How close is MCU Namor to the actual Namor, you may ask. Well, apart from sharing the same name and some basic characteristics for branding purposes, they are entirelly different characters on virtually every level.
- Let's start off with the basics such as his name. No, it wasn't a joke. The "Namor" name is literally a shortened version of "el nino sin amor". It's something a dying priest called Kidmor when Manletmor's people were killing some Spanish for being evil to their Indigenous slaves, whom they came across when they went to the surface to bury Manletmor's mother. Why would a dying priest call a random kid that? Well, who knows! First he calls him a demon and then he calls him that. What sense does that make? The demon part I get, weird flying kid flanked by blue guys; sure. But the rest? It's nonsensical. All that matters is that we have a contrived reason to call this guy by the trademarked named. So, to make it clear, we have a grown man going around telling people "my enemies call me Namor" which is a shortened version of a phrase some dying old man called him (before Kidmor caved his skull in), which in turn means "the boy without love". Yes, it's as ridiculous as it sounds. Our big bad's "name" is "loveless". "Aaaaahhhh fear me, I am the Loveless!!!". Jesus... Oh, btw, how the Hell does that work with Namor-a? Also, he even says "Imperius Rex" at some point but in Nahuatl, which makes no sense since Imperius Rex is a Latin phrase, and he reigns over no empire, but they had to get the trademark there! So yeah, here's your totally organic reinvention of Namor bro!
- Since we've discussed the name, let's move onto the backstory. Well, Atlantis is a fictional story passed onto myth, maybe based on some resemblance of historical truth and blablabla. Some theorised that it could've been in the Atlantic Ocean, hence things like the Lost Continent Of Mu and so on. Well, do we get a MesoAmerican/Pre-Mayan styled Atlantis here? Is there a reason for the cultural swap? The answer is... NO! "No Atlantis", you might say, "how does that work?". Well True Believer, sit tight because this one will blow your mind! Get this: Instead of some version of Atlantis, some other myth concerning an underwater lost city at least, we instead get... normal Aztecs. Yeah. Manletmor's people are normal Aztecs from the 1500s who, trying to flee the Conquistadors, went tripping on some flowers based on a Shaman's vision which was sent to him by one of their gods (no, you don't actually see the god ala the Thor movies, just narration). Those flowers turned them blue and "allowed them to draw oxygen from the water" so they went underwater. And that's it. They're not an ancient civilization lost in the annals of time, they're normal humans who went tripping because of invaders and they set up shop under the water. They named the place Talocan after their myths, but it's not some literal sunk city or anything like that. Somehow they managed to whip up advanced tech under the water, because in MCUland as long as you're an isolated society you can bypass the normal pace of progress. Dunno, maybe the Vibranium flower made them smarter than baseline humans. Point is, Namor's entire backstory is gone. No princess who fell in love with a sailor, no hidden ancient mythical civilization, nothing. It's literally an entirely new origin which has 0 to do with Namor's lore. I know someone's gonna bring up the Golden Age panels reposted on Twitter where Namor is "an enemy of men" but then he'd have to talk about Namor the guy who stretched his face and eyes to "fool and infiltrate the Japanese", and nobody wants that. Comic Namor works because he's supposed to be ruling over the majority of sea life since Atlanteans were down there for thousands upon thousands of years. Manletmor's literally been sitting in his underwater city for centuries and seething. It's laughable.
- And then we get to his appearance. He doesn't look like Namor by virtue of not being a tall, muscular and handsome man, but we've known that since forever. But he still has the elfish ears and winged feet. Why? Trademarking of course! Namor has them because of the thematic connection to Hermes/Mercury and the ethereal nature of Elves (and other similar creatures such as Nymphs) as passed down into pop culture through Tolkien. They may look kinda ridiculous at first in the comics too, but at least they work. Here? They're utterly random. Manletmor calls himself a mutant because he has to (get it, the X-Men are coming!!1!!!11). The ankle wings are drawn as a parallel to that "feathered god" Ku'Kul'Kan they call him. But it's a weak analogy; that's a feathered serpent, Manletmor just has some feathers on his ankles. The ears still remain random. Point being, they dumped some "core physical traits" on him to be safe, but they don't mesh with the new origin and are just there to go "gee whiz bloody entitled hateful virgins, MCU Namor literally looks the same, down to the ankle wings". I look at the guy and nothing screams Namor.
