Antman and the Wasp: Quantumania completes the Antman trilogy all directed by Peyton Reed and again starring Paul Rudd and Evangeline Lily with Michael Douglas and Michelle Pfeiffer in support. Joined by Kathryn Newton as Antman’s daughter Cassie. This time they face off against the MCU’s newest baddie Kang played by Jonathan Majors.
The fact that Antman has a trilogy is pretty hilarious particularly given none of them are really any good. The first one is fine, I weep for the Edgar Wright version we could have had. The second one is ok, just incredibly forgettable (being sandwiched between infinity war and endgame definitely made everyone go easy on it- myself included). Now this one, which doesn’t have the grace of being held near other great MCU content and so I won’t go easy on it.
There’s no reason to see this film. It looks terrible, some of the worst CGI in a big budget film you will see. I think its partly because it’s used for absolutely everything, so there’s just no way it would look good enough without either being fully animated or spending 10 years on it like Avatar. I know he’s a joke but Modok is one of the most ungodly terrible character designs of all time. And the characters just do nothing in this film. Antman and the Wasp have no chemistry at all. Cassie is just amazing at everything so has no real development. Paul Rudd is trying is best and god knows a less likeable actor would have been ten times worse, but Antman has no real development either. WHY DOES THIS MOVIE EXIST?
The real reason is to be set up Kang. I imagine Kevin Feige looked at his character list and his contracts and said well we’ve got Paul Rudd for one more, let’s put Kang in this one. And that’s honestly the worst decision because Kang SUCKS! Following up Thanos, an all timer of a villain would always be tough, but Kang in his brief Loki appearance was cringe as hell. And in a full movie, he’s just the worst. He has infinite dimensions to his personality and yet they’re all boring. I think Jonathan Majors only really works as a big tough guy, which is fine in something like Creed III. But in this he just doesn’t have the range needed to pull off a character like this. If news is to be believed maybe Jonathan Majors may not be returning to Kang, who knows? But whatever he’s like in real life, I just don’t think he’s a good enough actor to carry off the kind of character they want Kang to be.
So honestly this is not worth your time. It’s better than Eternals or Thor: Love and Thunder, but nothing happens in the film itself and nothing really happens for the wider MCU that you couldn’t just work out by watching the Honest Trailer. Please MCU you can do better, I know you can! 2 Stars.
Movie Night 