Starring: Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Jonathan Majors
This week, fans around the world were treat to the most recent instalment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. And this time it comes through the form of Peyton Reed's "Ant-man and the Wasp: Quantumania".
This movie is the third and final movie within Ant-Man's trilogy, and fans are already hailing it as the worst of the three. Across the first two movies, Peyton Reed served audience members with a delightful yet intriguing addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe through the form of Paul Rudd's Ant-Man, and he does the same with the third, but unfortunately, nothing more.
With the recent departure of major characters within the MCU over the past three years or so, it's understandable to expect that Ant-Man has little future un this crazy Marvel Universe. And after this movie, that very well may be the case.
It goes without saying that Marvel itself has been on a heavy decline ever since the events of Avengers: Infinity War, and they seemed to have dug themselves a hole that not even Kevin Feige can claw his way back up from.
They throw us little bones every now and then through the form of Spider-Man: No Way Home and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, but it doesn't take a genius to see that Marvel is well and truly past it's expiration date.
Before seeing this film, I said with confidence that this is not the film that Marvel should be releasing to get fans excited this year. And after seeing this film, I still speak with such confidence.
Of course, being a Marvel fan myself, I get excited about any upcoming Marvel project and don't even think twice about as to whether I will see it or not, but for the non Marvel lover or casual moviegoer, please don't get your hopes up for this film.
I know that Ant-Man is known to come across as a comedic break from all of the dark action and drama that takes place all over the MCU, but in this film, Peyton Reed has audience members in hysterics for all of the wrong reasons.
Some of the decisions made and some of the exchanges in dialogue throughout this movie are forced to leave the audience questioning whether this film was really worth paying for.
One small burst of light within this film that struggles to show even a sign of life, is the performance from Jonathan Majors as Kang the Conqueror. We first saw Majors in this role in Loki back in 2021, although this time he seems to come across a lot darker and seems like a real villain that audiences can actually feel and be worried about.
There were times throughout this film that Majors actually made me feel uncomfortable with what I was seeing him do to some of the characters we have known to love over the past few years.
But unfortunately, every other performance throughout this movie fails to live up to the high standards set by Majors. Some of which are even laughable. There was little controversy when it was announced that Kathryn Newton would replace Emma Fuhrmann as Cassie Lang in this movie, but after her performance, there might be.
It wasn't that Newton did a poor job of portraying Scott Lang's daughter who has a much more enhanced job to do in this film, but with the tools she was provided, she was destined to fail. The dialogue is cringeworthy, no real emotion is on display, and the amount of times the actress was forced to yell the word "DAD!" in this film is hilarious.
The producers behind this film even tried to throw us a little home through the form of Bill Murray for a 5-10 minute goes appearance, but even this fails miserably and leaves the viewers questioning as to why he was even there.
It goes without saying that there is a large budget behind each MCU project, and with the amount of CGI that supports these kind of movies, you would expect that it is their #1 priority. Whereas in this film it seems to be a 5-minute, end of the day, rushed job.
Of course I am speaking in hyperbole here, because it takes a perfectionist to notice many mistakes in the special effects in this movie, but given the high standards set by Marvel over the past few years, the CGI in this film has certainly lowered the bar for future projects.
I mean, just look at the character of Modok. He looks ridiculous. What is meant to be a powerful and intimidating character (based on the comics), has been turned into a laughing stock, with the intention of distracting the audience away from how bad the storyline in this film really is.
As high as my expectations go for Marvel films, and they are high, Ant-Man 3 doesn't even attempt to breach them and can only confirm that the downfall of the MCU is in fact inevitable.
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