Finally out in theaters, Aquaman is getting plenty of praise for being a movie that's main mission is just to have fun. It doesn't care how cheesy or crazy it is. However, even the strongest defenders of Aquaman must still be puzzled by the inclusion of an original song by Pitbull that drops right in the middle of the movie. Director James Wan explained his reasoning for why he wanted to include the song.
Putting the song in the sequence where Aquaman and Mera walk out of the water in slow motion, I felt: For fuck's sake, let's have fun with it! It's something out of Fast and Furious. Pitbull was in there very early on. He was really excited to do something for the film. That sequence is very tongue-in-cheek, and we just wanted to have fun with it. And we wanted a cheeky song at that point of the movie. I just wasn't sure what song it was going to be.
"For fuck's sake, let's have fun with it" is the best summarization of Aquaman that I have yet to hear.
At one point during the film, Aquaman (Jason Momoa) and Mera (Amber Heard) emerge from the ocean in slow motion, and then suddenly and inexplicably, Pitbull's "Ocean to Ocean" begins to play. It features Pitbull rapping about the plot of the movie, but the hook of the song is a cover of Toto's "Africa" featuring Rhea. Then, as quickly as it arrives, it disappears into the night.
It's a real thing that happens in this movie. While all of it feels pretty random (Why Pitbull? Why "Africa?"), the song was actually written for the movie before Pitbull signed on to record it. Director James Wan told Business Insider that he wanted to include a fun, cheeky song in the movie, but didn't immediately know that was going to be an "Africa" cover with Pitbull. If that's not the definition of tongue-in-cheek, then I don't know what is.
If you'd like to hear this song for yourself (and why wouldn't you?!), here is the official song from the film's soundtrack. Feast your ears on this:
"Ocean to Ocean" is certainly in line with the tone of Aquaman. The film is getting a lot of attention for how much fun it is and the crazy visuals on display. Not every movie can have a Pitbull song AND a Kraken voiced by Julie Andrews.
Aquaman is out in theaters right now. For everything DC has got coming down the pipeline, here's out DC movie release guide.
