Ant-Man et la Guêpe : Quantumania

New Ant-Man is not a bad movie, but it's repeating current trend that been plaguing new Marvel productions. Main character is just an excuse to introduce few new characters that are definitely going to have their own stories. That makes Paul Rudd's character less important. You don't feel that this is his story. He is just there. And the story is not even that good. You can feel the lack of great characters from previous movies. They were setting the tone of story and we don't even know what happened to them after previous movie. It's hard to believe that the director is the same person who made two prior movies. Adding Kang definitely made this into Kang movie that have Ant-Man in it.

As a huge fan of the first one, and almost as big a fan of the second one, I decided to go all out and see this one in 3D with the 4DX motion and sensory seats. What a let down; sure, sitting in the nicest seats for the best visual, motion and sensory experience was great, but I felt like I was watching a Looney Tunes story, instead of any type of story that is part, or compliments the MCU timeline. This was literally one of Marvel's dullest and most unnecessary movies to date. The entire story was cliched and predictable, and there was more CGI than there was any type of interesting story, let alone one with any substance. Even the normally awesome and hilarious humor in the previous installments was absent in this one. Almost the entire film is taking place inside a CGI story, so there was no need for any movie sets or locations... this was all green-screen nonsense. It's a very generous 6/10 from me, only because I still enjoyed the fun ride in my upgraded seats, although the money spent would've been more fun at an amusement park.

Marvel really has fallen and it can't get up. This is the third legacy character that they've absolutely wasted. In fact, for Doctor Strange, Thor and Ant-Man they not only wasted great established characters but superb casts. Add that they made Kang, the main villain out to be a chump and it appears Marvel has no plan moving forward. Not Kiang the conqueror but Kang the chump.

This movie adds to the malaise of poorly written disappointments that is permeated the MCU since Endgame. With one of the worst third acts of any movie in recent history. MODOK use and "dick" turn could be the dumbest thing I've ever seen and that's not even a spoiler. He also ended the movie as if they ran out of budget. What an absolute waste.

Visually quite stunning with delightful and creative designs, shapes, and forms while the storyline is less than original without much in the way of intellectual or emotional, ethical depth of other recent Marvel movies. Apparently this movie was focused on being acceptable to a broad audience range, including young people, Quantumania loses some of its sharp refreshing focus. The created living entities of the quantum universe are more anthropomorphic (human-based) perhaps to be more relatable to children does not reflect the diversity or original forms of life or new-life that would really make this film stellar. As even as special as the set designs and special effects make for a gorgeous setting, there is still room for more crisp, detailed and immersive design work. Some backgrounds end up being mere basic animation projections that do not come up to the level expected of contemporary Marvel productions. Yes, this movie provides an amazing backdrop or canvas and yet the substance and plot of the movie does not rise to the same level. What one ends up with is a movie with a lot of flash but less than satisfactory bite.

I enjoyed watching Quantumania. It's a mostly solid and fairly entertaining movie. But relative to MCU standards, it's a bit underwhelming and feels like more of a throwaway movie than something memorable I will keep coming back to.

My biggest issue is that I wasn't fully engaged for at least the first half of the movie. I was enjoying it but I wasn't locked in. The story was unfocussed. When the villain becomes prevalent, the movie jumps a level. But it doesn't completely make up for the much weaker first half.

The other thing that surprised me was not being mesmerized by the visuals. It's very creative and I didn't notice poor CGI like some others. But it didn't wow me like it frequently does. Maybe we're just getting spoiled with the visuals in movies like Doctor Strange 2 and more recently Avatar 2.

There is still a lot of good here. It's pretty funny but doesn't overdo it. This is the second movie in a row where the MCU seems to have dialed back on the "insert joke here" strategy. It's probably a result of the negative reaction from the cartoonish Thor 4. Also, I love the villain. I won't say who in case you're smart (and crazy) like me and don't watch trailers. But he's so damn awesome.

As someone who loves almost everything in the MCU, Quantumania is near the bottom of my MCU rankings. And it's making me a little nervous that it comes only two movies after Thor 4 which is below it (5 stars). But I still have faith and am not joining the MCU doom and gloom crowd. Phase 4 has three of my favorite entries in the entire MCU (Shang-Chi, Loki S01, No Way Home) and I only disliked two (Eternals, Thor 4). They just need to be more consistent while also not playing it so safe.

(3 viewings, opening Thursday IMAX 2/16/2023, IMAX 2/28/2023, 10/5/2023)