Yeah... this was kinda bullshit.

It's great that they gave Mera more of an active role, whereas I've mostly known her as Aquaman's gf for most of my life. But it's fucking hard to root for her and their budding relationship when she's suddenly switched on into a bloodthirsty mass murderer, decapitating people left and right or shooting icicles into their skulls. That's just way too far. And these are HER people! Holy shit.

I don't care for Superman's new outfit. The high collar and weird armor look and black S symbol on the cape are incredibly off-putting. They also gave him a neck thicker then his head, which looks ridiculous. Wonder Woman's outfit is also pretty damn bad. I'm not even sure why they're going with this look, when she has a very different outfit in the New 52 comics.

Overall, I'm alright with the art style, though in some shots and angles the noses appear huge. Not a fan of that big nose look, they could tone that down quite a bit.

Green Lantern... my god, I can't fucking stand this interpretation of Green Lantern. What were they smoking when they came up with this? Since when is Hal Jordan a fratboy douchebag? Uttering cringeworthy lines like "Bro, I caught them!" This is Hal Jordan? That's not any Hal Jordan I'm familiar with. I mean, even Kyle Raynor at his most derpy noobish self never sank this low. Horrible, horrid character.

The opening scene with Arthur has him causing a huge bar brawl. Which wouldn't be terrible, except... it seems to go on for ten minutes, with waves of big burly men repeatedly throwing themselves at Arthur, when it's been demonstrated repeatedly that he's some kind of superpowered freak. Why do they keep fighting him? It makes zero sense. Now, you look at Arnold's intro in Terminator 2, and that's what a scene like that should've been like. Realistic people reacting to an inhuman intruder. They get scared, and back off. Not just continuing to fight like idiots when the guy keeps effortlessly beating your skulls in. Just awful nonsense.

So... they capture a Virginia class attack submarine for its missiles? But a Virginia's Tomahawk cruise missiles fly in the air. That's odd, when they then clearly shoot torpedoes underwater at Atlanteans. Why did they mention the missiles, when they used the torpedoes? Were they really too afraid to say "torpedoes" in case it'd confuse the audience? This is perplexing. Of course, I was also completely thunderstruck at the image of poor Atlanteans being burned to death in huge fires... while UNDERWATER. Seriously, how do you have these torpedoes causing raging fires while at the bottom of the ocean?

The production value in certain sequences of this animated film are simply atrocious. The initial intro with Batman chasing some of Crane's henchmen is probably the most glaring example of this. What do we get? Crane's henchmen in a getaway car, driving down completely empty, deserted streets while Batman chases in his plane, flying past sterile, CGI buildings. This is the sort of low rent bullshit that got Beware the Batman canceled. Here, see for yourself:

Look at that. Just embarrassing.

Why would the US army rush to face... a tsunami? This made no sense. Was there a scene missing or cut out? There's clearly a tremendous tsunami heading for the East Coast, but the response is to send out M1 Abrams main battle tanks and soldiers with M-16s? Pointing their rifles at a giant wall of water? Huh?

Arthur finally learns he can communicate with animals in the ocean. Which is his trademark ability, so sure... they had to stick it in. And it's fine, except that... well, you've gotta wonder why he didn't use it to communicate with the Cthulhu monster that Superman's beating up. Why does it only seem to work on sharks and whales and fish? You're expecting Arthur to bring Cthulhu over to his side and fight for the JLA, but nope... Superman's just gotta pound it. It's never explained.

What does this do well? Well... it does work as an origin story for Aquaman, sure. As an introduction to Aquaman's world and resuscitating his image in the mainstream, yeah this worked. But it doesn't do nearly as well as the Wonder Woman animated film, which really hit all the right notes and made you fall in love with the character. That's still the finest animated movie WB has put out, in my humble opinion. I can tell they're trying for the same endgoal with this film, but the execution's lacking. You're kinda maybe rooting for Arthur and him getting the girl (Mera) but you're also a little traumatized after seeing her bisect multiple people with ice daggers. There are plenty of bizarre choices made in the production of this film.

4/10