Sleeping with the Fishes: Aquaman 2 and the Death of the DCEU

 

What began with so much ambition ten years ago with Man of Steel in 2013, gurgles its way to a watery grave with this weekend's release of Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. I feel bad for director James Wan and everyone involved in A&TLK as this project arrives with an air of total futility about it. Honestly, even if it wasn't already known that the DC cinematic universe was due to be rebooted, I think A&TLK would have had the same inevitable last gasp vibe to it. Exhaustion clings to this movie like barnacles to a boat. It feels like the DCEU has been utterly played out. 

In 2018, the first Aquaman was a breath of fresh air for the DCEU. Colorful, unabashedly embracing of its fantasy elements and bereft of any hint of dreary edge lord attitude, James Wan showed that the DC universe could go all in on fun and that audiences would respond. It became the most successful film in the DCEU, bringing in the kind of box office results that were typically associated with the MCU. Given the fact that it grossed over a billion dollars, a sequel was always going to happen. But in between then and now, the plug was pulled on the DCEU in the wake of 2022's Black Adam and as soon as that happened, everything that was already in the pipeline, including A&TLK, instantly felt dead on arrival. 

Perhaps if The Flash had done a better job of wrapping up the previous era and setting up the next, A&TLK wouldn't have felt so much like an afterthought but it didn't - if anything The Flash only made everything more muddled - and so A&TLK arrives less as a fond farewell to the last ten years but as exactly what it is: the unintended end of an era, devoid of any special fanfare. 

That's something that was beyond the control of anyone involved with A&TLK but as I said earlier, had this arrived in a world where the DCEU was still pushing on, I think it would have still left audiences with an overwhelming sense of "why are we still doing this?" Or even more specifically, "...why did we need an Aquaman 2?" 

The answer to that, of course, is that no movie as successful as Aquaman was ever going to not have a Part 2 - especially when it was part of an ongoing cinematic universe. But as much as Wan tries to recapture the same sense of fun as the original, it's clear that he left it all on the table with the first film. Some characters aren't meant to support a string of sequels. Not every character lends themselves to a franchise and I think that's definitely true of Aquaman. If nothing else, it definitely can be said that if there was going to be an Aquaman 2, they should have found someone else who was as eager to put their stamp on the character as Wan was when he did the original. 

As with the first film, there are plenty of cool designs here involving the various Atlantean technology, undersea environments, and fantastical creatures (in A&TLK's best moments, Wan leans into the horror vibe - there's even a neat aural shout out to Texas Chain Saw Massacre at one point) but there's nothing here that outdoes or improves on anything in the first film and it's hard not to get the sense that Wan is fully aware of that too. Add to that the fact that this is all in support of a franchise - both Aquaman and the larger DCEU itself - that we all know is finished and this just feels like one exhausted sigh of a movie. 

It may not have started off as such but the fact that A&TLK was completed with the full knowledge that it would end up serving as the last word on the DCEU definitely puts the last lines of the movie in an amusing light. Yes, the train was already on the tracks when the plug was pulled on the DCEU so there was no way to rethink the movie in its entirety in order to put a respectful cap on the past decade of films but Jason Momoa's final speech easily could've been rewritten on the fly to send things out on a more slightly elegiac note, had they wanted to - especially as the occasion that he's addressing is one of change, of moving from one era to the next with a spirit of hope. So his words could have worked in the context of the film while also applying to the meta context of the moment. 

But they straight up said "nope" to that and I guess in the end I have to respect that the last words spoken in the DCEU (and I'm paraphrasing) are "...I'm Aquaman! Woo! Yeah!" I don't know if I would call it a "fuck you" to the DCEU per se but it definitely feels like, hey this is our moment and we're not sharing it and we're going to revel in the fact that freaking Aquaman of all characters is the last one standing and the last one out the door.  

Now, there may well have been zero message underlying Momoa's last words but when the mid credit scene has a character happily eating a cockroach, it's hard not to feel like this wasn't a warm or respectful goodbye to the DCEU. I have to imagine there was a feeling of being fucked over once James Gunn's reboot was announced and if some resentment towards that manifested in the movie in some way, it wouldn't be surprising. 

