Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania

[Velorath]

Trailer

[Samwise]

I was bored (colorful CGI landscapes and 70s hits feel extremely overdone at this point, alas) until the reveal at the very end.   

[lamaros]

I don't understand any of these trailers. They seem like they're all written for niche die hard fans, yet... the franchise is still the most popular thing going around.

Am I no longer considered part of the potential market for these movies? I'm not sure what this is about or why I should consider watching it.

[MahrinSkel]

I was bored (colorful CGI landscapes and 70s hits feel extremely overdone at this point, alas) until the reveal at the very end.   

I thought I recognized the voice, but the pacing and inflection was so different that I wasn't sure until then.


--Dave

[schild]

this is gonna be fuckin incredible

[Teleku]

I was bored (colorful CGI landscapes and 70s hits feel extremely overdone at this point, alas) until the reveal at the very end.   

--Dave

[Khaldun]

Well, we already knew he was in the movie, so it wasn't a reveal in that sense. I wouldn't be surprised if we get multiple "Kangs" in the film, given what we heard in "Loki".

But visually, yeah, I wasn't all that impressed--it doesn't feel that different than some of the trippy visuals in both Strange films; it seems as if it might be time to really go for something completely different in visual terms but that just might be too expensive or complicated for Marvel at this point.

[Threash]

Quantum just means magic.

[Samwise]

it doesn't feel that different than some of the trippy visuals in both Strange films

And the hyper-saturated fantasy worlds from the Thor films, and the Guardians films, and Shang-Chi...

I guess it's easier/cheaper to do fantastical landscapes at this point than it is to do "real-world" backdrops since it puts you way over on one side of the uncanny valley?

[Surlyboi]

This is the closest we’ll get to the Micronauts and I’m going to watch it for that, if nothing else.

[MahrinSkel]

Obviously, they should have shot the Quantum Realm scenes on location. Why should they expect us to accept cheap digital fakes of Planck scale geography?

--Dave

[Reg]

It looked fun and colourful to me. Though I must admit I forgot to put on my Monocle of Heavy Ennui before viewing it.

[Khaldun]

I'm so bummed that they can't actually USE the Micronauts, since Hasbro hired Paramount to do something with them (which I think is never going to get done). Those were the most fucking awesome toys ever and the Marvel licensed comic was pretty good too.

I suppose they could do Psycho-Man in some form. There's some other Kang-related shit that could show up too--the Growing Man, the Space Phantoms, etc.

[Trippy]

Latest trailer (very spoilery): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WfTEZJnv_8

[Raguel]

Latest trailer (very spoilery): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WfTEZJnv_8

I wonder if the heist is vs. another Kang.

[Khaldun]

Early reviews agree on one thing: Majors is fantastic as Kang. Don't agree on much else.

[Velorath]

I'd say most seem to agree that the movie isn't very good. Metacritic currently has it matching Eternals score.

Edit: Actually now at 50 which is two points below Eternals. That said, public sentiment has turned against the MCU in general now.

[Threash]

I'll believe that when they stop making billions each year.

[Velorath]

Sure, but the Star Wars prequels and sequels made a shit ton of money also, even as people turned on them.

[Trippy]

That's too bad. It's the same director -- Peyton Reed -- as the other two. I wonder what happened.

[Khaldun]

Well, I'll reserve judgment, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was "you have this thing to deliver and this thing to deliver and this thing to set up and here's your budget, shut up if it's not enough".

It's sort of like the thing with Thor in the Age of Ultron movie where he goes into a cave for no fucking reason and it means absolutely nothing in the context of the film (and in the end actually doesn't deliver even in the bigger story). Executive notes and funding limitations and interferences in telling a coherent story. Or so I would guess.

Apparently this is what Iger was brought back to reverse--the people who wanted him as savior want him to reinstate creators making creative decisions and commanding budgets in relationship to that.

[Velorath]

That's too bad. It's the same director -- Peyton Reed -- as the other two. I wonder what happened.

