Warning: This column contains spoilers for “Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania.”
"Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania" failed by pretending to be something it wasn’t.
It’s gut-wrenching when you spend months, or even years, anticipating something just for it to fall flat. Unfortunately, this is how I felt after seeing "Quantumania" last week.
I enjoyed the first two "Ant-Man" movies—both lighthearted MCU films that don’t take themselves too seriously. Based on the trailer, it felt like we were going to break the mold and get a serious movie with a massive impact on the rest of the timeline going forward.
I lost count of how many times my eyes rolled over these two hours. Refusing to even call Kang by his name for the first two acts of the movie and only referring to him as ‘him’ or ‘The Conqueror’ was beyond cheesy and annoying.
The film’s lead writer, Jeff Loveness, has a long history of writing for "Rick and Morty" and "Jimmy Kimmel Live!", which showed here considering neither is outstandingly funny.
Sure, there were a few laughs here and there. But many of the jokes were sophomoric and overused. A lot of the dialogue sounded like something a highschool playwright turned in for homework and got a B- on. I’m disappointed he’ll again be the lead writer for "Avengers: Kang Dynasty."
"Quantumania” pulled inspiration from "Star Wars" and "Rick and Morty", and it was evident throughout. From the entire cantina scene basically being ripped out and shoved into this movie and "The Rise of Skywalker" ‘saved at the last second’ trope by everyone you met earlier in the movie just made it cringeworthy. Seriously, chop 15 minutes from the movie and change ~five characters' names and it’s indistinguishable from a stand-alone Disney sequel film.
That’s where the problem lies. Part of what makes the MCU so amazing is that everything is interconnected in a universe (now multiverse) completely separate from anything else.
Though, the worst part of this movie was that there were no consequences in the end. There was no sacrifice, no implications, no danger for any of the characters. Sure, the post-credits scene told us that the council of Kangs was real and a threat, but whether this Kang won or lost they were still going to exist.
A lot of fans are upset about the depiction of MODOK here, but I really didn’t think it was that bad. He’s such a ridiculous character so there’s no way to make him look good.
However, he was the only one with any character development. Scott decides to help people other than his family I guess, but he still is only trying to protect his daughter in the end.
At some point it does get tiring watching the good guys win and the bad guys lose. You can counteract that by having the hero win, but leaving much more worse for wear like in "Spider-Man: No Way Home."
I really needed someone significant to die or at the least be stuck in the Quantum Realm so there wasn’t a “that was easy” happy ending. Kang is supposed to be extremely overpowered and a more terrifying ‘big bad’ than Thanos. I doubt that he’s actually dead and I’d be willing to bet he returns in a future project, but it still feels like he went out too easy.
I do think Marvel has entered a period of rolling out as much content as physically possible, and naturally that’ll lead to content that is not at its peak. The CGI in this movie felt cheap and less than Marvel at their peak, but you can’t really blame the artists considering they were overworked and many were sent to work on "Wakanda Forever” instead (which was stunning, visually).
I'm too deep into Marvel lore. I’ve seen every movie and show leading up to this point, and I enjoy watching breakdown videos or theories on the franchise’s plans going forward. I truly love the MCU, but I’m not too naive to say that everything they pump out is legitimately good content. I have hope going forward, but I hope they go in a different direction than they did in "Quantumania."
Christo Siegel is a junior studying journalism at Ohio University. Please note that the views and opinions of the columnist do not reflect those of The Post. Do you agree? Tell Christo by tweeting him at @imchristosiegel.
