Ant Man And The Wasp Quantumania: The Train-wreck You Heard It To Be?

Summary

Antman, played by Paul Rudd, heads off to the Quantum Realm.

So I went into this film with incredibly low expectations, a lot of the bad reviews had got to me and I was going in expecting a trainwreck from start to finish, but, and I don’t know whether this was just because I went in with low expectations, I ended up enjoying it far more than I thought I would.

So first off let’s talk about what doesn’t work. Cassie, played by Kathryn Newton, is a deeply underdeveloped character and to make matters worse she is quite annoying. I don’t know what they were going for with making her an activist and having the cringey line ‘just because it is not happening to you doesn’t mean it isn’t happening’ but honestly it made her scenes ones where I tuned out. People don’t want to be preached to in a superhero film.

Other less appealing aspects of the film come from Corey Stroll’s Modok, and how they change him fairly drastically from the comics and then kill him off, wasting all of his in universe potential, though I suppose he could always come back at some point. The Modok CGI is horrible by the way, but you already knew that. Finally I will add that this film did make me miss the more street level Marvel fare as I am starting to get sick of these big CGI movies that all end up feeling the same.

Now into the positives. I thought both Michelle Phifer and Michael Douglas had really great moments here I enjoyed learning about Janet’s past and I thought Hank bringing the advanced ant civilisation to save the day at the last minute was both quite smart and also funny. I also really liked his line about socialism.

The new characters, bar Bill Murray’s Krylar, were very welcome I thought both Katy O’Brian and William Harper Jackson did a great job and I hope their characters come back in future sequels if they manage to find a way out of the Quantum realm. Of course in this regard I would be remiss to not talk about Jonathan Major’s Kang, who whilst not new as he appeared in Loki, is new in this variant. I thought Major’s was terrific and did a lot to make Kang feel like a serious threat in the MCU, I would argue he still has further to go to feel Thanos level, but I did really like seeing the Council of Kangs at the end of the film and think the MCU is going to have a lot of fun with him.

Finally, though it is a bit soppy I wanted to say that I enjoyed that the film continued the wholesome romance between Hope, played by Evangeline Lilly, and Scott, it is a nice throughline in these films and I was very worried that they were going to kill Ant-Man off and end it, I am glad they didn’t. The scene towards the end of the film wherein Hope saves Scott’s life during a fight with Kang and they hold each other after defeating him is probably my favourite of the whole film.

Overall, fairly enjoyable Marvel fare and better than most are saying.

3.5/5

Pros.

Douglas and Pfeiffer

The new characters

Kang

The romance

Cons.

Cassie

Modok

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The Current State Of The MCU: The Wheels Are Coming Off

Written by Luke Barnes

I want to use this piece to talk about the current state of the MCU in the post-Endgame landscape. Right from the off I will say that I have seen everything the MCU has ever put out, I am due to see Ant-Man and The Wasp Quantomania in the coming days and it is because of that that I am writing this piece. As it stands the third Ant-Man film has some of the worst reviews of any MCU Marvel film, at least from critics and is being torn apart for its terrible VFX work, as such the point of this piece is how did we get here from the heights of Endgame? Is it a one off or part of a larger pattern? I have broken down what I think are the current issues killing the MCU into 5 key areas, that are all fairly minor on their own but that when combined create a lethal cocktail for the future success of the MCU as a franchise.

Firstly, and most obviously there is the glaring issues with VFX. VFX artists have been coming out and talking about how bad they have it over at Disney/Marvel studios and how they are been rushed and forced into crunch time hours in order to get films ready in time for release. This is bad both as a means of how to treat your employees but also as it effects the final quality of the project, who remembers Heimdall’s son from Love and Thunder or the recent stills of Modok from Quantomania. Forcing out unfished and poor VFX work makes both your film look bad and also taints your brands reputation for quality.

However, quality leads into the second issue with the current MCU the idea of quantity becoming more important than quality. This can be seen with the amount of MCU content that is released and the time frame in which it comes out, we are getting north of 5 MCU projects a year and that is a lot to turn around in such a short space of time so it is no wonder they are clearly cutting corners. This is likely done on a mandate from Disney to prop up Disney + with content but make no mistake it is killing Marvel in the long run.

This constant need for more content is also leading to more and more people starting to be put off by the Marvel formula, which is readily apparent no matter how many different genres they try and adapt their films into, because the creative confines of what one can do and still have it be a Marvel film are incredibly limited. Yes, there are some films like the coming Deadpool film that have enough of a fanbase that the higher ups at Marvel Studios and Disney can justify it breaking formula, but even then I wouldn’t be surprised if it didn’t get the R rating everyone thinks it is going to get. Moreover, this is also feeding into the homework problem that has plagued the MCU for some time and is getting worse with the introduction of the Disney + shows, this is the idea that to understand what is happening in the MCU at current moment you need to have seen tons of films and TV shows to be able to get into the wider narrative, this was inevitable as an issue for the interconnected world, but it will put more casual audiences off for sure.

