Short version: not bad, but it should have been a Lovecraftian horror film.
Slightly longer version: AQUAMAN AND THE LOST KINGDOM is a perfectly fine popcorn flick, in an era where the tide’s going back out on superhero flicks. I’m not going to torture you with nautical metaphors, so let me just say that its major problem of the movie as it exists is that it’s crowding too much into the runtime. That’s a common problem, these days. Movies that should be series, and vice versa.
Its real major problem, though? This should totally have been a cosmic horror flick. The director clearly wants to make one. The director has signed up to make one next year. They should have leaned into making this movie more Cthulhu-ish. I mean, really, what did they have to lose? This was never gonna make the first AQUAMAN‘s numbers.
Moe Lane
PS: I will say this: the guy playing Orm did a bang-up job portraying just how exasperating it must be to be Aquaman’s younger brother. I was feeling sympathetic towards him, at some points in the movie.