The Kristian Harloff Show - AQUAMAN AND THE LOST KINGDOM Movie Review! NON SPOILER

Episode Date: December 22, 2023

Become a Patron!: https://www.patreon.com/TheBigThingShow Welcome back to Kristian Harloff's channel, where we dive deep into the world of pop culture and comedy. In today's episode of 'The Big Thing', Kristian Harloff shares his non-spoiler review of the latest Aquaman film, 'Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom'. Starring the charismatic Jason Momoa, does this new installment in the Aquaman franchise sink or swim? Tune in to find out Kristian's thoughts and whether this film is a treasure in the cinematic ocean or a fish out of water. Don't forget to hit that like button if you enjoy our content and subscribe for more pop culture news, movie reviews, and out-of-theater reactions. Join our community and be part of the conversation! 🎬🍿🌊🔱 #aquaman #aquaman2 #review #reaction #dc #dcu  IF YOU ARE ABLE TO SUPPORT THE SHOW! AG1: If you want to take ownership of your health, it starts with AG1. Try AG1 and get a FREE 1-year supply of Vitamin D3K2 AND 5 free AG1 Travel Packs with your first purchase. Go to http://www.drinkAG1.com/BIGTHING ROCKET MONEY: Stop wasting money on things you don't use. Cancel your unwanted subscriptions – and manage your money the easy way – by going to http://www.RocketMoney.com/THING DRAFTKINGS CASINO: Download the DraftKings Casino app NOW and sign up with promo code BIGTHING and play FIVE DOLLARS to get ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS IN CASINO CREDITS! That's promo code BIGTHING OUR MERCH STORE IS LIVE: https://www.teepublic.com/stores/the-...

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All right, guys, short episode of The Big Thing Today, but as you saw, it is a non-spoiler review of Aquaman. That's the full episode today. It's going to be a non-spoiler review of the episode of Aquaman, The Lost Kingdom. It's a sequel to the 2018 movie that did a billion. for DC. It is the last of the DC EU. There's a non-spoiler, as I said, as it says inside of the topics itself, or the title, rather. So yeah, we're really going to dive into it. We're going to get into the whole thing. Is it as bad as everyone's talking about? Will it make money? What does this mean for DC moving forward, if anything? So that and more on today's episode of

the big thing. So if you're brand new to the channel, you've never been here before, help us get the 200,000 subscribers, man. They're trying to get there. So hit that button. Apple, podcast, Spotify, anywhere podcasts are found. All right, guys. It's the big thing. Let's do it. Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen, to The Big Thing here on Thursday. The embargo drop for this movie early around 7 a.m. And the same time of the movie came out. So it should have been signed in the first place. of the major signs for me is that, you know, we go to these press screenings a lot of times

and for a lot of these movies. And so what they normally do, if they really have faith in a movie, sometimes the review embargo drops around a week. If they really love it, two weeks before release, and they go, yeah, yeah, start getting the word out, get people out there so they can start buying tickets. They don't have confidence in it. then normally a day before, two days before. And if they know, they got to do anything possible to keep those reviews quiet until it comes out.

And then they put it on day release. So the movie, the embargo broke the day of release. And they didn't give plus ones to people. And it was, yeah, it was, they didn't even screen it for every critic. They screen it for, I got lucky. I was appreciative that I was invited as one of the people that were allowed to see it on late last night

and then normally there's a social embargo usually the social embargo is lifted and it's a review embargo and I said when is the social embargo lift and they said same time so I was like okay so what are we getting into and that's the main question is like what are we getting into and we just

just a dull generic poorly written, poorly written, poorly directed film, unfortunately. And that's really the bottom line of it. It's tracking poorly. It's tracking it like 35, 40 before the reviews came out. It is already one of the, I think, the lowest rated DCEU film. It's the closing of it.

