Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania

With a title like Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, is it any wonder that it was able to appeal to my inner 10-year-old?  This is a bright, very goofy, and frequently fun escapist blockbuster that seldom gets overly serious like the Avatar films so often do, and has no hidden meaning behind it other than to feature some characters we know and love interacting with a new cast of characters who look like they came from the Cantina on Tatooine.  

I get that the critics of this (of which there are many) say that the movie is just a mindless spectacle with wall-to-wall effects.  But there is a joy here that I don't sense in a lot of recent movies, not even in some recent Marvel films.  It's another wild adventure with returning heroes Scott Lang/Ant-Man (Paul Rudd), the lovely Hope van Dyne/Wasp (Evangeline Lilly), and Scott's now-teenaged daughter Cassie (Kathryn Newton), who venture into the Quantum Realm.  Just typing that name puts a smile on my face.  You build your movie around something called the Quantum Realm, you're going to get a lot of weird creatures, lots of lasers firing all about, and wall-to-wall special effects.  You also hope for a good time, and to me it provided.  The day I lose my love for gonzo movies like this is the same day a part of my soul dies.

The main purpose of the film is to set up the new lead villain in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, who is the dreaded Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors), and it does so beautifully.  Kang is introduced as a mostly soft-spoken yet threatening presence, who gets to show off his powers and capabilities for world-shattering destruction.  Not only does Majors sell the role, giving the character more heft than there probably was on the written page, but he is able to build a lot of anticipation for the character's future in the franchise.  If the movie is designed to make us want to see him return to seek vengeance, than its done its job.  He's a powerful, imposing, yet human villain with enough charisma to be interesting, but enough menace to be exciting.

The movie is pure cotton candy for the mind, but sometimes we need that.  There's a difference to me as to why these films either work or don't.  I look for a source of life, and if it seems like the actors are barely able to hide their laughter as they say some of the dialogue.  Everyone in this cast deserves a medal of some sort for carrying on through this bizarre plot, and everything the movie throws in it.  And yes, I'm grateful that it spends little time explaining what we are looking at.  I was just grateful to have old pros like Rudd and Lilly as my guide through the madness.  They, along with other returning actors like Michael Douglas and Michelle Pfeiffer, make is a lot more enjoyable.  I mean, was there really a chance that a movie with a subtitle like Quantumania was not going to be nonsensical?  

I understand that there is a growing backlash to these kind of movies, but I have to be honest, I'm still enjoying the ride.  Even if they're not all great examples of blockbuster filmmaking, I still smile, and I smiled and laughed a lot at this.  All I ask from Marvel is escapism, and so far, I have not been completely turned off.  And to me, this is one of the more fun rides they have provided in a while.  It's not poignant like Wakanda Forever, but so what?  It also didn't feel unnecessarily dragged out like Avatar: The Way of Water.  This Ant-Man entry captures the feeling I remember going through my older brothers' comic collection, and hearing both of them describe these strange worlds and characters to me.  I don't know if I can pay any blockbuster film a higher complement than that.

I often complain that I have a hard time shutting off my brain when I'm watching a particularly mindless blockbuster movie, but I think the likability of the cast and the general spirit of this movie aided me this time around.  I'm aware the movie is thin, goofy, and endless special effects.  It's also just a hell of a fun ride.

0 comments