442: Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania

[00:00:00] 149. Let's get to the third Ant-Man film, the last in the trilogy, which is Ant-Man and the Wasp Quantumania, which came out in 2023. And we did review this originally when it came out on Disney Plus, but I figured since I'm doing

[00:00:15] the whole trilogy, let's get it all together and revisit it. It is once again directed by Peyton Reed, who did the first two as well. Stars basically the same cast, but along with Jonathan Majors, Katherine Newton's in there, Bill Murray,

[00:00:29] Katie M. O'Brien, who is just in Love Lies Bleeding, which we also reviewed on the show. And the synopsis is, Scott Lang and Hope Van Dyne are dragged into the quantum realm along with Hope's parents and Scott's daughter Cassie. Together they

[00:00:45] must find a way to escape. But what secret is Hope's mother hiding? And who is the mysterious Kang? So I did not see this one in theaters, you know, again we reviewed this originally when it was on Disney Plus and that was the first time

[00:00:59] seeing it and this was just a revisit. I think that, I don't know, it's a tough one because I want to like it more than I do. I don't think it's as bad as some

[00:01:10] people say. I know in Letterboxd at least it's been pretty trashed. I don't think it's horrible, but as I said with the first two films I think this is by far the weakest of the three and probably the biggest mistake of all is with the

[00:01:26] first two films what makes those work for me at least is they're set in a, for the most part, a reality. And in this you're in the quantum realm for 95% of the movie and so therefore everything around you is fake. The whole world you

[00:01:43] have no real understanding of and there's no real weight to it. There's not real stakes for the most part and there's not a real sense of grounding where you could see these things happening if this were a real suit but

[00:01:57] the quantum realm is so far out there that it's hard to really relate to. And since you don't really have a knowledge of the people there, their connections, like how they got there, how they came to be, where things are

[00:02:11] geographically, it's really very hard to grasp. And at the same time I don't mind that the world is totally sci-fi, a lot of CG, I'm not inherently against that at all but I think that you do lose some of the charm, you lose some of the

[00:02:28] creativity because there's not really a lot of Ant-Man, Wasp skills or cool technologies it's all just mostly just them walking around and fighting this main guy but really not much else going on with the character and what we note

[00:02:42] and what we love about him, at least for me. And the CG itself I think for the most part it looks pretty good but at the same time there are points, and I think it's mostly a lighting issue, is there are times where it looks they are

[00:02:58] totally on a green screen like they're just actors in a costume and everything around them is totally CGI'd, that's it. And so I think that I don't know exactly what caused that, like again it's lighting, cinematography, the direction, I

[00:03:14] don't know but that was an issue occasionally for me. I usually can just have that suspension of disbelief, alright I know this is fake but there were points where that was not done perfectly where you kind of need to. Like if

[00:03:27] you're gonna set the entire world where almost nothing around you is practical you need to be like on top of that 110% otherwise you're gonna distance the audience immediately. So that's a small issue but I don't know if it's a

[00:03:42] combination of those other factors that is said but this movie it's not I don't think any longer than the first two it feels really long like it feels like it's two and a half plus hours and the first two I don't really have that issue

[00:03:57] that much like as I said they're a little long occasionally but this one felt like it really dragged and I think Peyton Reed you know I give him props for doing really well especially on the first one but I don't think he really

[00:04:09] has the chops to pull off this kind of world in this context and have it feel grounded and emotionally resonating. He just I don't think he has that knack because the first two aren't really that emotional and they don't really have a

[00:04:23] huge world building it's very up close and personal kind of small-scale stuff and this is huge you know this is like Avatar kind of thing and I don't think he has the knack for doing and pulling this sort of film off so I get that they

[00:04:40] want to hire the guy who did the first two because both were successes fair enough but I still think creatively it was a mistake. And then also and I know that Jonathan Majors has already been you know canceled crushed at this point

[00:04:56] because of all the lawsuits that have been put against him but even before all that I was not really a huge fan of his I hadn't seen him in a lot of stuff but

[00:05:05] he just didn't do much for me but especially not now but I think even if I hadn't known any of this stuff that was going on with him legally I think he is terrible in this like I know some people really like him I think he's

