Movie Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania

[Bluelegs]

Sorry guys - incoming bad review:
It's bad.
Marvel needs to seriously rejig their creative process. Almost everything they've put out in the last 2 or so years has felt rushed and convoluted. This one feels like the culmination of that, just going through the motions of what super hero movies have been like over the last 10 years, doing so without any care or consideration, completely benign.
It's pretty much 2.5hrs of actors standing in front of green screens without any props doing improv comedy, interlaced between a couple action set pieces.
The main positive is the villain - Kang, it does a good job selling us on him as the next big bad of the MCU, and that ends up feeling like the only reason this film was made. He doesn't really come into his own until the final act, in which the movie got its s**t together and became somewhat entertaining.

Marvel needs to start giving more autonomy to creatives. Right now it is so obviously being micromanaged by film executives, so the movies end up being slogfests that connect with no one, in an attempt to appeal to everyone. Seeing movies like Top Gun Maverick, Avatar 2, The Batman show what modern blockbusters can be like when studios let creatives do their thing has really shined a light on how dire the situation is with MCU movies.
I really hope they get their s**t together, cos right now Marvel movies are a bunch of arse.

Interesting. I found the final act to be the worst part of the whole movie. Wasting its setups and undermining the stakes.

Agree Kang is a good villain but really didn't feel like the movie for him to make his grand entrance. If you want a deadly serious, intimidating villain and you're playing them against quippy irreverant characters who don't take anything seriously you have to lower his status for comedic effect. Otherwise it's just tonal whiplash.

People didn't like Dr Strange but I thought that Wanda was a much more effective villain because the main characters seemed genuinely terrified of her.

 

[justlookingaround]

Interesting. I found the final act to be the worst part of the whole movie. Wasting its setups and undermining the stakes.

Agree Kang is a good villain but really didn't feel like the movie for him to make his grand entrance. If you want a deadly serious, intimidating villain and you're playing them against quippy irreverant characters who don't take anything seriously you have to lower his status for comedic effect. Otherwise it's just tonal whiplash.

People didn't like Dr Strange but I thought that Wanda was a much more effective villain because the main characters seemed genuinely terrified of her.

I actually liked Doctor Strange 2 cos at least it felt like a Sam Raimi movie and a bit different from the usual formula.

 

[charcoalchicken]

How do people still rock up to the cinemas to watch this played out superhero garbage?

 

[phantom13]

How do people still rock up to the cinemas to watch this played out superhero garbage?

Wonderful contribution that you went to the effort of COMING into the thread about a superhero movie to make.

 

[Strange Cat]

How do people still rock up to the cinemas to watch this played out superhero garbage?

Becoming a real struggle I’m not going to lie atm

MCU the last few years has been absolute garbage sans two films , MOM and Spidy

I’m 100% skipping GOTG and anything else untill I see that things have been changed , the shows have been the opposite with the only negative so far being She Hulk for me

They really need to make less and start connecting stuff …it feels very very formalutic atm

 

[Bluelegs]

How do people still rock up to the cinemas to watch this played out superhero garbage?

Pretty much only go as a way to catch up with some old uni friends.

My expectations just get lower and lower.

 

[glenferry23]

Didn’t mind it. Went in knowing full well Kang would be the highlight and that’s how it played out. Majors knocked it out of the park.

Not exactly setting the bar high I know but I’d have it above Love and Thunder and Dr Strange 2 In terms of recent films. It’s very vfx heavy which can be an issue for some.

 

[Hawks1523]

Geez. Tough crowd in here.
I didn’t mind it. It wasn’t a masterpiece but it sets up Kang and I was happy enough with that.

I will say I hated what the did with MODOK that was… yikes.

 

[peternorth]

I was surprised with modok. I’m not a comic book reader so know nothing about him. But thought it’d be bad but he wasn’t. Except his final act which was for comedic values I felt.

The film felt messy. Kang was ok. It rhymes with Scott lang.

 

[peternorth]

Spoiler

I thought kang would be more powerful. Again I’m not a comic book reader so no concept there.

When faced with danger at times Cassie took the helmet off. Why would you do that? Thought in a battle you’d be fully armed and protected? Maybe it was to show the viewing audience her face and emotions.

Agree with others who said it dragged at times. For mine scenes with pfeiffer seemed slow. A lot of “don’t ask questions just follow me”.

Loved the ants. Obviously when their farm was sucked into the realm it was foreshadowing what was to come.

Enjoyed mordok. Cassie telling him “don’t be a dick” was a bit cringey. But the redemption arc worked in the end I guess as he used his powers to break Kangs forcefield which for mine was weak considering his powers supposedly.

