2023, d. Peyton Reed - in theatre
As a longtime comic book reader, I recognize what Feige is doing. Where many people are judging the latest batch of Marvel as "cinema" and, fairly, finding it lacking, I see that the MCU has settled into its ongoing shared universe storytelling mode... Feige is doing what comics have been doing for decades. If you're looking for "cinema", this isn't it (was it really ever?). It's comic books on the big screen in (somewhat) live action, it's spectacle and entertainment, with a smidge of serialized character drama.
I get the frustration and the fatigue. These are big, expensive movies that became so successful and popular that they've became the beating heart of cinema for a hot decade, much to the chagrin of anyone who finds this kind of entertainment beneath them. Marvel was undeniable for a time. That time has passed. Though Sony and WB are still trying, studios are learning that Marvel is an anomaly that is not easily replicatable, but there's no recognizable "next big thing" taking its place (though I think horror will prove itself the genre of the 2020s). Marvel is now the scapegoat, or rather the dead horse to flog for anyone who is sad about the state of cinema, and the level of attention the highly distracted masses pay to the movie going experience. Is superheroes all they want? (No, but it's among the few things they're willing to leave the house for.)
Feige has settled into the storytelling cycle of the media that birthed it. The first 20 years of comic book movies, Starting with Superman, were like the golden age of comics: everything was stand-alone and basically one-and-done. The silver age started with X-Men and Spider-man, being more serialized in nature. The Avengers kicked off the bronze age, with everything being connected, and rapidly accelerated into the modern age of event comics and cross-overs. It can be exhausting if you're expecting the rhythms of cinematic storytelling, if you just want the three acts, beginning, middle, and end. But when you're reading comics (well, Marvel or DC comics, I should specify) there's no end. There's always another issue to come, and another event next summer. From experience it can get exhausting. Some are there already. I'm not there yet.
It's true, Quantumania is not a great movie. It lacks any real meaningful character arc, and it's burdened by both its own franchise and the larger franchise empire that surrounds it. This movie would have been tighter were it just Scott and Cassie who made the trip, or just Hope and Janet (imagine centering on some mother-daughter stuff in a Marvel movie, oh how the trolls would revolt). Or funnier if it were the squad of Paul Rudd, Michael Pena, David Dastmalchian and T.I. But it needed its biggest stars, which split the adventure into two in very comic book fashion.
Quantumania fulfills the promise of exploring the Quantum Realm that the first Ant-Man hinted at but shied away from for seemingly budgetary reasons in is sequel. The rescue of Janet in Ant-Man and the Wasp left a lot of questions about what Janet was up to in her 30 years in the Quantum Realm, and in comic book tradition, here's now a whole storyline about that. This new environment gives us a lot of weird creatures and beings (including a really toyetic looking guy with a cannon for a head) and Moebius-esque living buildings that are also rocket ships (like, hell yeah!). These quantum residents (including a telepathic William Jackson Harper) aren't given "the bump" here...were Marvel able to use The Micronauts (a popular long-running series in the 80's, but licensed from a Hasbro toy line) surely this would have been a backdoor pilot for their own franchise. Alas, these characters are mostly relegated to the background beyond their initial introduction.
It feels very comic-booky, a mid-run story arc that deviates from the norm and does something unexpected (except that we've been bombarded with ads for this thing for 2 months). I can't count the number of times I've read comics that take a trip into new terrain and yet leaves before it feels you really got to know it in a satisfactory manner. The Ant-Men and Wasps are tourists in the Quantum Realm and so we only really get that limited perspective of it.
My worry from the trailer was that this was going to be the same distractingly confined Volume mess of Thor: Love and Thunder or Obi-Wan Kenobi, and while I did sense the limitations early on in the arrival to the Quantum Realm, the film did grow out of it. I'm sure if you're looking for it, you'll see it, but it didn't call attention to itself as it has when used elsewhere.
