Warner Bros. Pictures’ Aquaman continues to take audiences by storm across New Zealand, taking in an astounding $7.03 million to date since it was released on Boxing Day. The figure makes “Aquaman” the highest grossing DC film to date in New Zealand. The film has made over $1.1 billion at the global box office since its release, making it the highest grossing DC film of all time, worldwide.

Joel Pearlman, Co-CEO of Roadshow Films said, “We are absolutely delighted to cross such a milestone at the New Zealand box-office with Aquaman. Audiences are embracing the character as one of their own and loving the epic underwater adventure Jason Momoa, James Wan and the team have created.”

From Warner Bros. Pictures and director James Wan comes Aquaman, the origin story of half-surface dweller, half-Atlantean Arthur Curry that takes him on the journey of his lifetime, one that will not only force him to face who he really is, but to discover if he is worthy of who he was born to be… a king.  The action-packed adventure spans the vast, visually breathtaking underwater world of the seven seas, and stars Jason Momoa in the title role.

The film also stars Amber Heard as Mera, a fierce warrior and Aquaman’s ally throughout his journey; Oscar nominee Willem Dafoe (“The Florida Project”) as Vulko, council to the Atlantean throne; Patrick Wilson as Orm, the present King of Atlantis; Dolph Lundgren as Nereus, King of the Atlantean tribe Xebel; Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as the revenge-seeking Black Manta; and Oscar winner Nicole Kidman (“The Hours”) as Arthur’s mom, Atlanna.  Also featured are Ludi Lin as Captain Murk, an Atlantean Commando, and Temuera Morrison as Arthur’s dad, Tom Curry.

Wan directed from a screenplay by David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick and Will Beall, story by Geoff Johns & James Wan and Will Beall, based on characters created by Paul Norris and Mort Weisinger for DC.  The film was produced by Peter Safran and Rob Cowan, with Deborah Snyder, Zack Snyder, Jon Berg, Geoff Johns and Walter Hamada serving as executive producers.

Wan’s team behind the scenes included such frequent collaborators as Oscar-nominated director of photography Don Burgess (“Forrest Gump”), Wan’s five-time editor Kirk Morri, production designer Bill Brzeski, and visual effects supervisor Kelvin McIlwain.  They were joined by costume designer Kym Barrett and composer Rupert Gregson-Williams.

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There was no denying that one of the biggest box office draw-cards at the latter part of 2018 was Aquaman from Warner Bros. Pictures.

Based off the DC Comic series, Jason Momoa plays Arthur, Aquaman with a stellar support cast.

Toy manufacturers, Mattel produced a line up of companion toys to the film, but at this stage only five figures in Series One.

All come very well bubble packaged and feature comic-like artwork on the rear of the packaging aswell as a mention to at least two other figures in the series.

Starting off with Aquaman, the detail to the body face has had a lot of love added in. The life-like expression, the colouring to the hair is totally top shelf stuff.

Aquaman comes with only his trident as an accessory. The trident is okay, but lacks the details that we see on the figure itself. It is almost a plastic straw with a pointy end.

Nonetheseless, Aquaman is the namesake for the toy line – we thought it would be the most popular and hardest to find, but it wasn’t, that medal goes to General Murk, but more about him later.

If, like me you love intricacies when it comes to collectibles, Black Manta, which is one of two fully suited action figures in Mattels Aquaman line does have alot going on with his body work.

The piping or hoses that keep his suit compressed protrude from the body, as they would in real life and as they do in the film.

Mattel have done well here – alot of toy manufacturers take shortcuts and I feel that Mattel really went all out on Black Manta, they could have easily had the piping or hoses as plastic molds as a part of the overall figures body.

Black Manta is the only one on the line up to have a few accessories with him.

Orm is very similar to the Aquaman figure. Differences here are of course the colouring of his suit as I quite liked the silver on purple and how this over lays on the figures body. Orm has a scaled body, similar to Aquaman’s but as he does in the film, Orm has a cape. The cape is not fabric, sadly, it is a soft rubber or plastic.

Again, like Aquaman, Orm comes with only a trident.

Mera’s best feature is the face. For it encapsulates her personality, a no nonsense heroine from the film. Her hair is a soft plastic, rubber like, I suspect that synthetic hair was not used, not only to keep costs down but also to make sure that the Hera figurine appealed to boys aswell as girls.

She is a basic figure though, scaled body, and slimmer when compared to the rest.

Mera comes with two accessories that we see from the film – as they are made of ice both are semi translucent and do not have alot of detail to them.

General Murk seems to be the favourite in the series. Extremely hard to find. As he is the second figure in the series to be fully helmeted which is not removable, I would have thought he would be sufficiently detailed.

He isn’t, not really. The body is very bland asides from the minute detail around the neck just under the helmet. He comes with two accessories. And to be fair, he is rocking some mega gauntlets.

All of the 6 inch figures are fully articulated. For the likes of Aquaman and Orm, their suits get in the way though.

Arms are multi-jointed, there’s the shoulder which has the swivel as you would expect, elbows have both joint and swivel and there’s even some movement around the hand joints.