It's, they really do it. Again, no spoilers. The post-credit scene could have been something special to say goodbye. to everything because we know that James Gunn and Peter Safrin are taken over and launching with Superman with the first film, really. I know Creature Commandos is the first official thing, but the movie itself is Superman legacy in 2025. So it's like a bye-bye. See you later. Here's a post-credit scene. Just one more fun thing. And the post-credit scene is really garbage. It's not funny. It's kind of

gross and it had no impact whatsoever at least in my in my opinion now you go to the movie itself what is it about arthur is now the king of atlantis he's trying to be a dad and he's trying to manage both being a king and being a dad at the same time and how does he balance it and then obviously something happens and yaya comes back as uh as mantah and this time he's working with Randall Park who really dig in the in the MCU but in this he's playing a watered down version of the character that he plays in the MCU except not funny says things like extraordinary amazing wonderful reduced to like kind of nothing and the script I mean the that some of the dialogue it's like everybody is talking the

same way and it's just like it's I mean the worst dialogue in the prequels for for Star Wars, because I think it's, everybody talks about how the prequel dialogue is not the best, but there are moments, there's really no moments in this. And, and like I said, this movie shouldn't be boring.

It's dull. It's dull. Halfway through it, I had closed my eyes at one point, and I considered taking a nap, but realized I couldn't do that because I'm a professional, I guess,

and needed to talk to you guys about it. So that's what I did. And, um, look, Jason Mamoa, is playing Jason Moll, and that's my worry, is that's kind of what he's resting on now, right? He was so good in Dune.

He was so good in Fast X. He was great in Game of Thrones. He was great as Conan the Barbarian, even though the movie stinks. He was great in it, and he can spin things around. He was also really good. I always forget the name of it. He did this movie with Stallone. The movie was terrible, but he does this, like, axe fight with Stallone at the end,

and he's terrifying. it. And you can do things with this guy outside of just the surfer, you know, cool bro dude. And it just, it worked for the first movie. It worked for the other ones. It worked for Batman Superman. But this one seems almost like it's like Mike biggest criticism with Indiana Jones in the Crystal Skull is it just seems like it's just Harrison Ford. It doesn't seem like Indiana Jones. Say what you want about the last Indiana Jones movie. It did feel like Indiana Jones. This feels like it's just Jason Mamoa and he's giving it his all and he's having fun. But he's I don't know what the difference is between Jason Mamoa and Arthur.

I have no idea. And it's predictable. You know, he's going to give a speech. It's going to be serious, but he's going to tag it with a, you know, surfer. And then start from gesture and then stick his tongue out and jump in the water or something. So there's nothing really there. The thing with his son, I thought, was going to be the main heart of it. maybe the relationship with his brother.

And that was the other thing is Patrick Wilson is probably doing the best work at anybody in this movie as his brother. And there is some kind of code that he holds on to. And that comes out in dialogue here and there. But for the most part, they just kind of let it go. There's other characters that they pretend they want you to care about, but they don't do any work at all to set them up at all. They don't make you care about these.

characters. So you have that and then people are asking what about Amber Heard. Yeah, she's in the movie. She's in it. She's in it more than I thought she was going to be in it, especially from the trailers. Is it not market at her? But like, her role is, it's not really significant what she's doing in the movie. You know, she plays Mara and they have a kid together. And then she shows up, you know when she's going to show up. That's the other thing. You always know when people are going to show up in this movie. You always know when things are about to happen. You're like, oh, isn't this, they're in peril. You're like, no, somebody's going to save the day. No, somebody's going to do that. No, they're going to say that. No, here comes the bad guy. No, you just know that it's going to happen.

It's just so by the numbers and it's not inspired at all. So, yeah, there's just so much with this movie that could have been good, but the score is good. I guess I can say that. You know, the score, it's a good score. Same composer from the first, I think it's the same composer of Narnia, if I remember correctly, but the score is good. Essentially what the story is,

is that Manta's still pissed off about what happened to his father and he wants to have revenge on Arthur, so he's trying to find ways to do that, and then they stumble upon, him and Randall Park stumble upon this trident, and it has missed her,

and wonder and whatever behind it and then there's a bad guy who wants to do some stuff and then he is now going to be able to take on Arthur more and we don't know why actually you don't even get to really see the Aquaman powers you see him swimming around and he can breathe I guess oh yeah it's his powers you can breathe under water and he's strong but and the other thing

that doesn't work in this movie at the jokes it's like there's so many you can literally hear the thud of the jokes when they're coming in. It's like, oh, here we go. Here's the next joke. Here's the next joke. Here it is.

