Aquaman, a breath of fresh sea breeze.
Today, I saw Aquaman. It was full of amazing characters and wonderful action scenes but most of all, I saw what I believe to one of the greatest means of creative expression – aesthetics.
Man! This movie was so visually appealing! As a great lover and admirer of the sea, it was so refreshing to see(sea haha!) the way the director James Wan envisioned life under the ocean. The film presented a perfect merge of comic book visual accents and vivid, child-like imagination, complete with glowing jellyfish, riding on seahorses, meditating amongst manta rays and the sunken city of Atlantis. There is a certain way the colours and figures move and interact that keeps the eyes glued to the screen, unblinking, to absorb all of the beauty. Even the simplest method of colour blocking dark blue and bright red, invokes such an invigorating emotion that I feel many other superhero movies do not. I believe this is due to the landscape, or should I say seascape, that the film uses as a creative background. There is an allusion in the film, to the fact that the ocean is largely unexplored and the story takes full advantage of this blank canvas of the unknown depths to really enhance the imaginative world that it intends to build.
I really appreciate the time this film takes in world building, ensuring the audience truly understand the environment the characters are in and therefore, understanding the way these characters act and behave the way they do. There is a subtle hark back to the exposition necessary by Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars Episode IV or the extensive literature produced by J.R.R Tolkien to make The Lord of the Rings all the more meaningful, reflecting the heavy science-fiction and fantasy tones of the world. To delve into a creative and deeply imaginative world is to be exposed to something new and unknown, and as such, Aquaman shows us the beauty of the sea while explaining it to us too, complete with Atlantean customs and border control and fantastical sea beasts. We learn about that world and the mindset of its’ inhabitants as the protagonist does and that allows to connect with the characters as they discover things we often overlook in our own lives, like the smell of roses or a fountain in a town square.
As such, I believe Aquaman is not only brilliant to view but also inspiring in its use of creativity and world-building to deeply engross the audience. If you haven’t seen it already, you should. It is fantastic!
