Charles Merritt finds very little to applaud in the latest Antman film
Antman and the Wasp: Quantumania
The Film: Antman and the Wasp: Quantumania
Rating: 12A
Watch if you liked: Antman, Antman and the Wasp
Running time: 124 mins
Genre: Adventure, Superhero
Overview: When Antman and Co. get sucked back into the Quantum Realm, Janet’s past catches up to her in the form of Kang the Conqueror, a multiversal traveller who seeks to rule everything.
What you liked
I’m struggling here. I try and be kind in my reviews. I try and look for the good in everything. But wow. This is going to be tough.
Paul Rudd is charming, funny and delightful. As he always is. Jonathan Majors is great in the role of Kang the Conqueror. He’s a class actor. There’s no denying that. He eats up the screen and leaves you hungry for more. And don’t you worry, we’ll be getting plenty more of Major’s Kang in the future…
What you didn’t like
Basically the whole movie… There were too many moments where I couldn’t restrain myself from physically gesturing at the screen, arms wide apart, mouthing the words ‘what was that?!’ and then sitting back for five minutes with my mouth wide open in bewilderment as to what I had witnessed.
For starters: Holy CGI, Antman! I honestly feel sorry for the teams of talented VFX artists who are worked too hard, paid too little and given no time to pull off the shots they need to. It’s not their fault. The odds are stacked against them and it shows.
M.O.D.O.K’s reveal was worse than I thought it would be. I know from the comics and other media that he is essentially a gigantic head but - wow. Nothing could have prepared me for how bad it would look when he removed his helmet. I winced. And his character arc was all over the place. And that’s one of my biggest problems.
Every great film has a message behind the action and adventure. It has a grand thesis that it wants to explore. It gives you things to think about, to debate in the car afterwards. Characters go through a journey which changes them. They learn things about themselves or about the world which causes them to grow and develop into something greater than they were before. An amazing film causes you to live your life differently - it gives you a point of view you hadn’t seen before but once seeing it, you can’t help but see things in that way for the rest of your life.
Stories have immense power. Jesus knew that. That’s why he told so many of them. This is not one of those stories. It was tempting to write for the synopsis ‘Antman and Co. get sucked into the Quantum Realm and then stuff happens’ because that’s what the movie felt like.
There was no character development. There were no real stakes. There were no real consequences.
There is nothing for me to talk about in the next section other than mild parental guidance stuff. I’ll finish this section by saying this: If your movie is all about setting up a future, better movie - that is not a movie. That’s a trailer. And I would have skipped it.
Thoughts for parents:
There’s some swear words. There’s some violence. There’s some disturbing imagery which involves the backside of a man with a giant head and a tiny body.