Writer Jeff Loveness' time with Rick and Morty is felt in this, particularly in the introduction to the denizens of the Quantum Realm and in...well...all of MODOK...one of comics most ridiculous character designs that I'm sure was a deal breaker for many an unfamiliar viewer. I never saw MODOK as a possibility for the MCU, and that Loveness managed to not just get him in here and also tie him into the series at hand was pretty wild.
I can watch Jonathan Majors all day, any day, and his Kang is the seriously heavy heavy of piece. In this lighter franchise-within-a-franchise, he outclasses the heroes of the story. It serves dual purpose, to provide Scott and co with a formidable adversary to overcome (proving themelves as capable heroes) and setting the threat level for Kangs to come.
Rudd is effortless as always, he seems comfortable in any surrounding, bless him. It's unreal how keyed into this franchise Michael Douglas seems to be...is he actually... enjoying himself? Kathryn Newton is a natural fit as Cassie Lang, and I look forward to her and Hailee Steinfeld's Kate Bishop becoming best friends. Evangeline Lily, despite being a title character, is given little to say or do, and it feels like Hope unfairly sidelined (which makes me wonder if the studio was punishing her for her anti-vaxxer status during COVID times, or if it was just Loveness unable to work her into the script meaningfully). Michelle Pfeiffer, then, becomes the titular Wasp of this film, as she gets a bulkier part as the center of the story. But Pfeiffer seems to be the one having the most difficulty acting in her digital surroundings. She's at best fine, but at times not great.
I enjoyed this for what it was -- a big, messy comic book adventure-- even though I see seemingly infinite variations of what it could have been.
It's burdened with labels - "the Ant-Man Trilogy", "the start of Phase 5", "the 31st Marvel movie"- and all the expectations and baggage that comes with it. It can't ever just exist on its own. But no Marvel comic truly exists on it's own, either, even the best of the best is saddled with history and baggage and expectations of what it should be. Navigating shared universe storytelling isn't something everyone is well versed in. It takes experience to learn you don't *have* to read every title, you don't *have* to like or follow every character, that you really can step in and out as you please. All the complaints that all these post-Endgame films are just stepping stones to the next big thing, and that they don't really mean anything well, the meaning is what you ascribe to the experience of investing in this universe. If you think it's a waste of time, then most of these will be a waste of your time. I read a couple Marvel titles monthly, and every now and then they tie into or seed some big crossover I'm not reading. Cross-referencing and teasing the future is just part of the language of superhero comics that Feige is bringing into this medium (the Arrowverse brought into TV first). If one quick reference to something you don't get from another story you haven't seen, or a hint at setting up something forthcoming ruins the entire story at hand for you, it's pretty clear shared universe storytelling is not for you.
---
I haven't done a proper MCU Ranking in a while...
Ranking the MCU:
(including D+)
the top tier - my favourites, all just good stuff
- Avengers: Infinity War
- Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
- Captain America: Civil War
- Guardians of the Galaxy
- Thor: Ragnarok
- Spider-Man: Homecoming
- Captain America: First Avenger
- Hawkeye
- Captain America: Winter Soldier
- Avengers: Endgame
- Black Panther
- Spider-Man: No Way Home
- Loki
- Ant-Man
- Avengers
- Wandavision
- She-Hulk
- Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
- Werewolf By Night
the second line - stories I like but perhaps don't fully resonate - Iron Man 3
- Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
- Black Widow
- Doctor Strange
- Ant-Man and the Wasp
- Captain Marvel
- Ant Man and the Wasp: Quantumania
third wave -- flawed but still fun, stuff I'll still go back to - What If...?
- Ms. Marvel
- Spider-Man: Far From Home
- Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special
- Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
- Eternals
- Falcon and the Winter Soldier
- Moon Knight
- Avengers: Age of Ultron
- Iron Man 2
the bottom - the ones I don't know that I ever want to watch again - Thor: The Dark World
- Iron Man
- Thor
- The Incredible Hulk
- Thor: Love and Thunder
No comments:
Post a Comment