Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom is finally arriving in theaters this week after years of anticipation from DC fans. The sequel also serves as the final entry in the DCEU before it undergoes a reboot under the new regime of James Gunn and Peter Safran.
However, the film's buzz hasn't been strong leading up to its release as reports claimed that it received disappointing test screening scores, undergone multiple reshoots, and one of its stars was also involved in a highly-publicized legal controversy.
Now, the day before its release in North American theaters, the reviews of the DCEU sequel have finally arrived, and, unfortunately, they're not encouraging.
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Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom Reviews Finally Arrived
The critics' reviews for Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom have finally arrived today as the embargo was lifted this morning.
So far, the reception has been mostly negative as it received a Rotten Tomatoes score of 34% as of writing this article based on the 62 reviews that the site has gathered so far.
In comparison, the first Aquaman film received a score of 65%, which is on the positive side of the Tomatometer.
While Jason Momoa and Patrick Wilson's chemistry, and the movie's world-building and action sequences were praised, most of the criticisms went toward its muddled storytelling, VFX, lack of character development, humor, and writing.
There is no doubt that this is not the kind of reception that the film was hoping to get, especially since it is the final DCEU movie.
Moreover, the first film was the only entry in the franchise that reached the billion-dollar mark at the box office.
As we've pointed out, the film's buzz wasn't already encouraging leading up to the release and some pundits started to get concerned when word came that the embargo would only be lifted the day before the release in North American theaters.
The most unusual part here is that the film was already released in several international markets, and yet, the embargo is still in place for the critics' reviews, which suggests that the studio has no confidence in it.
Most of the time, the embargo on social media reactions and reviews is lifted days or weeks before their release to gain word-of-mouth. In the case of this film, it is quite the opposite.
It is curious to see what the box office results will be after this coming weekend, and whether it will follow the pattern of the recent DCEU releases, which failed to meet most fans' expectations.
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