- Finally we have the characterization itself which is... eh. He's much more mellow and basically tries to broker a peace between Talocan and Wakanda so that they can go kill evil whiteys together. Why now? Why didn't he think of that before his people were close to being discovered? What the Hell was this 400 YO geezer doing when Thanos was snapping up his people? I guess he needed 400 years to power up his seething over ******. I liked it better when Killmonger was doing it because MBJ had charisma and looked cool. Either way, Manletmor wasn't even in the wrong on a baseline, really. He wanted to kill some randoms to protect his people but Wakanda was willing to risk a war to protect Ree-Ree. Why? No reason in-universe. So they go to war over some random kid. Great government there! Manletmor tries to convince them until Nakia kills some guards and then he goes full-on war mode. The Talocans body the Wakandans and it all ends as predictably as you'd think. ShuriPanther traps Manletmor in a jet and transports him to a place far from the sea while also frying him a bit. Manletmor impales her after a crappy fight (serious Bollywood effects there, except Bollywood is fun) and while he tries to stumble to the water, she takes out the spear, and instead of offing him, spares him. So Manletmor calls off the attack and they have an uneasy truce. But Manletmor warns them The Eternal ****** will come again, and then they'll beg him for help. So until the next time, Manletmor's off to the dark waters of the deep. Will he return? I doubt it. This guy isn't allying with anyone like Doom (unless MCU Doom is now an exiled Wakandan creating a safe haven for BIPOCs in Antarctica or something), there's no Invaders history now, and I doubt anyone would be crazy enough to do the FF cuckoldry subplot, so there's nothing that ties him to the surface or any of the upcoming plots. Best case scenario when [World Ending Event #4645] happens, whoever the Panther is will ask him to protect the planet his people live in, and he'll get some CGI battle scenes. But I don't see him getting a suit like comics Namor or any of that sort. For the foreseeable future, this is as much Manletmor as we'll get. Feige said that they might give him a solo if he's a hit though, so who knows.
And that's it. Ridiculous really. I can't help but wonder where all those massive budgets go. The big "war" set-piece was about 30 people atop a ship. The CGI looked rubbery all around. A big part of the Talocan scenes were already shown in the clips, so don't expect a lot of fleshing out. Hell, he keeps narrating about his "people" and "tribe" and all we see are about 4 guys and 2 gals in a forest. Talocans all descent from the same 4 couples? Man, talk about some Biblical incest stuff...
The best thing I can say is that some of the Namor fight scenes looked kinda cool in a videogamey way. I liked how he moved and how ruthless he was in going in for the kill every time. And me clowning on Manletmor aside, in the scene where he tries to talk Shuri into giving him Ree-Ree, with the cape and all, he looked pretty cool. If they gave him that plus the head dress and whatnot, he'd make one nice dolly. But this isn't Namor. This is an OC on every level, wearing the name for PR and trademark reasons. They couldn't do a "white" ethnostate because those are banned (they could've easily done a MENA-based Atlantis but Hollywood doesn't care about MENAs except when they can shoehorn BIPOCs to steal all their roles), so they created an entirely different backstory and character, then slapped the name on top and added some basic cosmetic traits. He's a good enough character with a nice aesthetic and backstory, but he is not Namor in any way, shape, or form. He just isn't.
So, yeah, that's all I have to say. I didn't care for it as a movie. Phase 4 continues being a bomb. I won't even talk about Ree-Ree, who is as stock as it gets. We could've gotten a proper film of T'Challa going against a world-weary, proper Namor played by Keanu in full-on Wick mode, and instead we got this:
Yeah... I can't wait to see how they'll ruin Doom. Namor and Kang have already been ruined for me. Thanos was a let down, and Adam Warlock will be another Gunn caricature. Just bring on the FF and Doom, I want to taste the pain...
As a final recap:
- Namor's name is comic book for "Avenging Son". Manletmor's name isn't his name, but is a shortened version of "the boy without love" so he calls himself the unloved/loveless/virgin.
- Namor is a big, buff, attractive, regal man. Manletmor's about 5'6" with flabs.
- Namor is the prince of a long lost mythical civilization full of weird tech and magic. Manletmor's a long-lived Aztec worshipped as a faux-god.
- Namor goes toe-to-toe with the Hulk. Manletmor went down by T'Challa's nerdy sister who looks as muscled as a twig.
- Namor wages war on the surface because he controls 70% of the planet, is angry at global pollution, is bipolar and an unashamed imperialist. Manletmor's been sitting in his cave and seething about the Spanish/Euros for 400 years.
- Namor has to pacify an entire empire and also struggle with being a child of both land and sea. Manletmor's just an Aztec leading the equivalent of a small nation state whose people don't even seem that peeved anymore.
- Namor is a blunt type who tells it like it is and often is the voice of reason amongst a group of supergeniuses playing god. Manletmor's 400 years old and comes off as wise as a teenager. He commands no authority, he's just trying his best to look like an arrogant prick, which is an aspect of Namor, but without the regallity it falls flat. They replaced that with more compassion in a way, but it doesn't make up for it.
Dunno, maybe there's more. I'm tired though. Aesthetics and actor aside, Manletmor just doesn't have the bite. He doesn't have the regallity. He's another "anti-villain" with none of Namor's power and wonder. When Namor appears you should feel the same as when Thor or Hulk do. This guy feels like a mid-level muscle boss you kill in the first act of a videogame. The whole thing felt like a mediocre videogame, really.
