Aquaman

Going in: I hope it'll be fun but I'm skeptical. I went on 12/24 with Riley, Sarah, and Jonathan.

Popcorn: 7/10. I started to like this and things were going along fairly well. It wasn't a perfect movie by any means, but it was enjoyable. And then the final act happened and I groaned out loud on the theater. I won't see it again but I'll probably rent it. I was rooting for this movie but it squandered an opportunity so much that I think two different teams wrote it. It's only a seven out of deference to the first part. If I scored how I felt as I was leaving, it'd be a six. Or maybe a five.

Art: 6/10. Some good acting, good music, and some decent shots and art. However, the poor story, inconsistent feel, and rushed third act make the film ultimately disappointing.

Acting: 6/6. I was expecting Jason M. to do his thing but he had a couple of moments that surprised me. The actor who played his dad was pretty good too.

Music: 3/4. The music started off with a guitar riff that gave chills I haven't had since Wonder Woman. But then it disappeared. And the thematic music for the villain was overused. But overall, it was pretty good.

Filming: 3/4. There were moments that I thought were cool. It wasn't ground breaking, but it was fun.

Art Dept: 3/4. Everything was good here except some of the greenscreen. I hate it when it's painfully obvious. Thankfully, there wasn't too much but enough to leave a bad taste.

Editing: 2/4. Average here. Nothing noteworthy but nothing bad either.

Story: 3/8. Here's where the film started to break apart. Towards the end, the characters start doing things inconsistent with reality. It's like they said, "Hey, are going really long. Let's cram things in." The consistency breaks down, the characters do inconsistent things, and the cheesy moments all pop in at the end. Yuck.

Directing: 0/6. I can't really commend the director at all. Everything in the narrative just breaks apart. Even then, the things that bothers me in the first part had to do with consistency.

Production: 4/4. This was a good story worth telling on the big screen. It was just the execution that was lacking.

Orthodox thoughts (major spoilers):
Select the text to view:

One of the themes in the movie is worthiness. Often times, a movie will say that our sense of worth comes from within.

But this movie took an interesting twist: Arthur didn't see himself as worthy. He needed the trident to end the war, but he flat out say he's not worthy.

Within ancient Christianity, we have the same idea. We all want power of some sort (even need it), but why we want it and our own estimation are important.

I believe God wants us to have power to be free of anxiety, depression, and the dregs of our family of origin. But that power only comes when recognize we've done nothing to deserve it and that the use of that power is subject to what He wants.