Review of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023) by Mathiasbs — 22 Feb 2023

So, in my opinion, the best Marvel movies so far have always been the ones that don’t take themselves too seriously - but Antman 3 kinda fails to do that. It tries very hard to deliver a big epic finale to the Antman trilogy, but given the recent introduction of the Multiverse in the MCU, the stakes have never felt lower; and they were already pretty low, since this is HOLLYWOOD BABY and no one can die, unless the merchandise stops selling! It tries to be fun and different, but fails most of the time; mostly due to some seriously cheesy jokes, terrible performances, an over-reliance on CGI and one of the most by-the-number scores of any Marvel movie ever. Not even the most ridiculous movie villain in history, Modok, manages to leave any kind of impression. It felt mostly like a mediocre 90s sci-fi movie, with a very conveluted, boring plot, and waaaaaaaaaaay too much subpar visual effects (especially Modok, who looks nothing like the actor he’s supposed to resemble).

Kang The Conqueror returns from Loki and delivers the best performance of the cast, but that’s not saying much. His character is still explained poorly, and especially his end-credits scene was cringe worthy. He makes for a much less intimidating foe than Thanos did, in the previous saga of movies, and even though I’ve read a fair amount of comics, I still have no idea what he’s trying to do in the MCU, or why he’s doing it. Not even Gregg Turkington’s cameo or the tie-in to his fake movie review show “Gregg Turkington’s Our Cinema At The Cinema Starring Tim Tiedecker”, can save this mess of a movie. The best parts are a couple of silly creature designs + the few scenes that wasn’t filmed in front of a blue screen; here, the actors feel more comfortable (maybe because they actually have an idea about what’s going on).

Worst part of the movie though, is how it completely fails to utilize it’s main characters and their powers; the shrinking/supersizing. There are a few scenes with it here and there, but it’s used inconsistently and doesn’t introduce any new cool ideas into the action, like the previous movies managed to do.

Sure, there are some kaiju-like fight sequences and a couple of big ants, but at this point, we’ve seen it all before. The steam is really running out of the Marvel engine, and Antman 3 is another nail in this slowly sinking coffin.