Jason Momoa returns as the King of Atlantis — likely for the last time — in “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom,” the final DC Extended Universe movie.

It’s no secret that comic book movies reached an apex several years ago and, with a few rare exceptions, have been more and more disappointing since the pandemic interrupted both release schedules and projects in production. Plus, the oversaturation of the medium, as with Westerns in the 1950s and Asian-inspired action in the 2000s, means people are sick of it.

With the movies of DC, though always playing catch-up with Marvel, there seemed to be a bit of a turnaround with “Birds of Prey,” “The Suicide Squad” and “Shazam!” but that goodwill quickly went bad as “Black Adam,” the second “Shazam!” and “The Flash” couldn’t live up to their promises of something refreshing and worth the wait.

Now, after the penultimate lukewarm reception of “Blue Beetle” in August, the final nail titled “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom” has been put into the DCEU coffin. The early 2022 announcement of a series reboot with James Gunn as the new co-leader of the not-at-all-confusing DCU meant the old DCEU wouldn’t matter, and neither would the films that still needed to be released.

To paraphrase T.S. Eliot, so this is how the Detective Comics Extended Universe movies come to an end, not with a bang but a whimper.

It’s hard to say who or what is really to blame — it was probably quite the team effort — but it’s safe to say few if anyone in front of or behind the camera truly cared about delivering a film that, ultimately, does not need to be seen to understand the larger mythos.

Arthur Curry (Jason Momoa), a.k.a. Aquaman has quite the life as the King of Atlantis, but his role as leader of the ocean kingdom is not everything he thought it would be as he’d rather spend time with his wife Mera (Amber Heard) and parents (Temuera Morrison and Nicole Kidman).

Meanwhile, after failing to defeat Aquaman in the first film, Black Manta (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) takes a journey to an ancient lost kingdom, where he discovers the mythic Black Trident and wields its power to unleash an ancient and malevolent force on the planet.

Hoping to end his reign of terror, Aquaman forges an unlikely alliance with his half-brother, Orm (Patrick Wilson), the former king of Atlantis. Setting aside their differences, they join forces to protect their kingdom and save the world from irreversible destruction.

To the credit of Momoa and a few other actors, thinking of this as a series finale wrap party means they could go all out with no repercussions, which some of them do. It may be a garbage script with a confusing plot, but at least they’re having fun with it. Momoa and Wilson occasionally have great chemistry, and smaller supporting performances by Randall Park, Martin Short and John Rhys-Davies will always be welcome by me, even to them was probably an easy paycheck.

Longtime defenders of the less-than-great superhero movies have said these are essentially live-action cartoons and to stop taking them so seriously. But after movies like “The Dark Knight” and “Logan” take such a grounded, albeit more dour, approach with practical effects only highlighted by CGI, the overabundance of computer animation and green screen in something like this is immediately illusion-breaking. No, they can’t all be James Cameron’s “Avatar” films taking a decade to perfect the technology, but surely it can be better than this.

The strangest thing about the “Aquaman” films is they are directed by James Wan, the man behind horror franchises like “Saw,” “The Conjuring” and “Insidious,” who you wouldn’t peg for a director of colorful, fantastical superhero fare. The irony is some of the best scenes in the movie — and there are only three of them — are when Wan can flex his horror muscles and give us some spooky, unnerving moments of terror.

But of course, none of that matters now. The one silver lining is the careers of just about everyone involved in this movie will be fine. Heck, rumors have circulated that Momoa may be playing a different superhero, Lobo, in Gunn’s new DCU. Let’s just hope they don’t hold this one against him.