Aquaman - 2 1/2 smiles

The best thing "Aquaman" has going for it is its lead, Jason Momoa, whose charisma is as formidable as his brawn. The problem is it's drowning in special effects - so much so that it interferes with the pleasure of watching Momoa's Aquaman do his thing. Certainly there are positives in director James Wan's extravagant underwater pageant where you can see a gladiatorial showdown sounded by an octopus on drums. But the bright spots can be difficult to relish amid the CGI spectacle and over elaborate screenplay.

There's a war brewing underwater, but David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick and Will Beall's script takes a while to get there. They have to map out Aquaman's beginnings: going back to Atlanna, the banished Atlantis princess (Nicole Kidman), washing up on the rocky Maine shores of a lighthouse keeper (Temuera Morrison). They fall in love and have a child named Arthur before Atlanna is forced to return to the sea. As an adult, Arthur moonlights as a hero in between happy-hour trips to the bar. But he's reluctantly drawn into a struggle for the throne of the seven seas with his younger brother Orm (Patrick Wilson), who's plotting a battle with 'surface dwellers,' He regards Arthur as a 'half-breed,' not fit for the underwater kingdom. The red-haired princess Mera (Amber Heard), herself a formidable fighter, joins with Arthur on a globe-trotting mission to save Atlantis and prevent war by finding a sacred trident, with occasional, half-hearted gestures of romantic banter along with way. And while Orm's complaints about the land people are legitimate (polluting the oceans), the movie is too timid to explore this idea more than superficially. Instead, we have a royal power struggle that could happen just about anywhere, including Krypton or ancient Greece. Nonetheless, because Wan and Momoa have such a firm grasp of who Aquaman, they ultimately steer the film toward sincerity. In relation to recent DC films, "Aquaman" falls somewhere between the dark and dreary Superman and the more enjoyable Wonder Woman. But it's a step in the right direction.