Leg and pelvic movements are good and solid but you will find that when first unboxed you’ll need to loosen the joints up a bit.

I was very pleased to see each figure was able to grip onto the their accessories tightly. I have experienced time and time again loose grips when it comes to a brand new action figure straight from the box.

With only a handful of action figures in the series – it is an easy one to pick up and get the entire set, however, you may need to search around abit for General Murk.

Mattel have done the film justice with the Aquaman toy line and personally I’m hoping to see a bit more in the series. Would be great to have some of the giant Seahorses or similar as ‘vehicles’ to go along with the release of Series One.

But who knows, perhaps that is something in the works to come out with a second Aquaman film…

In all a top shelf series of figures to own and you can see our video review above.

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Warner Bros. Pictures’ first-ever Aquaman standalone feature is making huge waves at the box office, coming in at #1 and taking in an incredible $726,000 in its opening day in New Zealand.

The epic action adventure, directed by James Wan and starring Jason Momoa in the title role, opened on approximately 111 screens on Boxing Day. The results marked the highest Boxing Day opening of all time in New Zealand and the biggest opening for a Warner Bros. Pictures’ film in 2018.

Joel Pearlman, Co-CEO of Roadshow Films stated, “The Boxing Day results prove that Aquaman is king of the box office as well as the seven seas.  We are thrilled with these extraordinary numbers, and equally excited to see audiences comprised of movie fans, DC aficionados, and families filling the cinemas this holiday season.  We anticipate strong word of mouth will carry these terrific results well into the New Year.”

From Warner Bros. Pictures and director James Wan comes Aquaman, the origin story of half-surface dweller, half-Atlantean Arthur Curry that takes him on the journey of his lifetime—one that will not only force him to face who he really is, but to discover if he is worthy of who he was born to be… a king.  The action-packed adventure spans the vast, visually breathtaking underwater world of the seven seas, and stars Jason Momoa in the title role.

The film also stars Amber Heard as Mera, a fierce warrior and Aquaman’s ally throughout his journey; Oscar nominee Willem Dafoe (“The Florida Project”) as Vulko, council to the Atlantean throne; Patrick Wilson as Orm, the present King of Atlantis; Dolph Lundgren as Nereus, King of the Atlantean tribe Xebel; Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as the revenge-seeking Black Manta; and Oscar winner Nicole Kidman (“The Hours”) as Arthur’s mom, Atlanna.  Also featured are Ludi Lin as Captain Murk, an Atlantean Commando, and Temuera Morrison as Arthur’s dad, Tom Curry.

Wan directed from a screenplay by David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick and Will Beall, story by Geoff Johns & James Wan and Will Beall, based on characters created by Paul Norris and Mort Weisinger for DC.  The film was produced by Peter Safran and Rob Cowan, with Deborah Snyder, Zack Snyder, Jon Berg, Geoff Johns and Walter Hamada serving as executive producers.

Wan’s team behind the scenes included such frequent collaborators as Oscar-nominated director of photography Don Burgess (“Forrest Gump”), Wan’s five-time editor Kirk Morri, production designer Bill Brzeski, and visual effects supervisor Kelvin McIlwain.  They were joined by costume designer Kym Barrett and composer Rupert Gregson-Williams.

Warner Bros. Pictures Presents a Peter Safran Production, a James Wan Film, Aquaman.  The film is being released in 2D, 3D and IMAX.

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I’ve been really excited to sea Aquaman ever since the trailers starting washing over the world.

A fresh new take on an arguably less popular superhero was ‘shore’ to make a splash especially with Jason Momoa captaining the ship. The movie should have everything needed to drown us in entertainment. Okay I’m done with ocean puns.

Aquaman is a seriously fun superhero movie that had me smiling almost the entire time. This is a film everyone can love and easily follow along. It takes the standard formula for a comic book adaptation but executes it flawlessly. There may only be a few surprises but Aquaman never makes you feel like you need one.

The characters all visually fit their role perfectly, it truly feels like the costumes had been plucked out of the comic book pages themselves and made to fit the theme. Of course Aquaman himself feels perfect with Momoa’s performance but so does everyone else. They all could be listed here but other standouts have to include Amber Heard as Mera and Patrick WIlson as Orm who absolutely owned their respective roles.

Speaking of visual perfection, special mention has to be to the beauty of the underwater scenes especially Atlantis itself. My breath was literally taken away as I couldn’t help but gasp when the colours came to life. From the marine animals to the Atlanteans to the spectrum of colour again it’s all so gorgeous. The aquatic mounts used in battle also looked spectacular without taking anything away from their riders.

The choreography during the actions scenes feel like something straight out of an anime, except in a good way. There are so many moments when characters get to show off their unique abilities and each time it looks stunning. It immediately makes you know how powerful all of these fighters are with the weight of the punches, the clangs of the tridents and literally everything Black Manta uses.

