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Fans Are Confused by Zack Snyder’s Reinvented, Smoldering Aquaman

First photo of Jason Momoa in character is out

Feb 21, 2015 10:40 GMT  ·  By
Jason Momoa is Aquaman in first official photo
   Jason Momoa is Aquaman in first official photo

Zack Snyder had been keeping a very low profile online for some time, before he decided the other day to surprise fans with the first official look at Aquaman, who will be making his debut with a cameo in next year’s “Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice” before getting his standalone movie.

Fans already knew that Jason Momoa, an actor famous for his physicality and rugged good looks, as showcased best on season 1 of “Game of Thrones,” would be playing Aquaman. If you’re familiar with the comics, you know that this superhero isn’t exactly the coolest, or smartest, or most beloved.

Something didn’t add up.

Jason Momoa’s Aquaman isn’t exactly Aquaman

With yesterday’s photo, we now have visual confirmation of Snyder’s plans regarding this character, plans that might involve, as Momoa teased, turning him into a badass. That is to say, in order to bring Aquaman to the big screen, Aquaman is being completely reinvented.

So no wonder that people online are confused and only slightly amused by visual confirmation that the Aquaman from the original comics won’t exist in his first outing to the big screen. There’s irony in there, just waiting to be appreciated.

Samples of the things people are saying online about the costume of the (basically rebooted) character are included below.

And it’s not just the fans who are baffled by this transformation: even in a context of the Nolanization of all superhero movies (aka that tendency to make them darker and more serious, which translates into the overuse of muted, dark colors), this barely makes any sense.

If this is the direction they’re taking with the character, Snyder and Warner Bros. should have just renamed the character, voices are saying right now.

Really, how is this surprising?

Then again, expecting a version of Aquaman closer to the one found in the comics means you haven’t been paying attention. Snyder’s first film for Warners, which actually had Christopher Nolan as producer, the rebooted Superman, “Man of Steel,” was all about reinvention, about using the mythology as a starting point for a new story.

Snyder changed everything on Supes from the costume to the fact that he’s now a killer - a change that many fans are still to digest properly.

Scott Mendelson of Forbes duly points out that we should have seen this coming since the casting announcement, “Of course, they didn’t hire Mr. Momoa so he could look sweet and wholesome. Moreover, the notion that we should be surprised by how intimidating the character looks shows something of a generational disconnect. And that disconnect is actually Warner Bros.’ secret weapon in terms of the character standing on his own two sea legs for a standalone film.”

In other words, without this transformation, the Aquaman movie would have been dated, and thus have its box office chances considerably cut down: this kind of fierceness, as displayed by Momoa in the photo, is exactly what younger audiences want.