I just saw The Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania and I’m here to report my humble opinion and review!
The title, first of all… I’ll tell you it was really embarrassing when my wife asked what I was going out to see. Regardless, I always enjoy the Ant-Man movies for their humor and I like that it’s a lesser, non-goofy costume wearing superhero. It’s more just a fun sci-fi movie. Here’s the trailer:
To put it simply, this one was good. It’s like a B/B- but that’s actually a superb score (I like to keep my As for the real good stuff). I was entertained the whole time, it was fun to look at, the stakes had me hooked, and, while the story was nerdy and slightly embarrassing, I was happy to be along for the ride.
Paul Rudd was charming as always, and there was a moment near the end when I was laughing, quite loudly, for a long time. I was the laughiest guy in the theatre for a solid minute. I felt Evangeline Lilly was underutilized, but there were a lot of characters to contend with. There was a fun surprise cameo and the villain, some very powerful dude named Kang, was great.
On the note of Kang, my cousin (who’s really into Marvel and has been following the timelines) filled me in on this character and they’re setting up something really cool. It’s still too much with the Marvel Universe and I swear I’m over it, but after learning about this Kang fellow, I feel tempted to dive into the lore.
So quickly, I recommend this movie!
Three gripes.
Gripe #1. I can’t I unsee the old school celebrities. It feels odd seeing Michelle Pfeifer (sp?) being all superheroey (even though she made a lovely catwoman back in the day). And then Michael Douglas, I just remember when he was so cool. He got Catherine Zeta Jones, for goodness sake!!!! She’s wildly stunning!!! I just want to see a cool Michael Douglas again.
Gripe #2: if you see this movie (which you should if you’re considering it), for the first like 30-40 minutes, everyone ominously refers to the villain as “Him!” It’s funny, coz it’s overdone, but also makes you feel as though the writers think you’re stupid. It was like a sort of unearned, fake suspense, if that makes sense?
Gripe #3: The movie is preachy, but that was obvious. We all knew that’d happen; it is Disney at the end of the day. It wasn’t out of control, though. There was one moment where Michael Douglas’ character makes a quick but overt pitch for socialism. Socialists love writing these “Revolución” moments, but they don’t realize that, in reality, they’re doing what the bad guys are doing. So don’t let it bother you, because while they try to pitch this madness to your children, they also make a fool of themselves at the same time.
But go see it. It was fun.
Big question for the group… when the audience claps at the end of the movie…. Who are they clapping for? Like who is receiving that applause? They clap, they stop clapping, and then they get up, pick up their trash, and leave the theater. It’s just a funny thought. Maybe the projectionist is the recipient in this case? I’d like to see them come up front and take a bow sometime. Maybe I’ll run up front and accept that applause. If no one is there to receive it, perhaps let’s just shut down this whole applause thing, can we?
Okay! That’s it!
Enjoy!