It’s great to enjoy some superhero action during the holidays, and despite the uneven track record of DC Comics movies so far, Aquaman was enjoyable, light, adventure fare. Director James Wan (of Fast and Furious fame) smartly avoided the loud, dimly-lit, incoherent example of Zack Snyder’s Justice League movies, and skewed closer to Wonder Woman. However, the classic DC Comics formula — where an outsider hero brings their alien super wonder powers to the human world to help us fight evil — is turned around. Instead, Arthur Curry (aka Aquaman) lives with his human father but is reluctantly drawn back to Atlantis (where his mother was queen) to save the surface world from his Atlantean half-brother Orm’s destructive plans. That being said, the script of this movie is far from solid, with story gaps the size of the Marianas Trench, but string together enough bright, colourful, exciting action set-pieces with some decent CGI and cool production design and you have the makings of a fun superhero movie.

Before going any further, I admit that I am no fan of Jason Momoa as Aquaman. He was alright in Stargate: Atlantis, and tolerable in Game of Thrones, but this brooding, punch-first, smart-mouthed, grunting, shaggy tough-guy, is not my idea of a great persona. I’m not sure why he’s the new Aquaman, but thankfully this movie doesn’t really rely on him much anyway. As long as he’s somewhat likeable (which he manages to be), and muscular enough for the fight scenes (which he is), the rest of the story just happens around him. In fact, none of the actors really need to do much to play their characters. Patrick Wilson as Orm seems totally unconnected to Momoa’s Arthur. It’s not as if the brothers grew up together or anything; Orm just wants to seize power for himself and make sure his firstborn half-brother doesn’t get in the way (though I’m not sure why he doesn’t have the power already, since he is the legitimate son of the king and queen). Willem Defoe plays Orm’s advisor Vulko (who has also somehow secretly been a mentor to Arthur for years), but his entire role seems to be providing the rules and history of Atlantis in order to keep the plot moving. The only one with a big role is princess Mera (played by Amber Heard). She finds Arthur, risks her own future to rescue him, and does most of the heavy lifting to help him stop Orm. (It could almost be her movie!)

There’s mainly two stories going on: Orm trying to form an alliance with the other Atlantean leaders (by force if necessary) and Arthur and Mera’s quest for Neptune’s trident. The first is kind of like something out of a Star Wars prequel, where boring political machinations are decorated with all kinds of snazzy futuristic vehicles, sets and alien creatures. They are all supposed to be at the bottom of Earth’s oceans, but they might as well be in a galaxy far far away! I always find it fun to see the designs that the filmmakers come up with for this kind of imaginary world and regardless of whether what’s happening in the scene is interesting, the visuals and the world-building ideas can be delightful and impressive in themselves.

The second story (which I guess is more the main story) is a rollicking matinee-movie adventure. Arthur and Mera go on an Indiana Jones style quest to find a mythical artifact that will somehow win the day. They follow ancient clues, puzzles, and cryptic maps to take them around the world (they don’t just stay in the ocean). Along the way they also encounter traps, monsters, and bad guys — like good movie adventurers should. The two even develop a bit of that adventure-movie couples banter (think Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner from Romancing the Stone) along the way. It’s light-hearted (and maybe a little cheesy) but definitely fun, and it all leads to the climax when they get home to save the day.

In the end, the story is much bigger and more epic than only watching Aquaman stop a bunch of human pirates, like an underwater Batman (which he also does, by the way). It has a big-screen fantasy feel to it and that’s what makes it enjoyable to watch. No one thought much of Aquaman’s potential as a feature superhero, but I’m glad that Wan and the others decided to dress up the story around him. To capture its true flavour, the movie really could have been called “Arthur Curry and the Trident of Neptune” or “Aquaman: Battle of the Seven Seas”. I know, they’re both terrible title suggestions, but going back to the fun, enthusiastic, larger-than-life superhero movie is just what we need in theatres these days (4 out of 5).