[00:05:18] terrible I thought he was so dull I thought I mean the motivation for the character I think it's alright like it's sort of different there's kind of a viciousness to him that I like but I thought performance-wise so

[00:05:30] sleep-inducing like he is trying to pull off this very calm composed quiet villain who's even though he's very soft-spoken he's super terrifying and unsettling and scary I get what he was going for it did not work for me at all

[00:05:46] I thought when he would just start speaking like and then this I'm gonna do that like it just I was falling asleep as I was watching it and so I think he was very miscast I would love to hear people's thoughts if I'm in the minority

[00:06:01] I might be sorry but I really really did not like his performance in this and really whenever he came on screen I was checking out because it's like Paul Rudd Evangeline Lilly and Michelle Pfeiffer are the to me are the core or why these

[00:06:18] movies keep me interested that charisma and that overall character group but Michael Douglas okay and other people who pop up in this Bill Murray he's fine I really do like Katie O'Brien she's awesome I hope to see her in a lot more

[00:06:34] because especially after Love Lives Bleeding I think she is a great talent so what's nice to see her in this she has a great physicality and I think going back to the world building real quick I think there are a lot of cool elements

[00:06:48] that are injected in in terms of character designs little bits of the world but there's almost so much but none of it really resonates and it's not memorable because they go through so much so quickly that I'm not taking the

[00:07:02] time or allowing to have the time to think about oh what's that like I wonder where that came from or what does this mean or it's more just oh that looks interesting that's cool that's funny that's really about it whereas with a

[00:07:17] movie like this you could with the right structure the right orchestration you could have that really feel more lived in more connecting you know but in this it's really just visual teases I think hey here all these cool elements now

[00:07:35] we're really creative we're really out there and weird fantasy like and it's not terrible it's not a letdown but I do feel like as the movie went on and more and more of that was injected in it became like mind-numbing so you know all

[00:07:50] that stuff at the same time I still like being with those characters and I still liked being in such a weird distant realm that it was just different it was just interesting because of that and I like how weird and one-off it is being

[00:08:02] in its own little place and corner of them see you I'm cool with that not a perfect movie but I still appreciate that and it's one that I can always if I

[00:08:09] need an escape I can go back to and I don't think it's again it's not as bad as people are making it out to be I don't think I get if you hate it but to

[00:08:18] me maybe I just have a soft spot for this kind of movie other than that the action is okay I think it's it's all fairly normal but it is for sure inferior to the first two action wise and what they are able to do with wasp

[00:08:37] and Ant-Man together and then by themselves I do think the daughter is pretty good and I like that relationship with her and all right I think that works and just those little triangles of relationships and trouble I think all

[00:08:50] that is is good not amazing but possible a couple quick things that I did like the scene where there's the multiple Ant-Man's like the constantly multiplying I thought that was pretty funny and then the idea of Paul Rudd or

[00:09:08] Scott Lang writing a book about everything I thought that was pretty clever and so I mean there's little bits of humor there's just not enough to where really for the most part this character should be in a comedic film

[00:09:17] and there is comedy but it's mostly fairly flat and it's a little too mundane and diluted to really it wasn't that funny of a movie whereas I found the first two pretty much were consistently and I think you that

[00:09:31] especially with Paul Rudd at the lead you need to have this movie be comedic because Ant-Man it's ridiculous all right just the name is ridiculous so having it be more serious as much as I love dark emotional serious superhero

[00:09:46] films it's not you know Guardians 3 where you can really dip into the trauma of characters that's not what this series is you know maybe that's what they're going for or they were just trying to be something so crazy different that they

[00:10:00] just reached a little too far than they should have but hey I applaud them for trying and that I can respect you know it could have been a lot lot better and I in hindsight I wish they had just done a more grounded version in the real

[00:10:15] world as opposed to exploring the quantum realm which don't really care about sorry you know it's diverting enough it's got cool colors but still a little bit of a letdown and one of the lesser films that the MCU has done since

[00:10:29] in-game I think Doctor Strange 2 is probably my favorite along with Guardians 3 and I'll definitely review all of those at some point so don't worry so check it out you know if you like Ant-Man I think you could do worse

[00:10:43] if you like Marvel we could do worse just yeah it's okay so that is a light three out of five