Aquaman

This review comes with a bit of a disclaimer: Truth be told, Aquaman is my all-time favorite superhero and has been since I was a little kid, so I was all in on this movie from the very first trailer. If you're looking for a purely objective view on this particular film, then take this blog post with a grain of salt because I'm coming at this one as fan who never thought he'd get a live-action, big budget, Aquaman film. 

Aquaman is the latest live-action superhero flick based on a DC character. Directed by James Wan, the film stars Amber Heard, Patrick Wilson, Dolph Lundgren, Nicole Kidman, Yahya Abdul Mateen II, Willem Dafoe and, of course, Jason Mamoa as the title character. The acting is pretty solid overall, and the story kept me engaged throughout. Being a comic book film and with significant portions taking place under water, I was a little worried going in that the CGI effects would be distracting but I feel that most of it was done well. 

While I don't know how this one will hit with audiences overall, for any fans of Aquaman this one offers a bit of everything that makes those comics interesting: It features Aquaman's two most iconic villains Ocean Master and Black Manta, sea monsters from the Trench, Mera, and Atlanteans fighting with tridents... it's all there. 

I had a blast with this one, and it's the most fun I had with a comic book movie this year.
4.5 out of 5 


*Also, If you want to know how all of the DC films stack up for me you can click HERE to see my rankings

Disney's Live-Action Revival

Over the past few years Disney has been caught up in a wave of remaking some of there classic properties with a "but now it's live-action" twist and, as it turns out, there is big money to be made there. While all of these are "live-action" (or at the very least live-action mixed with photo realistic animal characters like 2016's The Jungle Book), and not animation remakes, the approach to retelling the story and the quality of the films has varied. Some of the movies are simply a straight remake with an extra song or minor details thrown in, while others try to put a spin on the story you grew up with. 

Like I already stated Disney is riding this trend with no signs of stopping. Just looking at next year, there are three of these films coming out! Aladdin, Dumbo, and The Lion King are all due for release in 2019, with other remakes in various stages of production to come out over the next few years.

So, what's come out so far, and how do these films stack up? Disney did make the occasional attempt at adapting their animated classics to live-action in the 90's with 1994's The Jungle Book and 1996's 101 Dalmatians, but I'm just going to focus on this current wave of films starting in 2010. I'll also keep updating this list as these movies come out.

The Good:

The Jungle Book (2016)

Christopher Robin (2018)

Maleficent (2014)

The Watchable:

Cinderella (2015) 
Aladdin (2019) 

Beauty and the Beast (2017)

Skip:

Alice in Wonderland (2010)

Alice Through the Looking Glass (2016)

There was also a remake of Pete's Dragon in 2016 but the original was already a live-action/animation hybrid, so I didn't count it. There was also a Nicholas Cage movie called the Sorcerer's Apprentice in 2010 which was a fantasy-action flick that I think was just using the Fantasia segment of the same name to sell tickets... I believe there's a bit in there with the brooms and buckets of water, but I don't remember. I found both of those film pretty underwhelming, in case you were curious. Also, I haven't seen Dumbo (2019) yet.