Say what you want about the DC movies, and believe me I know they have their problems, they did a pretty good job with casting in many of them. Gal Godot is a great Wonder Woman, Afleck worked surprisingly well as a world-weary Batman, and Jason Mamoa is very entertaining as Aquaman. The DCEU, which was supposed to be the answer to the far more successful and better quality MCU, has fizzled out and Aquaman: The Lost Kingdom is the last entry in the franchise. James Gunn is going to try and take on Kevin Fiege’s role at Marvel and build a better DC Universe of movies, but that’s another story.

Aquaman was a decent outing, and, as it turns out, this second Aquaman movie was fun also. There are some deep cuts for the comic fans, some nice callbacks to the first movie, and some good action and entertaining moments. I think DC just didn’t give this enough of a push, just like Blue Beetle, in part because they were giving up and in part because they threw so much effort into The Flash, which tanked, as it deserved to.

In this movie, Aquaman is trying to juggle too much at once, and who these days can’t relate to that? He’s a superhero, king, father, and husband. That’s enough to make anyone tired. He’s dealing with a Council that doesn’t like any of his ideas, a world that’s destroying itself with climate change (if you don’t believe in climate change, 1) you’re wrong and 2) this is not the movie for you), and too many demands on his time.

Like most heroes that have been around a while, Aquaman has his share of enemies, and a few of them pop up here. Black Manta was a problem for him in the first movie, and he’s back, plotting revenge and willing to go to any lengths to get it. Black Manta’s also got an Atlantean expert, Dr. Shin (a deep cut from the comics and played by Randall Park, who is always entertaining) along for the ride, and they find something they really, really shouldn’t have. This introduces the major threat of the movie, and forces Aquaman to ally with another old enemy from the first movie, Orm the Ocean Master (Patrick Wilson). It’s a sort of forced buddy-cop movie, and they have to work together to deal with the bigger threat. They follow a trail of different clues all over the place, and have a scene that tries a little too hard to be the famous Star Wars cantina, underwater version.

Also back in varying degrees of importance are Atlanna, Aquaman’s mother (Nicole Kidman’s first sequel in her long career), Amber Heard as Mera, and Dolph Lungren as Nereus. There’s a lot of fighting, some nods to a few Aquaman stories from the past in the comics (the blue suit for one), and a final fight that was really kind of impressive. All the action was done well throughout, in my opinion. Finally, everyone comes together to stop the huge threat, some rivalries end, some continue, and one of the last scenes of the movie definitely is something that would change the world forever. Unfortunately, we’ll only ever see that in fanfic, as this is the final chapter of the DCEU, which really needed a better name. It’s a perfectly fine superhero movie, deserved more press and attention than it got, and is really not a bad note for the DCEU to go out on.

What I Liked: Unlike a lot of superhero movies, Aquaman has, and is, fun. The character enjoys his powers and a lot of his life, which is just something that’s increasingly rare in the genre. Not everything needs to be doom and gloom, and most of this isn’t. The Aquaman/Orm dynamic was done decently, and even if there were some predictable moments, they were enjoyable. Randall Park did a great job as the supporting character of Dr. Shin. The soundtrack was even pretty good and fit in nicely where it was played.

What I Didn’t: The writers don’t have Mera’s powers down quite right. She’s Aquaman’s physical equal, plus has amazing control of water (think Green Lantern underwater). There’s the dreaded Shared World problem. “My loved one is in great danger, and I am very far away. I know people who can travel instantly via Boom Tube, run faster than light, and even are, as they say, faster than a speeding bullet, but I won’t call any of them.” In fact, this is the only DC movie in a while I can think of where no other DC characters are even referenced, let alone get a cameo.

It was a good movie, deserved better than it got, and ends on a note of “What could have been.” I would have liked to have eventually seen Garth/Aqualad and some others, but they never got there. Maybe in the new DCU.

I’ll give this a high 3.5 out of 5.