 

[peternorth]

Thought Kathryn Newton was good in Freaky. She didn't have much to work with in this.

It was not a good movie. First act was alright in a sort of 80's b-movie Star Wars knock-off kind of way, but began to drag very quickly once Kang turned up.

Everything with Modok was extremely awkward. The movie had no idea what to do with him and apparently the writers thought the character was enough of a joke that they didn't need to write actual jokes themselves.

What I found most weird was how the movie seemed to get bored with its own theme halfway though. It sets up Cassie as a bit of a rebel, getting arrested at protests and Scott as the overprotective Dad but then does nothing with it. Really, none of the main cast had a character arc.

Spoiler

I think Cassies rebellious nature kinda tried to tie in with the quantum realm rebels (as she fought side by side with them later)?

The walking and fighting buildings. Interesting but apt given the rebels probably up and move around.

 

[phantom13]

It’s not a spoiler thread guys so be conscious of what you post

 

[phantom13]

Guys, start a spoiler thread or use tags.

 

[Strange Cat]

So you just delete my post instead of editing it?

 

[phantom13]

So you just delete my post instead of editing it?

I did, I warned you in the last post.

 

[Strange Cat]

I did, I warned you in the last post.

Didn’t even see the post untill I checked back on the page just before

Whatever

 

[phantom13]

It’s not a spoiler thread guys so be conscious of what you post

Didn’t even see the post untill I checked back on the page just before

Whatever

The warning was posted 3 hours before your deleted post.

Can’t be much clearer.

 

[WCErevival]

I actually didnt mind this. Thought it was better than most of Marvels recent offerings. It didnt feel like it dragged especially after watching Wakanda Forever.

 

[Anja_Nees]

I don’t know for sure but I presume Shang Chi (Im sure that did good money during covid too). Spider man no way home and Wakanda Forever all did okay.

Dr.Strange middling.

The rest varying shades of poor.

It’s not what you’d think. Strange did just shy of USD1B, which was huge for a solo outing at pretty much any point in the MCU.

Shang Chi, Eternals and Black Widow were all down but COVID was a big factor. They did well for pandemic films.

Short point is they haven’t really been stung yet.

 

[phantom13]

It’s not what you’d think. Strange did just shy of USD1B, which was huge for a solo outing at pretty much any point in the MCU.

Shang Chi, Eternals and Black Widow were all down but COVID was a big factor. They did well for pandemic films.

Short point is they haven’t really been stung yet.

View attachment 1611270

I know they all made money, I was more talking about critical and fam reception.

 

[Jeremias]

Saw this last night. Was OK. Not their worst, but far from their best.

MODOK was a bit of a joke. Absolutely nothing character.

 

[Red Black and Blue]

It was okay. 5/10.

Jonathon Majors is great, the backstory with MP was great. The dialogue in parts was horrendous. The side characters, bland and forgettable.

Spoiler

The movie should have been a scary introduction into Kang but ultimately there were no stakes, there was no pay off for the world building. Minimum two main characters should have been killed off to emphasis the threat of Kang, but instead a variant got taken down by a pretty weak avenger and a bunch of Ants

Much like how Thor Ragnarök was makeover for the character, this should have been the inverse. Taking a comedic character and introduce tragedy. What teased an amazing experience was a paint by numbers superhero film, that instead of making me more excited for what is to come, might be the final nail in my MCU interest.

 

[troybe]

Saw it this afternoon. Didn’t mind it, was concerned after other posters reviews. MODOK was a bit silly, Kang made less of an impact as a villain than I thought he would. The humour was pretty corny and a bit of overacting from Rudd as Lang at the start and end. Cassie was a good addition. The Ant-Man movies are my favourite of the MCU , I watched Black Panther the other week and thought it was a total mess.

 

[peternorth]

Saw this last night. Was OK. Not their worst, but far from their best.

MODOK was a bit of a joke. Absolutely nothing character.

Spoiler

modok was there as bait i think. to get the world excited about a new character. and to show some compassionate arc

 

[vast]

Having seen it, the best description ive heard is that Ant-man was shoe horned into a Kang movie. I wanted to know more about him and where he came from and how he came to be who he is. In fact if we got that movie showing us the backstory, this movie would have been so much better too. Majors was excellent though.

MODOK was awful.

Michelle Pfieffer was very good. Hell she convinced me that she could still pull off Selina. Still time to film a cameo Mr Gunn.

I didnt hate it overall but I wished they werent so afriad to make the story more emotional so I could get more invested in these characters.