Marvel’s Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania review: Too big, too small

Peyton Reed’s 2015 Release Ant-Man This may have been the last time the Marvel Cinematic Universe felt like a crappy upstart. Leaving Edgar Wright’s Project It was surprising because Marvel Studios was still touting the idea that its success came from picking the right directors and letting them do what they wanted. It didn’t have to be a world-beating blockbuster, it was a fun, weird, subversive movie.

The last franchise installment just a few months ago was a headache for Joss Whedon Avengers: Age of Ultronand the idea of ​​Marvel following up with a movie about a man who talks to ants seemed too strange. cute viral marketing gimmickand the top cherry is original Ant-Man “Teaser Trailer” Billed as first time at that time Ant-Man picture.

Paul Rudd and Michael Douglas are looking into each other’s eyes and snapping their fingers. It is not clear where they are or what they are doing. As their snap escalates into a thigh slap, faster and faster, the rising background sounds begin to wail. As Rudd slaps his hands between his chest and legs, Douglas looks at the camera as if insulting his mother and barks “Ali!”

But that was eight years ago. No part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe in 2023 is too small to go unnoticed. The third installment in the Ant-Man subseries. Ant-Man & Wasp: Quantumanias, is also the first step in the three-year story. The “small” MCU franchise has been forced to introduce load-bearing narrative pillars for his next two phases of the MCU. And in this battle between Ant-Man and Kang the Conqueror, we’re all lost.

quantummania It opens with a hilarious narration from Scott Lang, aka Ant-Man (Rad), a peppy and slightly absent-minded version. Ant-Man and Ant-Man and the Wasp Fans will be familiar. Scott is finally reunited with his girlfriend and tech CEO Hope Van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly). Her parents, Hank (Douglas) and Janet (Michelle Pfeiffer), the latter rescued from the Quantum Realm in her 2018s. Ant-Man and the Waspand a daughter Kathy (Kathryn Newton). (The latter aged into his teens while he was stuck in time, and Hope, Hank, and Janet all Avengers: Infinity War and end game.) Scott is sad that he missed so much of Cassie’s childhood, but otherwise his life has been great. He’s a famous superhero with a close and loving family who just saved the world. His memoir about his own heroism is a comforting bestseller.

Then, as quickly as a whiplash, Janet’s past is questioned, an experiment goes awry, and everyone is (again) trapped in the quantum realm that Kang has seemingly already conquered. Like Ant-Man, the Quantum Realm has evolved according to the needs of his MCU. The void between elementary particles that once no one returned has become a time-traveling MacGuffin, now a complete fantasy-adventure universe that exists within our own microscopic space.

It’s a comic concept that made no sense at all, and will never make sense, so it remains a reliable avenue of enjoyment. quantummaniaInstead, it summarizes all of the film’s problems.

Building a movie world is like building a world, a story equivalent to building a Hollywood set where the buildings are all flat wooden facades with no interior. , he needs some people to conquer, so the quantum realm needs some people. Such a person needs an attribute. But screenwriter Jeff Loveness never threads all those details beyond a joking callback. ‘s Peyton Reed creates a completely faceless, interchangeable legion… it’s not clear if they’re creatures from the quantum realm, or if they’re robots of some sort.

Image: Marvel Studios

Reed struggles to make everything quantummania‘s Quantum Realm is as unfamiliar as possible, filling the screen with all-CGI characters, impossible vistas, and digital creatures. Conceptually, we can’t fault his attempts, but quantity seems to have won out over quality in a distracting way.The credits list him seven digital effects studios, but many , the effect looks unfinished.

But the real downside to sending Ant-Man into a fantasy setting is what we’ve since learned. Honey, I shrunk the kids — The appeal of shrinking hijinks is in seeing the familiar in a new light. Previous Ant-Man films have used Hank Pym’s shrinking and supersizing techniques to create a Hot Wheels carrier full of real cars, a fire hydrant-sized salt reservoir, and a dog-sized ant playing drums. used to wreak delightful havoc on the scale. . Ant-Man & Wasp: Quantumanias There is virtually no messing around with this kind of scale.

Worse, the space the actor occupies between a horizonless sky that looks like the textured walls of a vast cave and a distinct lack of established wide shots. quantummania —from their immediate surroundings to the very geography of the land they live in—cannot be read. , not visual evidence.

Visual scale cues are sing a movie, they are usually not the difference between success and failure. But this is an Ant-Man movie. What are we doing here if we don’t know how big or small something is?

An unmistakable crack in visual effects can be ignored if: quantummania As one of its main features, it didn’t lean so hard on the visual spectacle. The film’s chaotic design works beautifully if is allowed time to be human from time to time. If so, there are things to write down. quantummaniaThe story, screen effects, setting, and lead make up almost nothing.

Image: Marvel Studios

This includes what was touted as a must-see big moment for Jonathan Majors and his Can the Conquerors. Loki on Disney Plus. Major is a solemn presence on the screen. Jack Kirby’s original his character The vertical facial “seams” in his design are interpreted here as facial scars. It’s a striking choice where Kang always looks like he has a tear trail running down his face. It feels tantamount to threat. Unfortunately, his grandiosity and the need to establish him as dangerous enough to carry across two Marvel phases nearly ruin the branding of the Ant-Man franchise. back and forth comedy.

When the MCU finally had to truly debut the big bad of the entire franchise, guardian of the galaxy It used Ronan the Accuser and was performed with full camp knowledge by Lee Pace. quantummania Ultimately, having both Ant-Man and Kang fight each other doesn’t deal with big and small at the same time. If a problem is big in one perspective and small in another, you are normal sized. And that’s the last thing Ant-Man should do.

Ant-Man & Wasp: Quantumanias It hits theaters on February 17th.