Oh, that's it. So, yeah, it's just a bummer. It's just a bummer that it went out this way. And then when you look at Black Adam, well, Black Adam was last year, but still Shazam, The Flash, Blue Beetle, and now this one, they had four movies. None of them did well.

because I think the major part, and I'm one of the few people that liked the majority of the new stuff that came out. Didn't mind The Flash. I know the beginning is pretty bad. The CGI is terrible, and the ending's not good, but I like the Michael Keaton stuff,

and I like the relationship that the Flash had with his mom, but I understand all the criticisms and get why people hate it. Blue Beetle really dug that movie. Doug the family stuff, did not dig the superhero stuff, generic, in the same stuff with the Flash. generic. This Shazam stuff,

Zach Levi was playing a 12-year-old when everybody else was playing an 18-year-old, but the story was doable. Do it's something to catch on streaming. It's fine. And then this one. So,

it seems like the end couldn't come fast enough because nothing was really working. And as I mentioned, CGI for the Flash. The CGI in this one, too. Very video-gamy. Very video-gamy. And like, You never really feel like you're locked into it. You're never emotionally attached.

So that's the first part of this. That's the first part of the breakdown. It's only so much I can say without spoiling it. We're going to do a full spoiler review with myself, Koi, Winston. Oh, well, no, Winston's not going to be able to do it because he didn't get a chance to see it. But myself and Koi will do it. And we're going to put it on Christmas. So if you want to watch the spoiler review for that, we'll have it out on Christmas.

But yeah, that's really the majority of what I can say. So I will, I want to talk about what. what's next for the DC universe and if this is going to hurt them at all and all that. That'll kind of close out this shorter episode of big thing today. But before I do, I would like to tell you about both AG1 and Rocket Money. Here you go. I always get excited when I get a chance to talk about AG1. You guys know, if you've been listening to this show long enough,

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and you're able to, please consider one of our wonderful sponsors. I always pin the comment, the sponsors in the first comment below and I put it in the description. Okay. So what does this mean overall now for the DC universe for DC? Is it going to hurt James Gunn? Is it going to hurt Peter Safran? Because that's the thing you don't remember here.

Peter Safran's name is all over this thing. It's always James. It's going to be James Juan. It's going to be a Moa that take the flag for this. You know, it'll be people didn't want to see Amber Hur. It'll be all these different conversations that'll be happening. But they don't ever really bring up the producer. Peter Safran is the co-head of D.

DC now. And his name's all over the beginning of this movie. When you see the credits, it's Peter Saffron production, Peter Saffron, Peter Saffron, it's everywhere. Is that worrisome? Or is it less worrisome? Because they said, look, there's a lot of great stuff that Peter Saffron has done. But now let's combine that with the creative brain of James Gunn. They work really well together. We had a really good guitar player that was part of a bad band. And now we got a great lead singer for him. So now here we go. that's possible. And maybe they just click together

and they realize, okay, we can actually... And maybe Peter Seferrin said it. I'm just... It ain't working with this other team. James, please come in. Help me out. Let's do it together. And maybe that's exactly what happened

because this movie was done already. And it's very likely that that's exactly what happened. But the question is, to the casual viewer, right? If you're watching this show, then if you're excited about James Gunn's universe and you're excited about the new Superman movie, then the idea of these superhero movies that have come out and not done well isn't going to deter you from seeing that movie.

Now, the casual viewer is another question. The casual viewer, it's going to be like, okay, well, wait a minute. The casual viewer who is only seen and doesn't, and some people don't know the difference of being DC and Marvel. I know it's blasphemous, but some casual viewers don't know. They just say, oh, is that part of this? It's part of Spider-Man going to show up in there? No, it's DC.

