Surprisingly, I enjoyed this movie. There are some character name drops early in the film before you're introduced to said character which may cause confusion, but thankfully there is a scene that helps clear it up. Specifically, late in the first act, a certain sequence flips back and forth between the past and the present which was welcome to give the audience background on how Arthur was trained and which character(s) is aligned with which people. I'm also glad Mera name drops a certain character which lets us know when this movie takes place in the timeline of recent DC films.
With that said, there were other character names mentioned in reference to family trees and who was related to whom which I was a little lost on, but I'm sure a second watch would help clear that up. I got the general gist and that was fine. I'm glad there was an actual story and not just action scene after action scene. I did like the way scenes were shot when there was action. Getting that full 360 view worked well and made most scene flow.
I do admit that I did have to google, "Is Aqauman bulletproof?" as I didn't realize he was nor did I understand why certain characters needed water to breath, but I guess since they've never been on land before that they were out of their element. This works at the time, but there were some inconsistencies that are kind of ignored in the final act.
But overall, it wasn't too campy, the tone was consistent with a good mix of seriousness and humor throughout. There were a lot of set pieces with different rulers and such, again a little confusing on first watch keeping all of it straight when this was my first introduction to this world, but upon second watch I think things will make more sense.