Another issue with the current slate of Marvel content, especially the Disney + shows is the pushing off smaller characters at the expense of killing off or retiring older characters. You can have She-Hulk and Hulk together you don’t need to retire one to have the other, the same concept applies for Iron Man, Captain America and Hawkeye, all of these characters have been replaced. In the comics Steve Rogers and Sam Wilson both existed at the same time, especially when the latter was Captain America, but the MCU doesn’t work like that. There is a school of thought that suggests that the MCU is getting rid of its classic heroes to make audiences care about the new ones, and this does have some merit. One has to ask why is Echo, a minor character at the best of times, getting a show before Punisher or Ghost Rider?

The answer to that question leads into my final issue with the MCU and the one that I think in the end will be the death nail for it and that is pushing a political message and focusing on being as diverse as possible rather than in telling good stories any more. I will add that many properties can do both, and that diversity and representation is important, my argument is that when you achieve this by dragging down or removing pre-established and well liked characters that this is not the way. Look at She-Hulk again, which in my mind was the lowest ebb yet of the MCU, the show as a whole went out of its way to drag down the Hulk and show how Jessica Walters was easily so much better than him. Why did you need to introduce a character in this way? Lots of fans like the Hulk as a character so to see both the character and the show completely disrespect him is a bitter pill to a lot of fans. If you want to introduce a diverse array of new characters then focus on making them likable and important in their own right, the MCU did this perfectly with Miss Marvel, rather than having them exist as a character to put the pre-established characters down. All this does is make your new heroes unlikeable.

I recently saw an article in which Kevin Feige said he thought the MCU could be around for many more decades yet, but I think this argument ignores the declining box office and the subscriber problem with Disney +, I think Feige response is in denial. Yes the X-Men and The Fantastic Four will bring some audiences back whenever they are introduced, but that won’t change any of these issues, and it is these issues that I believe will see the MCU either rebooted or retired within the next decade.

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Unbreakable: Ageing Poorly

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

A train crash survivor, played by Bruce Willis, realises that he has superhuman powers and then enters into a twisted power game with a disabled comic store owner, played by Samuel L. Jackson.

This is one of those films that a lot of people really like but that I have never been able to get into. When looking at Shyamalan’s wider body of work it is his forays into superhumans that really lose me, with the exception of Split, that and his dreadful After Earth.

My biggest issue with this film has always been that the characters don’t feel fully realised, in many senses they feel like someone has read a comic book and seen Batman, a purely random example, and has only understood one very basic aspect of his character and then has used that to create an inferior rip off character. To me the characters don’t feel in any way relatable and that is a big issue.

I also think the deeper question of do these people actually have powers, which gets turned up throughout the film and a lot going into Glass, is not actually as interesting as Shyamalan seems to think it is. Honestly after having the question asked for the hundredth time during the subtext of the film I begin to stop caring.

There are other avenues I could point to in my criticism of this film such as Bruce Willis being incredibly miscast but they are low hanging fruit and I won’t take them.

Overall, some of the worst aspects of Shyamalan as a filmmaker.

1/5

Pros.

It’s hard to not like a Samuel L. Jackson performance, he is a redeeming factor of the film.

Cons.

The characters are entirely unrelatable and feel alien in the worst way

It is far too long

Willis is incredibly miscast

It is not as deep as it thinks it is

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The Guardians Of The Galaxy Holiday Special: Family Is The Reason For The Season

4.5/5

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

In order to try and cheer up Star-Lord, played by Chris Pratt, Mantis, played by Pom Klementieff, and Drax, played by Dave Bautista, head to Earth in order to kidnap the great hero Kevin Bacon.

This special works for one reason and one reason only Pom Klementieff. She gives one of the best most heart warming performances I have ever seen in a Marvel movie, she is the heart and soul of this piece and if she is even half as good in Guardians Of The Galaxy 3 then she is going to steal every scene she is in and probably the whole film. I really liked the decision to have Mantis be Quills half-sister, I thought it added a whole new emotional layer not just to the film but to the wider team that is really appreciated.

Something I didn’t personally mind but might bother some is the fact that the wider Guardians team are mostly absent, yes they get a look in every now and again but these basically amount to cameo roles this is Mantis and Drax’s film. They do introduce Cosmo the Spacedog, voiced by Maria Bakalova, who has a few funny lines and will clearly be a foil for Rocket, voiced by Bradley Cooper come the next movie, but for the most part her introduction is only brief.

There are some animated sequences at the start and the end of the special that talk more about the Quill/ Yondu, played by Michael Rooker, relationship that also add to the wider theme of emotion, love and family in this feature and really help to nicely book end the bittersweet feeling of the special more broadly.

