Okay, so it's been established via Marvel's recent Ant-Man film that you can make a successful motion picture from pretty much any superhero property. That said, Aquaman is often lambasted as one of the - for lack of a better term - "lamer" superheroes in existence. He's often the butt of the jokes when it comes to DC's superhero line-up, and he's not the sort of character who really makes all that sense put next to Superman and Batman. Like Ant-Man, Aquaman is a character who - given his tendency to communicate with the ocean and its creatures and such - will probably only work if he's played somewhat tongue and cheek. But the universe that Warner Bros. are setting up doesn't have the playful, quipping feel of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (something that helped Ant-Man), and a serious or dark Aquaman film risks coming over as... well, a bit of an embarrassment. Jason Momoa, the actor cast in the role of Aquaman, doesn't come across as somebody with huge comic potential, either, which adds further cause for the concern.
Sam Hill is an ardent cinephile and has been writing about film professionally since 2008. He harbours a particular fondness for western and sci-fi movies.