{"id":3738,"date":"2024-08-29T03:26:03","date_gmt":"2024-08-29T03:26:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=3738"},"modified":"2024-10-14T00:26:08","modified_gmt":"2024-10-14T04:26:08","slug":"ant-man-and-the-wasp-quantumania","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/08\/29\/ant-man-and-the-wasp-quantumania\/","title":{"rendered":"Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania<\/strong> (2023)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Marvel\/Action-Adventure-Sci-Fi\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 125 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG-13 (violence\/action and language)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Peyton Reed\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Jeff Loveness\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Christophe Beck\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: William Pope\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: February 17, 2023 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Jonathan Majors, Michelle Pfeiffer, Michael Douglas, Kathryn Newton, David Dastmalchian, William Jackson Harper, Katy O\u2019Brian, Corey Stoll, Bill Murray.<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ***<\/p>\n

\u00a0Here\u2019s my take on the latest Marvel movie Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania<\/strong>, the first entry in Phase Five of the MCU. It\u2019s not a deathly bore like Eternals. It\u2019s not a convoluted mess like Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness. It\u2019s not a total wokefest like Thor: Love and Thunder. And it\u2019s not a grief therapy session like Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. There\u2019s no agenda here other than introducing the next big MCU supervillain, Kang the Conqueror. He\u2019s kind of like Thanos in that he aspires to be the destroyer of worlds. More about him later.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Paul Rudd returns for another go-around as Scott Lang\/Ant-Man, the size-shifting member of the Avengers who went from criminal to crimefighter thanks to technology designed by physicist Hank Pym (Douglas, Romancing the Stone). \u00a0Since we last saw him (in Avengers: Endgame), he\u2019s become something of a celebrity, instantly recognizable and adored by many (although some still confuse him with a certain other insect-named hero). His relationship with girlfriend and fellow crimefighter Hope van Dyne\/Wasp (Lilly, The Hobbit movies) is stronger than ever. Life is pretty good…. at the moment.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Returning director Peyton Reed wastes no time putting our hero and his family in danger. Scott\u2019s now-teenage daughter Cassie (Newton, The Society) has built a device that will allow her to make contact with the Quantum Realm. Pym\u2019s wife Janet (Pfeiffer, The Witches of Eastwick), who spent 30 years trapped in the QR, panics and tries to shut down the device. Unfortunately, she\u2019s too late. A portal opens and sucks all of them into the QR where they get separated.<\/p>\n

\u00a0It pretty much boils down to this. They get involved in a rebellion against Kang (Majors, The Harder They Fall), the evil ruler of the QR. He was exiled to the QR by his people many years before and Janet is indirectly responsible for his rise to power. Now they all have to stop Kang from escaping the QR and destroying the Multiverse.<\/p>\n

\u00a0It\u2019s no secret that I\u2019ve grown weary of superhero flicks. I expect many of you feel the same. It\u2019s a matter of overkill. They\u2019re not going away any time soon either, not as long as they keep making more billions of $$$ for Disney. I wasn\u2019t exactly psyched to see Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania<\/strong>. It didn\u2019t look horrible, but it didn\u2019t look awesome either. I figured it would just be more of the same old nonsense they\u2019ve been serving us for years and it is. The plot is fairly basic and predictable. For instance, we know right from the start that Bill Murray\u2019s character isn\u2019t an ally even though he initially presents himself as one. For me, the only real surprise is that Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania<\/strong> isn\u2019t totally lame. It\u2019s actually reasonably entertaining.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Obviously, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania<\/strong> isn\u2019t a large-scale epic on the level of Guardians of the Galaxy or an all-hands-on-deck Avengers movie. It\u2019s more on the level of Black Widow, a fun B-level Marvel movie intended to keep fans satisfied until the next one. It should do the trick. It\u2019s an enjoyable albeit inconsequential superhero adventure with decent CGI effects. The FX team does a good job with its visualization of the QR, a wild and untamed place occupied by a variety of creatures like the gelatinous being (voiced by David Dastmalchian) obsessed with bodily orifices. There\u2019s a psychedelic-like quality to the QR, a place where buildings literally get up and walk. It\u2019s a cool place to visit, but I\u2019m not so sure I\u2019d want to live there. The city, on the other hand, resembles something out of a Star Wars movie right down to the bar with its many different alien patrons. One guy looks like a stalk of broccoli. Of course, Scott has to point it out within earshot.<\/p>\n

\u00a0What am I supposed to say about the acting in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania<\/strong>? The cast keeps things relatively light avoiding any super-heavy family drama save for Cassie pointing out how many of her birthdays her father missed. I wished it would have delved deeper into Kang\u2019s character, but bear in mind that this is an introductory movie. Think of it as a meet and greet for Kang, a major MCU villain from what I understand. Majors does a decent job, but he doesn\u2019t project a strong sense of menace, not like Josh Brolin did with Thanos.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Rudd is still having fun with the title role. He plays Scott as a guy still not sure how to deal with fame. He\u2019s amused by it, but still has self-doubts about whether he deserves it. Newton is quite good as Cassie, your typical rebellious teen with activist tendencies. Oh yeah, she has her own super-suit too. It\u2019s always great to see Douglas who now looks exactly like his father Kirk. The same goes for Pfeiffer, still incredibly beautiful at 64. Lilly\u2019s character gets underserved this time, but she still kicks ass really well.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Overall, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania<\/strong> is fine. It has plenty of action and a good sense of humor. One character, a telepath named Quaz (Harper, The Good Place), bemoans his ability to read the dirty thoughts of others. It\u2019s an entertaining movie even if it isn\u2019t epic. Let me put it this way, it\u2019s the best MCU movie since the last Spider-Man movie (in 2021). I say it\u2019s worth the price of a matinee ticket.<\/p>\n

P.S. Be sure to stick around for mid-credits and end-credits bonus scenes. They\u2019re both important.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Marvel\/Action-Adventure-Sci-Fi\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 125 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG-13 (violence\/action and language)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Peyton Reed\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Jeff Loveness\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Christophe Beck\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: William Pope\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: February 17, 2023 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Jonathan Majors, Michelle Pfeiffer, Michael Douglas, Kathryn Newton, David Dastmalchian, William Jackson Harper, Katy O\u2019Brian, Corey Stoll, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4454,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sci-fi-fantasy"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Ant-Man-and-the-Wasp-Quantu.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3738"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3738\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4455,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3738\/revisions\/4455"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}