History YMMV / Aquaman2018

* MagnificentBastard: King Orm Marius of Atlantis is the younger half-brother of Arthur Curry. Bitter at the supposed death of his mother and blaming Arthur and the Surface for the ills of the ocean, Orm arranges for the pirate Black Manta to attack a meeting to make it appear as if there is a threat so he may launch a campaign to unite the kingdoms of the sea, by negotiation or by force, so he may take the title of 'Ocean Master.' Manipulating Arthur into challenging him, even as he admits he would rather not kill him, Orm defeats him and while adhering [[ExactWords to a promise not to kill his fiancee Mera]], he sends Manta after Arthur and Mera when Mera helps Arthur escape. A skilled fighter, Orm even faces Arthur in direct combat out of the water, willing to offer his own life for his cause until he sees his mother has survived, handling his [[GracefulLoser defeat with grace]] in the end.

** Seeing Amber Heard play Aquaman's loving wife can be a lot more harder to watch after a tape emerged where Heard admitted that she physically and verbally abused her husband at the time, Johnny Depp. The fact that people have petitioned her to be removed from the sequel for this film as a result of said tape doesn't help matters.

** Jokes comparing Arthur and/or Mera to ''Disney/TheLittleMermaid'' and other similar characters have been very common. (Mera is also a redhead princess of an ocean kingdom, who's clueless about land things, so it fits.)

** Thomas Curry. He rescues Atlanna after she has washed up on shore, and they begin to develop a relationship that results in the birth of Arthur. However realizing that her betrothed Orvax would send an army if she doesn't return forces her to return to the ocean for their safety. Thomas spends every morning to his pier to see if she has return, to which Arthur states it's been going on for years. [[spoiler: [[EarnYourHappyEnding He finally reunites with her when Arthur arranges for her to see him again]]]].

** Creator/LaurenceFishburne appearing in [[Film/AntManAndTheWasp a MCU movie]] after getting [[Film/ManOfSteel a regular role in the DCEU]] caught quite a few people by surprise - imagine their shock when Creator/RandallPark ''went in the exact opposite direction'' (going from the very movie Fishburne appeared in to a DCEU movie [[spoiler:and according to TheStinger, he'll be back]]). Likewise for Djimon Hounsou (who played Korath in ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy'')

** Creator/JohnRhysDavies has only about thirty seconds of screen time as the Brine King, but he still leaves an impression for being a badass FrontlineGeneral crab-person who speaks every one of his lines at [[LargeHam practically max volume.]]

* HolyShitQuotient: Julie Andrews voicing [[spoiler: a ''sea kaiju'']] was the last thing on anyone's mind.

* MoralEventHorizon:
** Jesse Kane crosses it by [[UngratefulBastard attempting to shoot at Curry after being spared by him.]] As expected, Curry decides to leave him in order to rescue the captives.
** Black Manta later crosses it by trying to kill Curry, [[RevengeMyopia completely ignoring that Curry had every right to abandon them.]]
** If Orm hadn't crossed it by ordering a tsunami, then he either crosses it when he [[spoiler:sent Manta to assassinate Mera and Arthur or when he murdered King Ricou in cold blood.]]

** The Trench's [[XenomorphXerox resemblance to the Aliens]] earned them the fan-nickname of [[IncrediblyLamePun Seanomorphs]].

** China ''loves'' this film; in its opening weekend alone it outgrossed ''any'' previous Warner Brothers film, had the largest December opening in Chinese history before surpassing the already ridiculously successful (and also much more warmly received there) ''Film/{{Venom|2018}}'' as the second most successful superhero movie in the country after ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar'' -- and it got an extension for its screenings there until February 2019 on top of this, which is a rare thing for foreign movies playing in the country. By some projections, it will end its run at over $350 mil''][lion, which will make it the fourth most popular foreign film and the eleventh most popular movie period in the country's history. It also got [[https://www.weibo.com/p/100120179340 very positive reviews]], with [[https://movie.douban.com/subject/3878007/ Douban]] (China's equivalent to Rotten Tomatoes) giving it an 8.1/10, with hundreds of thousands of viewers giving it an average rating of 4/5 stars.

** ''The Dunwich Horror'' being seen early on Thomas' coffee table. The obvious allusion is to the underwater society and giant sleeping monster beneath the waves, but things go much deeper than that. ''The Dunwich Horror'' is one of Lovecraft's few novels, another being ''The Shadow Over Innsmouth'', both dealing with the concept of HalfHumanHybrids made by the things in the deep. Arthur's whole plot is exactly that, and deciding whether to live the "lie" that he's human or embrace the "truth" of being from the ocean (Arthur decides to TakeAThirdOption). The Trench and its cretures are not unlike The Deep Ones of the Cthulhu Mythos. And Lovecraft was a contemporary, correspondent, and friend of Creator/RobertEHoward, who featured both Atlantis and the idea of men regressing and evolving up and down EvolutionaryLevels heavily in his works. If you know your classic pulp literature, seeing that book ties together all the film's assorted major themes and worldbuilding.