But a lot of people just don't know. Don't assume that everybody knows as much about the Lord as you and I do, right? So when this movie doesn't do very well, and they go another one that ate it, and then the Ant Man ate it, and the Marbles ate it, and then, you know, Thor, Love and Thunder wasn't great, and then Shazam, and then they're just like, I'm done. No more superheroes for me. Now, Superman is different. Superman is one of these movies that they haven't, we haven't had a, man of steel was what,

2012? We haven't had a single Superman movie and really in the old school lore Zach Snyder and I think I liked the fact, I like Manna Steele I don't know where you guys stand on it but I really like Manisteele but it's not traditional Superman and I think at the time it was warranted to do that. It was a good

it was good to try it and it was and Henry Cavill was fantastic but we haven't had we had the Brandon Ralph version back in 2004 2005, is that one was? 2005, and it was, they were just trying to recreate the Christopher Reeve tone and not the Superman tone alone. And it's like, let's see what someone who really understands Superman is going to do with this.

So this, and now you have the potential merger now of Paramount and Warner Brothers, which also comes into play massively. Because what happens now? what happens if they do make this merger? Superman is already under the microscope. It's already. It's like, okay, is this movie going to perform? Because if it performs and performs really well, then they go, look at James Gunn.

He came out at the gate. He said he was going to do it. He did it. This is a fantastic movie. What's next for DC? You can see everybody talking about already. Oh, my God, this kid, David Cornswit, he's the real deal.

We didn't think anybody could do it. But, man, we wanted Henry Cavill, but he really did it. And we haven't seen a version of Lois Lane like this. And you start hearing this stuff. I'm just saying if all the positive things happened this way, Jimmy Olson, the way we were worried that they were going to have too much Green Lantern, but the way that they used them worked out and the casting was good, the music was good.

This is the best Superman movie. And it's part of the debate is one of the best Superman movies ever. Then DC is going to be in a very, very incredible spot. And I know what I'm saying. is not, is, is not an easy task. It's almost an impossible task, but it's not an easy task at all. It's possible, but it's not an impossible, but it's, it's very, very hard to achieve that in any movie, especially a Superman movie.

But if you can do it, it's like being part of a baseball team that's been losing for years, but they used to be champions. And you're coming back to manage the team, and you come back and you win a championship, like right away when you come back. on your first big game, or even if it will, it's just a big game. Yeah, but if you can make a billion dollars of Superman, that hasn't been done. And if that's done, it's going to change things. And Paramount, then, if Paramount does buy, he's going to go, okay, James Gunn, what do you got next?

Let's do it. Stick to your plan. Let's go. If it doesn't succeed, well, throw that plan out the window. Throw that plan out the window, if it doesn't succeed, I mean, maybe they try to rework stuff at Warner Brothers and say, well, maybe don't do that movie, do that movie instead, and try to do that. But if Superman does not work, James Gunn's done at D.C. He's just, there's not a, you can't recover from that.

Unless you get to the Batman movie, The Brave and the Bold, if you get to that fast. So, I mean, Batman always seems to be the saving grace. So, yeah, man. Where do you guys stand on it? What do you think? You think that this is going to, the Aquaman? And look, there is still a possibility. As I put this show out today, there's still a possibility

because the first Aquaman did $67 million in its opening weekend and wound up making a billion dollars. There is an outside shot that this movie could actually make money. Do I think that's going to happen? No. Do I think it's going to lose a lot of money? I do. I don't think anybody's interested in it.

I don't think we're in the heyday of the superhero genre the way we were in 2018. But there's still a shot. So I start with that. Do you think that there's a shot that it's actually going to make money? Do you think that the reviews are going to hurt it, if anything? And if it doesn't make money, will it hurt the DCU or people aren't going to care? Because, again, it'll be almost two years out,

but a year and a half before Superman even comes out. And the hype will be able to build. And it'll be the old regime is gone. It's buried. And now let's start it up. So what say you guys? As I said, this was a very short episode today. I just wanted to get the review out to you guys, the non-spoiler review.

I'll have a spoiler review out for it. I'm going to have the spoiler review also with Koi. And then we have a lot of stuff coming up next week. I got my top 10 list. I have a top 10 TV list. I have anticipated. I got tons of stuff on this channel. So if you're brand new the channel, you've never been here before,

subscribe to that channel right there. Do it. Thanks for joining us here today. I appreciate it. It's the big thing. And we'll see you on the flip side. Bye, guys.