In any case, the ten year odyssey of the DCEU is now done and over. A lot could be said about all the decisions that were made over the past ten years, many of them terrible, but at this point dissecting the many failures of the DCEU seems like wasted energy (although I do hope someone writes a book about all of it one day). The bottom line is that I don't think Warners/DC ever knew how to properly showcase these iconic characters and I think they made a critical early error in entrusting their universe to Zack Snyder. He's a talented director, yes, but also one who has no feel for the DC universe - or for the concept of superheroes - whatsoever. If you gave Snyder something like Miracleman or Spawn, he could likely kick ass with it but something that requires a much more pure outlook on selflessness and altruism, forget it. 

Warners should've seen the reaction to Man of Steel as a five alarm emergency and ditched Snyder post haste. The impulse to keep trying to course correct turned the DCEU into a wobbly Jenga tower. It was never going to right itself. 

Will James Gunn do better by the DC universe? I think so. I certainly hope he will. The thing is, I don't see how he could do any worse. For the last ten years, we watched a studio continually fail to know what to do with the most iconic superheroes of all time. As I look at the various rankings of the DCEU films being posted across the internet now that the book has been closed on this era, I think the most damning thing that can be said about the DCEU is that, however you rank the films, whatever anyone puts at the top, Matt Reeves' The Batman is a better movie than every single one of them.   

Nerd Notes: State of the MCU

One of the biggest box office narratives of 2023 as far as the entertainment press was concerned was that it was the year of superhero fatigue, with the MCU suffering an uncharacteristic failure with The Marvels. But the fact is, Marvel had a successful year overall in 2023. Any franchise that puts out three films in a year with two of them landing in the year end worldwide box office Top Ten is doing ok. For anyone to say it isn't is just indicative of the need of many to seek clicks with hyperbolic "is the MCU is dead?" headlines. Warners/DC had four flops in a row in 2023 but where were all the articles speculating whether there was even an audience for a DC reboot? Nowhere, because those wouldn't generate clicks like trashing the MCU would. It's all driven by pure cynicism. 

  

The box office failure of The Marvels definitely was uncharted territory for Marvel but to put things in perspective, The Marvels was a movie that was primed to fail. Setting aside the army of online misogynist trolls who were working overtime to trash it months in advance, this is a movie that, thanks to the actors strike, did not have the traditional promotional machine at its disposal. 

With the best aspect of the film being the chemistry between Brie Larson, Teyonah Parris, and Iman Vellani, the fact that this trio couldn't make the rounds on the talk show circuit and that they couldn't hype the movie before fans at conventions, really kneecapped its chances. 

Whether or not The Marvels might have performed better under more optimal circumstances, we'll never know. Maybe it would have been a flop regardless. Does that mean that superhero fatigue has finally set in? I say no. It's not as though Marvel was racking up a series of losses in 2023. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania were both in the Top Ten for the year (with Quantumania beating both Fast X and Mission: Impossible domestically) as was the non-MCU Marvel film, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, so it's not as if the Marvel brand was actively turning off audiences. It's clear that if the movie is right, people will still show up. 

Comic book movies have become so pervasive that I think audiences simply are at a point where a movie needs to be perceived as special in order to get them out to the theater. In the case of Marvel, they've been facing a new challenge specific to them with the rise of Disney+. Before Disney+, there was a greater imperative for audiences to see the latest MCU entry in theaters. Now, when everyone knows that everything will hit D+ not long after its theatrical run, that drive has dissipated. In addition to that, I think the interconnectivity between the shows and the movies has generated the feeling that there's just too much work involved in keeping up even though in reality that isn't quite the case. Someone could go into any of the recent movies will no exposure to the shows and still follow them. However, as long as people believe otherwise, it presents a psychological obstacle to getting general audiences to go to the movies. 

As an MCU fan I love how the shows and movies bounce off each other now but I think adjustments are needed when it comes to the back and forth between the shows and movies. You can't reasonably ask people to pay for a streaming service just so they can watch series in order that they can go into the next movie knowing what's what. Hardcore fans are all for it, sure. More shows! More connectivity! But that's becoming a detriment to holding on to general audiences. It's one thing for the Scarlet Witch to take a detour over to Wandavision and then return to the big screen with Multiverse of Madness but when you're talking about characters that were introduced for the first time on Disney+, it's a much harder sell to get people into the theater for the follow up to stories that they didn't watch in the first place. 