* CriticalDissonance: Building from ClicheStorm above, a number of critics ripped the film for being "unoriginal" and for its pacing problems. Its box-office turnout and popular reception, on the other hand, are clearly way more welcoming. It rather falls under TropesAreNotBad: while the plot may seem cliché, it follows a commonly understood storyline that most audiences can accept and enjoy. Not to mention the dissonance is actually downplayed considering the movie is currently enjoying a "Fresh" rating at 65% on WebSite/RottenTomatoes, which is a '''big''' improvement over anything in the franchise that was not ''Film/{{Wonder Woman|2017}}''.

* {{Anvilicious}}: Polluting the ocean is a ''very bad thing'', and the movie makes sure to remind us of that several times. One of King Orm's main motivations of invading the upper world is to take revenge on the surface-dwellers for ruining the oceans, and none of the characters [[VillainHasAPoint disagree with him on this.]] Even Arthur admits that there are some idiots on the surface. [[spoiler:Orm's first attack in the form of a gigantic tidal wave that strikes all of the world's coastlines washes up ''all'' of the garbage in the ocean back to the land to show us just how bad we have been treating our oceans so far.]] However, unlike most takes on this GreenAesop, the movie doesn't take the time to show how humans can make the oceans better.
* AuthorsSavingThrow: The air bubble Mera summons underwater to talk to Arthur in ''Film/{{Justice League|2017}}'' has been quite divisively received. In ''Aquaman'', characters talk underwater pretty much as well as they do out of it, and the air-pocket trick is used by Mera for practical purposes -- as a safety pocket to help Arthur rescue his father amidst the tsunami caused by Orm, as a measure to make it difficult for 'non-high born' Atlanteans (ones who can't breathe out of the water) to know what's being said, and finally as a ''weapon'' against Orm in order to distract him as he's forced to briefly cough out the water in his lungs to adjust to being out-of-water.

** Jesse Kane crosses it by [[UngratefulBastard attempting to shoot at Curry after being spared by him.]] As expected, Curry decides to leave him in order to rescue the captives. Manta himself later crosses it by trying to kill Curry, [[RevengeMyopia completely ignoring that Curry had every right to abandon them.]]

* MoralEventHorizon: If Orm hadn’t crossed it by ordering a tsunami, then he either crosses it when he [[spoiler:sent Manta to assassinate Mera and Arthur or when he murdered King Ricou in cold blood.]]

** Ditto with the reveal of [[spoiler:Black Manta]] still being alive. Not only is it almost as hard to buy they'd so quickly kill off an iconic character as the Joker's supposed death in ''Film/SuicideSquad'', but WB execs were openly discussing for ''months'' beforehand how excited they were about their future plans for the character.

%%** Those are freaking sharks with freaking laser beams attached to their freaking heads!

* EnsembleDarkhorse: Even though he doesn't actually have that much screentime, most fans feel that Black Manta stole the show for his badassery, [[ItsPersonal sympathetic motivations]], and for an awesome outfit that is ''exactly'' like his look in the comics.

* EnsembleDarkhorse: Many fans have felt that Creator/DolphLundgren, of all people, provides one of the strongest supporting characters in the movie, with his conflicted, dignified portrayal of the [[NobleDemon noble]], [[RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething badass]] [[AntiVillain King]] [[MyCountryRightOrWrong Nereus.]]

** Rupert Gregson-Williams composing the score. His scoring of ''Film/WonderWoman'' was much appreciated, building on what Music/HansZimmer established in ''Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice''. Especially when compared to the divisive scoring of ''Justice League'' by Music/DannyElfman.

** Queen Atlanta [[spoiler: actually being alive all this time]] becomes incredibly obvious because the characters [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial won't shut up about how she's totally dead]], she's shown to be a badass in the movie opening and it seems strange such a competent fighter could be so easily killed off, and thirdly she's played by Nicole Kidman - no way they were only going to use her for ten minutes. Plus the MissingMom trope is so overdone in superhero movies that audiences are understandably sick of it.

** The princess of the Fisher Kingdom. [[spoiler: Her father is murdered right in front of her because he refused to bend to Orm's will. Orm then forces her to not only take his place, but to fight alongside him.]] She doesn't look much older than 18, so this is no doubt a lot for her to deal with.

** Black Manta swore vengeance on Aquaman for leaving his father in a fatal situation that the Atlantean refuse to rescue him from [[labelnote:Note]]His father shot at Aquaman right after he'd spared his life, so Arthur obviously wasn't in the mood for second chances.[[/labelnote]]. Given that moments earlier we'd seen the two men were very close, you can't help but sympathise with Manta.