Hey what's going on everyone?! Dan here and today I'll be reviewing Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania.
First review of 2023 and what better way to kick off the first review than with a Marvel movie? This movie is a mix bag of feelings, on one hand I do enjoy the humor, VFX (at times) and the actions while on the other hand it lacks in areas such as writing/plot, VFX (at times), and settings. I'm just as mixed on the characters and how they're portrayed so hopefully I can express how I feel about each of these elements.
Warning: Spoilers ahead!
The Humor, its your typical MCU quirky humor which has bee in these movies for the last decade. However, it works when you give it to someone like Ant-Man who was always established and best used as a comedic character especially combined with the charm and comedic timing of Paul Rudd. I just don't like how everyone has to be the comedic relief. I did not work with Thor: Love and Thunder, was terrible in The Eternals, and it did not work well in She-Hulk due to poor writing. But in Ant-Man, it's not as jarring since Ant-Man has been a comedic character since the beginning. Though they do try to have his side cast be comedic at times too, its more blink and ya miss it quick witted humor rather than a joke every 5 minutes. Though I am upset that were missing some key side characters of the Ant-Man franchise (one we all love in particular) but the actors I'm sure are busy with other projects so I can't be too upset. The humor does work better in this movie though the writing does make it hit or miss at times.
The action for this movie was decent, let me tell you guys that I don't think anything can top The Eternals action sequences where they were basically waving their hands around thinking that was gonna do something or use energy attacks like its Dragon Ball Super, it was entertaining to see Ant-Man and his team obliterating Kang's army and fighting Kang (for the most part). Scott teaching an inexperienced Cassie was pretty cool to see and watching her get progressively better in the movie especially when she fights MODOK in the movie.
Now to the Visual effects, I'm very mixed on this area because at times they do a great job while other times they do things that I could have done in photoshop. The Quantum Realm looks visually stunning, It's almost as good as the VFX from the Doctor Strange movies, but then this version of MODOK looks like they just enlarged his head to max. It's bad but its also hilarious I can't take it seriously. Overall the VFX looks nice but I can definitely see some of the areas it either feel rushed or just got lazy in.
The settings is an area I ultimately felt they feel short in. Like I said the Quantum realm is visually appealing, but this is where 95% of the movie is set in while the other 5% percent is on Earth (or above as they say). I don't have an issue with it being solely in the Quantum realm obviously that's where the movie has to be, it's just the lack of variety in settings in the Quantum realm. I though we'd be seeing various places here but I think all we had were three different settings.
Now to the Writing/Plot, the plot of the movie is Cassie made a device that can send signals into the quantum realm and unfortunately her signal reaches Modok and sends Scott, Cassie, Hope, Hank, and Janet into the quantum realm where they see entire civilizations that Janet said was deeper in the quantum realm. Here we see Kang imprisoned here and is ruling the quantum realm with an iron fist and he wants Scott to help him escape or he kills Cassie. It's a good plot but the way it's written is questionable to say the least. Cassie had time during the blip to study the quantum realm and when Hope, Hank and Janet came back, they essentially helped her learn more and helped her build the device to send signals. That same device is used in the end where we were getting a pretty dramatic moment with Ant-Man, The Wasp and Kangs final battle. I thought this was gonna be a huge sacrifice moment, a passing the torch moment to Cassie where she works with Hank and Janet while trying to figure out how to save Scott and Hope from the Quantum Realm. But no, They pulled an MCU Peter Parker moment with her where she has her machine suddenly able to open the portal to save those two and it really down plays the big dramatic moment. This also raises questions like how did Janet get to where they could reach her in the Ant-Man and The Wasp movie? Did Cassie find the quantum realm research in the Pym household? Why did Kang suddenly get nerfed in the final battle?
Last thing I'll touch on is the characters, Scott is Scott you know, he's charismatic, he's an average joe and he's Paul Rudd. I made a joke about how Ant-Man and The Wasp should have been changed to "Everyone loves Scott" because it seemed like everyone just loves him even his enemies, Scott just rizzes everyone up the moment he enters a room. Cassie is like every young character in mainstream media now. She's a protester, a SJW, she knows everything and she comes off entitled at times. In endgame she was just glad to have her dad back, now she resents him a bit because she thinks he's a complete sellout. I mean you can argue that but I think after everything Scotts also been through, he deserves some type of break. At least she did have real development during the movie where she did own up to taking responsibility for them being trapped in the quantum realm and saw the real dangers of her dads lifestyle and why he wanted her to stay away from it. It wasn't so much he didn't care about helping fight Kang, it's more that Cassie is his daughter and one of few things that matters most in his life as well as she was inexperienced in combat so she would be in danger. Hope is still the same but now she's trying to connect with her mother but even that side plot felt a bit rushed. Janet is real inconsistent in this movie, one minute she's like "why didn't you ask me about the quantum realm Cassie?" to "I can't tell you Hank and Hope about my time in the quantum realm". I can see shes still trying to function in society again so when this stuff comes back to her she goes into some PTSD but it still doesn't help she's a mixed bag. Hank I felt got the shaft here, he was an integral part of the first two movies, but he's treated here as a side character and a bit of a old joke up until the final battle where he gets his moment to shine with his Ants. Kang is a great Villian in this film, he is a tyrant and he's gonna lead to something big (watch the post credit scenes to know what I mean). Though I do feel he was underutilized at the end. He got nerfed in the final battle and he was defeated twice. Temporarily by Hank and his Ants, then his final battle with Scott and Hope and that was a more satisfying defeat though still felt he was nerfed. Modok is just a henchman to Kang and he's literally a big joke. He was introduced as a real threat but quickly went away as soon as we saw that god awful Photoshopped head which is sad because Modok is a real threat in Marvel. He can be a serious threat but is normally used as a Joke Villain.
Overall, Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania was a bit underwhelming but a fun time to watch. I'm told this is meant to kick off the next phase but so far I'm not sold on the next phase being anything great. Endgame should have been the end of the MCU and would have gone out with a bang. But Disney I'm sure will leech out as much profit from the MCU as it can until they can't. I'd say this movie can definitely be a so bad its funny type of movie which is still better than Black Panther: Wakanda Forever or The Eternals which were more on the boring side.
Rating this I'm giving it:
6.5/10
It's a Mid-Tier movie and a weak start to the next phase but its still a fun time to watch with friends and family if ya need something to do on a Friday or Saturday night.
That's all I have for today and hopefully I'll find some better movies for 2023.
See ya!