The DC movie franchise has managed to somehow make themselves worse. With the recent release of “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom,” critics and fans have been unabashed in their criticism. With a score of 34% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 5.8/10 rating on IMDb, the film is definitely now on the list as one of the worst DC films ever.

This movie basically picks up after the first “Aquaman.” If you don’t quite remember the first film, much like myself prior to heading into the theater, here’s a quick run down. The first film talks about how Atlantis, once the most advanced civilization on Earth, is now underwater and being ruled by a power-hungry dictator who is also Aquaman’s (Jason Momoa) half-brother King Orm (Patrick Wilson). Orm’s plan is to rule all of the remaining oceanic people and then conquer the surface world.

Long story short, half-human Aquaman (whose human name is Arthur Curry) is the true heir to the throne of Atlantis. This sets King Orm up on opposition to his long-lost, half-human brother Aquaman, who also has to battle a pirate named…Black Manta (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II), who wants to annihilate all Atlanteans, hates Aquaman, and vows to destroy Atlantis. And because he hates Aquaman, he vows to himself to never stop trying to destroy Atlantis. The movie ends with Aquaman rising to the Atlantean throne after defeating Manta. Then–surprise!–a mid-credit scene hints that Manta may not be so defeated after all.

Naturally, the second film confirms that Black Manta –big shock– is in fact not dead and gone, but now wields the power of the Black Trident with which he wants to unleash an old and evil force. Aquaman forges an alliance with his brother Orm, the former king of Atlantis, whom he you know…defeated in the last film and then put in exile. They set aside their grudges towards each other and come together to defeat the crazed pirate, saving the world and sea from irreversible doom.

Unfortunately, what sounds like a standard, potentially-promising superhero movie is anything but. This movie is so bad, I can’t remember how or where Manta got the trident and how it’s able to destroy the world. The script is terribly written, the dialogue is poor, and the acting is even worse. The character’s charm and charisma are drowned in a sea of uninspired scenes and action sequences. The chemistry between the cast members, specifically Mera and Aquaman, is just non-existent, like it died when they got married, and the CGI is sad. Warner Bros. is a multi-million dollar company and somehow can’t pay to make their CGI look decent.

The underwater scenes, which should be visually stunning, come across as cartoonish and poorly executed. Again, this movie is so bad it’s almost depressing.

Don’t get me wrong: I think Jason Momoa is a decent actor, he just needs to avoid DC films like the plague because DC makes most decently good actors look bad. This film even made Patrick Wilson look like a bad actor, but that’s what happens when you don’t have a good script or dialogue. This movie had so much potential and I quite enjoyed the first movie on some level. But the sequel did not live up to its predecessor.

Another thing is they didn’t completely cut out Mera’s (Amber Heard) scenes, even though some of her scenes were cut due to the lawsuit between her and Johnny Depp. She’s in about the first thirty minutes and a bit of the last half hour, but that’s it. I think they should have taken her out completely because only leaving a few of her scenes made it seem like the movie had gaps. The “joking” brother relationship between Orm and Aquaman is cringeworthy, very cringeworthy. They act like actual children instead of bickering like children and the jokes weren’t even funny.

I throw no hate to DC, but they need to get their act together. Maybe it’s just because I’m more of a Marvel fan (with the exception of DC’s “Batman”– more, please!), but the vast majority of DC’s characters are poorly-written and underwhelming. Maybe DC needs to invent a new superhero whose superpower is the ability to write a decent movie script?

Overall, I give Aquaman 2 a 2.5 out of 10. You can watch the movie on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, or YouTube.