‘Aquaman And The Lost Kingdom’ Is A Rare Kind Of Sequel
by Frank Martin
There’s no doubt that Aquaman and The Lost Kingdom is a wacky story. It involves a cursed trident, strange undersea creatures with cities, and a rideable seahorse. But there’s a lot that can be learned by how the plot was approached. Sequels, especially superhero films, are keen on introducing new threats and expanding the universe. Although there was a lot of expansion in the Aquaman sequel, the plot really did not expand. The same players were involved and Black Manta (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) reappears as the main threat. This means the sequel is a direct continuation of the story from the original in a way that most sequels never are.
After the events of the first film, Aquaman (Jason Momoa) is the new king of Atlantis and his brother Orm (Patrick Wilson) is in prison. However, Black Manta is still on his quest for revenge. In the search for power to defeat Aquaman, he uncovers a cursed trident that possesses him and allows him to use a vast underwater army to attack Atlantis. Aquaman has to team up with his brother to stop Black Manta before he uses the army to cause irreparable climate change damage to the planet.
There are certain sequels that have villains from the first film take a more prominent role. A great example is Fantastic Four and its sequel, Fantastic Four: The Rise of The Silver Surfer. Dr. Doom (Julian McMahon) is a major villain, but he’s not the core focus of the story. Silver Surfer (Laurence Fishburne and Doug Jones) and Galactus (an alien death cloud) are. In the second Aquaman movie, there are no other new characters to pose as the main threat. The dead king who gives Black Manta his power could take that role, but he was more or less absent and was killed just moments after he arose. The dynamic between Aquaman, Orm, and Black Manta remains the core of the entire story, just as the trio was the core of the first film. This sets the movie up as a unique direct continuation of the entire story.
Aquaman And The Lost Kingdom are now streaming on Max.
