Aquaman May Be Silly But It’s Buoyed by Some Old-Fashioned Pulp Spirit

The Saturday-afternoon-serial spirit is almost totally gone from movies. We have plenty of movies based on comic books, but very few that are in touch with those comics’ pulp roots. Most of the pictures in both the Marvel and D.C. universes are extravagant without being imaginative: The climactic battles may seem big while you’re watching them, but their memory withers five minutes later. Huge budgets and splashy marketing don’t constitute a soul.

The Saturday-afternoon-serial spirit is almost totally gone from movies. We have plenty of movies based on comic books, but very few that are in touch with those comics’ pulp roots. Most of the pictures in both the Marvel and D.C. universes are extravagant without being imaginative: The climactic battles may seem big while you’re watching them, but their memory withers five minutes later. Huge budgets and splashy marketing don’t constitute a soul.