ho ho) moments as Princess Mera, at one point tucking in to a bunch of roses! The ever-youthful Patrick (Watchmen) Wilson plays the son of a woman who’s only six years older than him in real life, and the younger brother of someone who’s six years younger than him. I’m not being picky, but things like this pull you out of the story. At two hours 23minutes it’s a good half hour too long and I suspect there’s a longer cut where they also go into space or to the polar icecaps and experience time travel and alternate universes.

Yahya Abdul-Mateen II’s Black Manta makes little impression as one of the baddies, this being a case where his original comic book appearance has been followed too slavishly – his ludicrous bug-eyed super soldier is just too retro. And because it’s revealed on the movie posters, I can confirm that Aquaman has his golden armour and green trousers by the end, though Momoa still hasn’t had time for the haircut, shave and blonde bleaching. Oh, and there’s sharks with lasers on their heads – you know, like in Austin Powers.

Verdict: Derivative, colourful, popcorn fun that is so desperate to entertain that it throws in everything but the kitchen sink. You’d think that this was the DC superhero movie that lost its director part-way through, requiring rewrites and reshoots. But it isn’t that movie, which makes it harder to understand just what they were thinking when they scripted this crazy Man from Atlantis. Oh, and don’t bother about the mid-credit sting (there’s none at the end) – I bet you could write it yourself. 6/10

Nick Joy