Somewhere, Martin Scorsꦫese i🐈s sipping whiskey with a wry smile. Or would be, if he cared about any of this. I've long been a defender of the MCU, and always have my reliable line of 'I've seen every Marvel movie since Iron Man 2 on opening weekend' to fall back on. That streak continued with Ant-Man and the Wasp Quantumania, and I must say, I wish it didn't. It's not just a bad movie. I can live with those every once in a while as the Marvel machine keeps on trucking. It's a new low for the MCU overall, not just for its quality, but for its lack of respect for the audience, complete absence of direction, and the worrying precedent it sets for the 🎀future of the series.
The MCU now defines what it is to be a comic book movie. It's exceedingly rare that comic books that aren't superheroes get adapted in the way they once did with V for Vendetta, A History of Violence, or Ghost Town, and rarer still that these chosen superhero movies break the mould. Even those made by DC, though darker in tone and lighting, follow the same basic pattern: a hero of binary goodness, a villain justified in their anger but never their methods, a world-ending threat, a slew of chunky VFX soup made cheaply, quips fired non-stop with the speed of a proton blaster, and an epic showdown at the climax. The world is saved, but nothing ever really stops.
For a while, the MCU began to take this further, and had the hero and villain share a near-identical powerset, leading to a symmetrical showdown. Sometimes this had thematic weight, such as in the first Iron Man or the first Black Panther. Most of the time though it was predictable slop that came from an over-reliance on the existing framework. In Phase 4, there seemed to be an awareness that this was a problem, but that didn't stop it from happening in WandaVision (twice), Shang-Chi, or Black Widow. 168澳洲幸运5开𓄧奖网:Even Wakanda Fo🙈rever could not escape it.
But like I said, I'm an MCU defender and I see every movie as it drops. Sure, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:the VFX is mediocre and the plots are predictable, but the action is engaging and the characters are charming. I disagree with the notion that they're all 'switch your brain off and have a good time!' movies too - Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame, Thor: Ragnarok, Iron Man 3, and Captain America: The Winter Soldier all stand alone as brilliant action flicks, while WandaVision was the most interesting mainstream TV show of 2021 and Hawkeye had some effective character writing. The MCU is so alluring because while the movies are simple, they star some of the best actors of the generation, and that friction of a great performer working against green screen and "the multiverse will fall" levels of dialogue is fascinating.
This is true in Quantumania too, where Jonathan Majors delivers a strong performance as Kang. Unfortunately, he's also the only redeemable part of the movie.
Quantumania seems to rally against the typical MCU setups at first. It all takes place in the Quantum Realm and while that world needs saving, the characters are primarily focussed on human angles. However, the schlocky VFX are even worse as the cosmic world is brought to life in muddy and nauseating ways, and in removing a lot of the typical framework, it offers nothing in replacement. Ant-Man has always been a little different, relying on charm and comedy, but here it's just not funny. And I don't mean the jokes don't land, I mean they don't exist. Love & Thunder might have been a bad comedy, but it was still a comedy. Quantumania is just... nothing.
You'd think fewer quips would be a welcome break for the MCU, but instead we get dull exposition and bland dialogue about being yourself and doing what's right. Katheryn Newton is charmingly frazzled as Cassie, but she can't sell the flimsy script and seems to flutter between wanting to ground serious dramatic stakes and playing the whole thing for laughs. Meanwhile, Paul Rudd's old tricks won't work when the script has no dog at all.
It's a famous line that Raiders of the Lost Ark would have shaken out in exactly the same way without Indiana Jones there. That's true of both Wasp and Ant-Man here. The only set piece they have of any major consequence is when they end up in the world of possibilities, which apparently clones you over and over again with nothing else worthwhile happening, until you remember the power of family, then they all disappear. Wasp is maybe the sixth most important character here, yet she's in the title, while Ant-Man just sort of stumbles along in the vague direction the plot needs him to. Janet is crucial for boring exposition, then removed almost entirely, while Hank fills in wherever needed to make sure there are never any stakes at any moment.
It's a feature film debut for screenwriter Jeff Loveness, and unfortunately, you can tell. He does bring some comic book experience, but mostly he's been writing for Jimmy Kimmel Live! and later seasons of Rick & Morty. While Majors does a good job, nothing here has convinced me that Loveness can a) write a feature, b) understand what makes a Marvel movie worthwhile, or c) effectively sell the power of Kang. What a pity then that he'll be back for the most important Marvel movie post Endgame, penning Avengers: The Kang Dynasty.
I can live with Marvel making a bad movie. Hey, I saw Morbius on opening night and it was a lark, even if it wasn't very good. But Quantumania was boring, ridiculously simplistic, rendered its characters ineffective, and was drained of all charm. The MCU has been adrift for a while, and this is the worst result yet. Unfortunately, it also seems to be the foundation for the future.