There was always going to be growing pains for Marvel post Endgame, especially as they took bigger swings with weaving shows and movies together for the first time. To add an array of real world complications to those challenges, though - such as the pandemic, the writer and actor strikes and the tragic loss of Chadwick Bosemen - it's not surprising that this has been an unsteady stretch for the MCU. The thing is, though, they're in a good spot right now. The Marvels gave them their first legitimate bomb but at the same time, it tee'd up the next step in the Multiverse Saga perfectly. Along with that, Loki season 2 was the strongest MCU series so far, the conclusion of which fed into the Multiverse Saga brilliantly. The MCU is moving forward with audiences having a better sense of where things are going than they've had in awhile.  

Putting Marvel in a stronger position still is this week's news that Jonathan Majors has been dropped by Marvel following his trial. The question of whether Marvel was going to keep him on or not given his legal troubles was a point of uncertainty that has hung over the future of the MCU for months. Now it's done. While some are questioning whether this means that the character of Kang will be dropped and that Marvel's plans for Avengers: The Kang Dynasty will now be changed, I think it will simply be a matter of recasting the role. Marvel has been down this road many times, right from its earliest days. Don Cheadle took over for Terrence Howard as Rhodey. Mark Ruffalo took over for Ed Norton as The Hulk. Harrison Ford is taking over for the late William Hurt as General Ross. There's no reason why they wouldn't recast Kang. It would be ridiculous not to, especially given how integral the character is to their current plans and how much they've built the Multiverse Saga around him. Recasting Kang also presents a perfect opportunity to generate renewed buzz for a character that got off on a slightly awkward foot with Quantumania. 

Going into Phases 4 and 5, it was uncharted territory for Marvel in every way. Now they have a better handle on where they stand. With their only theatrical film in 2024 being Deadpool 3, they have the breathing room for whatever projects they have in place taking them through Secret Wars to be fine tuned and I definitely think that the lessons they've learned over the past few years are going to determine the shape of the MCU post Secret Wars. I believe Secret Wars was always planned to be a soft reboot of sorts for the MCU and I think the rocky reception of some Phase 4 and 5 projects will only further feed into that decision. 

I think post Secret Wars, the MCU will still be interconnected but not as intensely as it has been. I think there's going to be a greater drive towards making stand alone movies and shows and less of a shared narrative. I could be totally wrong, of course, but I can't help but think Kevin Feige and co. are going to feel the need to adjust and find a balance between satisfying the hardcore MCU fans while also not making it seem like there's no longer an easy entry point for new or lapsed fans.  

Bottom line is that the idea that the MCU is in any danger of being derailed or shut down is absurd. Adjustments will be made, focus will be renewed, but the MCU is going to - obviously - keep moving ahead. Marvel simply has too many weapons in its arsenal to not be able to rebound from any slump or setback. I mean, we haven't even gotten to the Fantastic Four or The X-Men yet - both of which are entire universes unto themselves. 

Hell, they could do a freaking Defenders movie (Dr. Strange! Hulk! Namor! Silver Surfer! Valkyrie!) and that's a whole other mega franchise for them. 

Once you've got the Defenders in play, you've set yourself up for an Avengers/Defenders War movie. As any comic book fan could tell you, Marvel has got endless cards to turn over. While it's preferable for every movie to be a hit, Marvel can afford to take a chance (a shit ton of chances, even) knowing that they always have the big guns to pull out. When you know one of the bullets in your chamber is an Avengers vs. X-Men movie, you're not sweating the failure of The Marvels.

The absolute worse case scenario for Marvel would be that they're eventually forced to stick solely to the A level characters - Spider-Man, X-Men, Avengers (a team that is fueled by its endless roster changes), Iron Man, Cap - and try and have as much of a guaranteed blockbuster every time out as they can. And if that's the worst case scenario, that's still pretty awesome. I don't think it'll ever come to that. I think they'll be able to successfully keep experimenting with introducing lesser known characters but look, if you told a Marvel fan years ago that, hey buddy, the worst you're gonna have to look forward to is a big budget Avengers or Spidey film ever year or two, they'd incredulously respond "What the hell do you mean the worst? That sounds fucking incredible!" 

So however it unfolds, here's to the future of the MCU, still the surest bet in pop culture there is.