31 – Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania
I know. I know a lot of people consider this to be a low point in the MCU franchise. But I have to say, I really enjoyed this movie. I liked the visuals. I liked the cast. I liked the action sequences. I liked the plot. I liked the humor. I liked the villain. And I even liked the CGI-heavy visuals. Paul Rudd proved that not only can he handle the comedy, but he also kicked butt in the final fight between him and Kang. And speaking on Kang the Conqueror, I’ll quickly address the elephant in the room. It totally sucks that the actor playing the super-villain, Jonathan Majors, was dropped from the MCU after being convicted of the terrible crime he committed, but I get it. It sucks because he was so good in the role, but I totally understand why Disney distanced themselves from him.
But as bad guys go, I still maintain that Majors did a really great job. He had a calm and menacing attitude most of the time, but when he became angry, man, he really let loose. He used laser beams out of his hands that destroyed everything they touched, and his fury was intense. There was a scene in which he was threatening Cassie to get Scott to do his bidding, and he just seemed so dangerous, even in his calmness.
The rest of the cast, did a fantastic job. I loved Michelle Pfeiffer as Janet Van Dyne, but then again, when has Pfeiffer ever turned in a bad performance? Cassie, played by Kathryn Newton, was also really good. She had a fresh face and I liked how she wasn’t a sudden great fighter like her father. They made the point of showing that she was still learning. On the flip side, though, she did seem to have sudden genius level intelligence in order to create the device that started the events of the plot in motion. And I have to give an honorable mention to Bill Murray and his performance that was actually a little more nuanced that what he gives in the characters he creates. Yes, most of Lord Krylar was Bill performing his shtick, but there was a serious and dangerous undertone when it is revealed that he is actually betraying our heroes, which I liked.
And as far as I can tell, one of the biggest complaints about this movie was the character of Darren Cross / M.O.D.O.K. Most people say that the CGI used to create the giant head on the tiny cybernetic body was awful. Fans didn’t like how he looked, and they didn’t like how the character was written. He was turned into a joke, when, in the comic books, he was actually a very dangerous villain. But I liked what they did here. First, they changed his origin, making him the broken body and mind of the first Ant’Man bad guy, Yellowjacket. I thought the CGI actually looked pretty good, and as for the character, Cross had clearly lost his sanity while in the Quantum realm, especially considering what had been done to his body by Kang. Oh, and as far as the CGI goes, I loved all the gorgeous fantasy environments of the Quantum Realm!
Now… all that being said, the movie was not perfect, and I think the biggest problem it had was that it couldn’t seem to figure out what kind of movie it was. The action, while exciting, was punctuated with silly, sometimes juvenile humor, which was amusing, but the two didn’t always seem to jive. Was the film trying to be a drama about families and their secrets, or an epic about a revolutionary war against a tyrant? It was both, and the two genres didn’t always mesh well. But despite those little inconsistencies, I still enjoyed watching the movie. Sure, it may not have been a ten, but in my book, it was still an eight.
And the mid-credit scene with all the Kang variants was awesome, though we now know that it will eventually come to nothing. The threat might get a quick resolve somewhere down the line, but it will not be the next major threat to the MCU that it was supposed to be. Kang is out. Doctor Doom is in. And I’m on board with that.
Top 10 Favorite Parts
- Scott and Hope, still a couple, bring Cassie home from jail. The sweet family dynamic between the three was nice.
- The whole family gets sucked into the Quantum Realm. There was very little foreplay before the conflict of the movie started.
- The entire Lord Krylar scene. Bill Murray was perfect.
- M.O.D.O.K. attacks the rebels. Cool battle sequence. Also, anything with the character of Quaz. I really liked William Jackson Harper.
- Janet’s back-flash story on Kang and learning how he was really a dangerous monster.
- Scotts attempt to recover the multiversal power core. The duplicate Scotts and Hopes were very cool.
- Kang begins his launch sequence. Great CGI, great action, great music, great scene!
- Giant Ant-Man attacks Kang’s citadel with the rebels. “I have HOLES!!”
- The enraged Kang lets loose and devastates the rebels until he is overrun by intelligent ants.
- Ant-Man stays in the Quantum Realm and defeats Kang, killing him.