“Aquaman” was a reel (get it) pleasure to watch. The fight scenes were pretty epic. I mean, who doesn’t enjoy watching Arthur/Aquaman played by Jason Momoa, wield a golden trident, communicate with sharks and lift submarines from the bottom of the ocean? The love story was there as well, and of course everyone in the SURC Theater applauded when Mera, played by Amber Heard, and Arthur kissed during the action-packed last battle of the movie.

I couldn’t help but think of “Spongebob Squarepants” during the entire movie. I understand that the creators of “Spongebob” probably took a lot of the information from the original “Aquaman” comics to use for their Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy skits, but I still couldn’t help but draw the comparisons.

In “Aquaman,” Arthur’s arch-nemesis is Black Manta, a villain that shoots laser beams from his eyes and holds a personal grudge against the main character. In the “Spongebob” series, Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy’s arch nemesis is Man Ray. Coincidence? I think not! They even look similar with their glowing red eyes.

Speaking of Black Manta, how about that end scene? I won’t spoil it, but that definitely sets the plot for the next movie…

The movie “Aquaman” also seemed to push an agenda. There were several scenes that talked about pollution in the world’s oceans and how humans are having negative environmental impacts on water in general. The Atlanteans, essentially humans that evolved to breathe underwater, waged their first attack on people from the surface by sending their garbage and ocean-going vessels back onto land. References to these scenes indicate how Atlanteans were tired of humans polluting their waters for years and how they decided to send it all back at once as a form of retaliation.

The movie denotes that pollution is a problem and needs to be brought to the forefront of our minds. It advocates for change. There was also a point in the movie when Arthur calls out the people in political office and how they are doing a poor job of running the show. This again is an advocate for change in how we manage the world’s oceans.

The action scenes were great and the costumes were intricate and, quite frankly, pretty sick. The plot was ok, but it became distracting when the timelines jumped around and seemed to completely miss some aspects of the story. The beginning of the movie seemed a bit sped up and skipped straight into the main plot, as opposed to introducing the characters a bit more. Learning about Arthur’s background and history was a bit confusing, since it was spread throughout the movie. I understand that this might be fairly common for superhero movies, but it personally threw me off.

Watching movies at CWU’s Monday Movie Madness is a blast. These showings are often less formal than watching films in a movie theater. Students often cheer for the good guy, laugh at jokes and clap at the end of the film. This adds to the overall atmosphere of the movie-going experience. “Aquaman” was an action-packed movie and I’m glad I was able to watch it with my friends and peers at CWU.