I'm on record as thinking that Ant Man & The Wasp is arguably the dullest MCU film with only Thor: Dark World possibly standing in the way of it taking the crown. The original Ant Man is not much higher on the list for me. Rudd as Ant Man is great as comic relief when he's around the other Avengers but the solo movies have always felt pretty lifeless. The complaints I see about this movie generally seem to be that not much actually happens. We get Kang of course but it doesn't sound like the movie does much to set up future conflict with him.

[Sky]

I'm looking forward to stuff like Daredevil, smaller more human tales. So far the best of phase 4 has been stuff like Hawkeye, where the scope is smaller and the focus more on a couple characters than an epic cast and setting. The heroes of phase 4 MCU for me are folks like the Swordsman or the therapy group from She-Hulk.

This movie could be just lots of Ant-Man joking around during a heist movie and featuring tons of Luis and the guys. Fishburn and Ghost were awful in #2, and Ghost is part of the next generation of heroes? Ecch. Almost every attempt to force in another next gen hero has been bad. Especially when they've had actually entertaining side characters that are basically dead-ends or one-offs.

[Khaldun]

Yeah, so far the theme in reviews (just reading summary level stuff, not the spoilery details) is that the movie is just kind of dour and lifeless and has no reason to exist but to set up the next movies. The Rolling Stone review says it "makes Eternals feel positively breezy by comparison". Uh-oh. Apparently the version of MODOK in the film provides some weird humor (but of course) but the tonal inconsistencies are huge.

[Sky]

It seems like all of Phase 4 has just been setting up something else. And most of the setup is trash.

[Samwise]

It seems like all of Phase 4 has just been setting up something else. And most of the setup is trash.

I mean, that's what happens when you get up your own butt about the concept of a "cinematic universe" and establishing a hundred hour continuity instead of just making movies that are fun to watch. 

The MCU peaked at Iron Man 1 and it's been downhill ever since.   

[lamaros]

It seems like all of Phase 4 has just been setting up something else. And most of the setup is trash.

I mean, that's what happens when you get up your own butt about the concept of a "cinematic universe" and establishing a hundred hour continuity instead of just making movies that are fun to watch. 

The MCU peaked at Iron Man 1 and it's been downhill ever since.   

IMO the movies peaked with GotG and Thor:Ragnarok and the MCU concept peaked with Infinity War and most of everything around it has been really boring paint by numbers. I'm glad this phase of movie making is (hopefully) phasing out and maybe we can get some stuff with money put into behind it which isn't shitty sequels and remakes.

[Khaldun]

I would not hold your breath on either of those hopes.

[Velorath]

Yes, last year truly heralded the beginning of the end of sequels and remakes in big budget film.

1   Top Gun: Maverick   $718,318,561   
2   Black Panther: Wakanda Forever   $436,499,646
3   Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness   $411,331,607
4   Avatar: The Way of Water   $401,007,908
5   Jurassic World: Dominion   $376,851,080
6   Minions: The Rise of Gru   $369,695,210
7   The Batman   $369,345,583   
8   Thor: Love and Thunder   $343,256,830
9   Spider-Man: No Way Home   $231,808,708
10   Sonic the Hedgehog 2   $190,872,904

[Khaldun]

Elvis, Nope, Smile, The Lost City, Bullet Train and The Bad Guys did make it to the 11-20 slot, but I think that's broadly typical (that there are some substantial commercial hits that aren't sequels etc that make it that far up the charts).

Was kind of surprised that Everything Everywhere All at Once wasn't in the top 20 but that's probably that A24 only distributes to art house places for the most part.

[Threash]

Well I thought it was just fine.

[Trippy]

Metacritic doesn't have its audience score up yet but Rotten Tomatoes is currently at 86% vs 48% for its critics score.

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/ant_man_and_the_wasp_quantumania

https://www.metacritic.com/movie/ant-man-and-the-wasp-quantumania

[Velorath]

I liked it more than the other 2 Ant Man movies.

[Threash]

I liked it better than Thor 4 and Dr Strange 2.

[Velorath]

I liked both of those more than most people so I’m not quite there with it (but it’s not far off for me). Solid middle of the pack MCU. There were a few things played as jokes that maybe felt a little forced to me and didn’t quite land, like the goo alien that’s kind of a comic relief character. MCU movies being tonally all over the map isn’t anything new though.