It’s surprising how much is fit into the 142 minute film even despite it’s length. It feels great due to the pacing is just so good. Too many superhero movie series take far too long on the origin story. Aquaman’s intro was short, sharp, simple and importantly explained everything that was needed to be known. A few non intrusive flashbacks spread later on filled in any gaps. While the entire pace was great, this was the best possible way to handle an intro.

I said it earlier but Aquaman just made me smile so much. It had a beautiful goal of turning Aquaman into a badass which took Jason Momoa less than 2 seconds to achieve that. Aquaman certainly has its cheesy and somewhat predictable moments but all of the best superhero movies do. I would happily include Aquaman in my list of best superhero movies to see.

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As the world mourns the loss of Superman an evil rises.

Justice League from Warner Bros. sees the elite from DC Comic’s band together, joining forces to take down an enemy that has not been seen for thousands of years.

Feeding on the fear of humanity as desperation hits the civilians of earth in the wake of Superman’s demise, a powerful villain called Steppenwolf returns to Earth with his army to retrieve three Mother Boxes. Something that he had tried previously but had been thwarted.

He first attacks the Amazon’s, invading Themyscira. Queen Hippolyta, all but defeated loses the Mother Box that the Amazonians were entrusted to keep safe. Hippolyta sends word to her daughter, Diana, better known as Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot).

Steppenwolf then sets his sights on Atlantis prompting Aquaman (Jason Momoa) to rise up and try to defend the oceans.

Then there’s the third box, held in a scientific research facility…

If Steppenwolf and his army of Parademons gains all three Mother Boxes, he can make Earth anew into his own vision and would see all life on the planet wiped out.

Initially Aquaman is reluctant to join the crusade. Batman (Ben Afflek) came to realise that something was going on just before the Amazon’s were attacked. Realising that he couldn’t do it alone he begins recruiting Flash (Ezra Miller), Wonder Woman, Aquaman and Cyborg (Ray Fisher).

Together they face off against a formidable force that none of them have had to deal with before.

But there’s one superhero still required to be able to bring down Steppenwolf for good…

Justice League is choca with action filled epic battle scenes and there’s enough DC Comic superhero goodness to keep you engaged.

The narrative of the film is very loyal to the how the comics are written – and while comic book to movie screen may not play out so well on a contextual sense, Director Zack Snyder, assisted by Joss Whedon, did superbly well.

What let it down for me a little was the weak and forced attempts at humour.

DC films have always been a serious affair and Justice League did not really need to have cheesy one-liners or awkwardly inserted light hearted moments.

Nonetheless – Justice League is still a film you must see before this year ends and fans of DC Comics will absolutely love it.

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Director James Wan and star Jason Momoa dive into the Super Hero’s first-ever solo feature, along with cast mates Amber Heard, Willem Dafoe, Patrick Wilson, Nicole Kidman and more.

Principal photography has begun on Warner Bros. Pictures’ action adventure Aquaman, helmed by James Wan (“The Conjuring” films, “Furious 7”). Jason Momoa stars in the title role, returning to the character he plays in this fall’s “Justice League.”

The film also stars Amber Heard (“Justice League,” “Magic Mike XXL”) as Mera; Oscar nominee Willem Dafoe (“Platoon,” “Spider-Man 2”) as Vulko; Temuera Morrison (“Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones,” “Green Lantern”) as Tom Curry; Dolph Lundgren (“The Expendables” films) as Nereus; Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (upcoming “Baywatch,” Netflix’s “The Get Down”) as Black Manta; with Patrick Wilson (“The Conjuring” films, “Watchmen”) as Orm / Ocean Master; and Oscar winner Nicole Kidman (“The Hours,” “Lion”) as Atlanna.

The film is being produced by Peter Safran, with Zack Snyder, Deborah Snyder, Rob Cowan, Jon Berg and Geoff Johns serving as executive producers.

Wan’s team behind the scenes includes such frequent collaborators as Oscar-nominated director of photography Don Burgess (“The Conjuring 2,” “Forrest Gump”), his five-time editor Kirk M. Morri (“The Conjuring” films, “Furious 7,” the “Insidious” films) and production designer Bill Brzeski (“Furious 7”). They are joined by costume designer Kym Barrett (“The Matrix” trilogy; “The Amazing Spider-Man”), along with Oscar-winning VFX supervisor Charles Gibson (“Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest,” “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 & 2”) and VFX supervisor Kelvin McIlwain (“The Fast and the Furious” franchise).

As is fitting for the king of the sea, the shoot will take place mainly in locations spanning the stunning Gold Coast of Queensland, Australia, with extensive filming to be accomplished at Village Roadshow Studios. The production will utilize the facility’s sprawling backlot and all nine VRS soundstages, including its newest, Stage 9, the largest of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere. Filming will also take place in Newfoundland, Sicily and Tunisia.

An icon for over 75 years, Aquaman is known by fans of DC Comics as the ruler of Atlantis but committed to protecting the entire globe, both land and sea.

Currently set for a 2018 release, the film is based on characters from the DC universe. Stay tuned to us here at StG for more info and trailers as we get closer to the films’ release date!

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