Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania

 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

1. Avengers: Infinity War
2. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
3. Captain America: Civil War
4. Guardians of the Galaxy
5. Thor: Ragnarok
6. Spider-Man: Homecoming
7. Captain America: First Avenger
8. Hawkeye
9. Captain America: Winter Soldier
10. Avengers: Endgame
11. Black Panther
12. Spider-Man: No Way Home
13. Loki
14. Ant-Man
15. Avengers
16. Wandavision
17. She-Hulk
18. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
19. Werewolf By Night
    
     the second line - stories I like but perhaps don't fully resonate
20. Iron Man 3
21. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
22. Black Widow
23. Doctor Strange
24. Ant-Man and the Wasp
25. Captain Marvel
26. Ant Man and the Wasp: Quantumania
    
    third wave -- flawed but still fun, stuff I'll still go back to
27. What If...?
28. Ms. Marvel
29. Spider-Man: Far From Home
30. Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special
31. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
32. Eternals
33. Falcon and the Winter Soldier
34. Moon Knight
35. Avengers: Age of Ultron
36. Iron Man 2
    
    the bottom - the ones I don't know that I ever want to watch again
37. Thor: The Dark World
38. Iron Man
39. Thor
40. The Incredible Hulk
41. Thor: Love and Thunder

We Disagree: Eternals (Rewatch)

2021,  Chloé Zhao (Nomadland) -- Disney+

I am not sure why Marvel did this movie. I guess the next wave of Marvel movies is going to be more... cosmic? I don't know, I really no longer follow along, knowing full well I will see all the movies not long after they come out, but very little is actually anticipated by my brain anymore. I don't dislike them, they just don't excite me like they once did.

I watched this just after it released on Disney, because of course I did. But not a lot of it stuck with me, in fact not a lot of it struck me with any emotional impact even while I was watching it. So, I didn't write about it. And so I am here rewatching it, so I can finally write about it. It won't be one sitting, so expect tonal shifts as I watch in chunks.

Marvel in Space has a historical race of beings called The Celestials. They are ancient, powerful beings at the god-level of existence, and not pseudo-god-alien beings like the Asgardians who leave an influence on Earth, creating mythos, but truly godlike, incredibly powerful creatures literally responsible for the birth of galaxies. 

We have met them before in the movies. Starlord's daddy Ego was one. The mining colony of Nowhere was the severed head of one. But this is the movie where we are introduced to their role in the Universe and their influence on Earth in particular. But we do so without involving any of the heroes of Earth at all, which is kind of weird considering the big event the movie ends with.

The Celestials created the Eternals, an ensemble cast of superpowered beings sent to Earth (and other planets before) to fight the Deviants, whom the Celestials also created, but lost control of. The Eternals are tasked with protecting humanity from Deviants, but ordered to not get directly involved with the evolution of humanity. By the time we reach the current day, they believe they succeeded in eliminating the monstrous Deviants, and after some family squabbles, they settle into mostly anonymous lives amongst the humans they resemble.

And then they discover their true purpose.

I am about mid-way through my second watching, and I am finding myself not all that interested in it. I don't like most of the characters, and don't understand the existence of many of them. They were sent to be soldiers, to fight Deviants, but most of them have ancillary powers that don't directly contribute to combat. In standard superhero groups, people get their powers in weird, random ways and end up putting on suits and cooperating to fight Bad Guys. Those with not-direct-combat powers become support members, and all work together defeat the baddies. But this team was created with one purpose in mind, so I am not sure what molecular transformation really provides in the middle of a battle. Most of Circe's actions barely slow the Deviants, and much is cute or almost comedic in effect. I guess, at the very least, she (and a few others) were there to be support for the team, to reduce the loss of human life during these battles?

(one week later)

I am hesitant to say, "I don't like the movie." But I also cannot be an apologist. Its just that the story and the characters leave me flat. And its meagre integration into the MCU is almost laughable. How could that event, and even the lead up, not have alerted some of the more powerful beings into action? Where was Doctor Strange? Where was Wanda Maximoff ? Even if Fury was not around, what's left of SHIELD must be paying attention to world impactful events? Considering the speed at which "new superheroes" are introduced to this world, there must have been a few sitting in the wings catching on to the Earth about to ... die? 

But, don't get me wrong, I get it, this is introducing the new stage of MCU and its an establishing movie. So, some prior connections are severed for the sake of the reality of movie making. But even taken at face value, I wasn't absorbed. Even the grandeur of Zhao, the wide panoramic beautiful shots just didn't do anything for me. Maybe they were best left for the cinema? But even in 4K, and on my new bright and colourful TV, everything was just ... muddy. And the battle scenes were just incredibly pew pew pew lackluster to me. When I hold up to comparable battle scenes, such as the arrival of Captain Marvel in Endgame, I wonder why I wasn't in awe, like I was for her. There was so much behind every action she took, so much weight and power, and these Eternals should make her pale in comparison. And don't get me going on how utterly disinterested I was in all the characters, but for Circe and Ikarus, and the latter only because they are pushed to the forefront and therefore have more room to ... evoke. The rest, had occasional hints, but for the most part were ... devoid.

So yeah, we disagree... for the most part. I do agree with Kent that the movie wasn't bad enough to dislike for not being like all the others before it, I just don't think it did well on its own.