Kevin Bacon is Kevin Bacon which to me is a good thing as the man is an icon, but to others the bit might be annoying.

Overall, a sweet memorable Christmas Special, give Klementieff a bigger part and more money for the sequel she deserves it.

Pros.

Mantis being Peter’s half-sister

The emotion

It feels like Christmas

Gunn’s understanding of these characters

Cosmo

Cons.

The wider Guardians team isn’t given much to do

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Black Panther Wakanda Forever: The King Is Dead And The Seat Is Empty

3/5

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

Wakanda copes with the death of its King.

In many senses this is a depressing film, it doesn’t just address the real world passing of Black Panther star Chadwick Boseman this film lives it and throughout the film Boseman’s death is never too far away, we are given many reminders of it.

However, I did enjoy for the most part that this film has a serious tone, too many of Marvel’s Phase 4 projects have really leant hard on the humour and it has hurt them. This for the most part plays everything very seriously and that is good and helps the film to feel impactful and maintain stakes. Although, an issue to this is the inclusion of Riri Williams, played by Dominque Thorne, who for the most part is annoying and forces in a lot of corny jokes where they just aren’t needed. Moreover, Williams is never specifically said to be the Iron Man replacement of the MCU but it feels like she is being pushed that way, and boy does she feel like a off brand version of the character.

I really liked that this film finally introduced Namor, played by Tenoch Huerta Mejia, into the MCU I think he is easily the best thing about this film and certainly is a scene stealer. A lot of the underwater scenes with him and his people are really cool and interesting and for the most part the effects hold. However, the CGI does prove to be glaringly bad on a few occasions which is quite poor when you think about how much money was pumped into this film.

The cast for the most part are a mixed bag Danai Gurira and Angela Basset give stirring performances and are very deserving of praise, but Winston Duke is mostly passed over and ignored and Letitia Wright is noticeably bad and clearly finds it hard to emote as throughout Shuri’s ride in this film her face barely changes scene to scene be it happy, angry or sad. Another thing that bugged me about Shuri in this film is that all of a sudden she can fight and it makes no sense, she becomes Black Panther and then whoops Namor despite being tactical support in the last film and for the early parts of this one. Where did this sudden training come from? It would have taken one line to have tied this off and not have it be an issue, but no, to me it reeks of the writers thinking that the audiences are too dumb to pick up on it. Another dumb plot whole is why does Wakanda not just tell the world about Namor and his people and how they are responsible for all the attacks rather than taking the blame themselves? It makes no sense and the film does not address it.

Overall, slightly worse than the first film but it does introduce Namor to the MCU so that’s pretty cool.

Pros.

Namor

The mature tone

The ending

Cons.

Riri is annoying and breaks a lot of the tension with dumb jokes

Wright can’t act and Shuri develops all these fighting skills out of nowhere

The poor CGI and plot holes

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She-Hulk: Whose Show Is This?

1.5/5

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

She-Hulk, played by Tatiana Maslany, breaks the fourth wall and in doing so ruins everything her own show has been building towards in the pinnacle of lazy writing.

Where to begin with this? I think the most egregious thing this episode does is have its first half be bad on purpose so that Jen can call it out and then break out of the show and go and talk to the writers, acknowledging your own poor writing doesn’t make it any better. Worse still, the choice to have Jen talk to the sentient A.I overlord K.E.V.I.N to fix everything is the ultimate Deus Ex Machina fake out which just throws away everything the season has been building towards in just a few moments.

Why does the episode do this? Well because in its bad headed own way the show thinks this is funny, it thinks by crapping all over other Marvel films and shows endings that they are in on the joke and that by having it all magically tie itself up that that is clever subversion. Marvel would do well to remember how well subversion by Rian Johnson in Star Wars was taken. Also to make this all so much worse the jokes don’t actually land at all and for the most part are back to the early season cringe wine mum jokes. If this show has taught me anything it is that writer Jessica Gao really wants to appear down with the kids when in her every attempt she translates this into being cringe, moreover her heavy handed political comments only make this cringe issue all the worse.

The ending of the episode has to bring back Hulk, played by Mark Ruffalo, and Daredevil, played by Charlie Cox to try and leave us on a positive note, but even here we are reminded that this show was only ever good when it was relying on cameos from other characters that people actually like.

Overall, boy oh boy Marvel screwed the pooch on this one.

Pros.

Jen’s line about the X-Men

Bring back Daredevil for a few brief scenes

Cons.

It is cringe

It throws out everything that the series has been setting up

The meta joke mostly don’t work

It feels gimmicky throughout

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She-Hulk: Ribbit And Rip It

4.5/5

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

She-Hulk finally brings in Daredevil, played by Charlie Cox, and it produces one of the best episodes of Marvel Disney + content yet.

This was a magnificent episode, Tatiana Maslany was great and so was Charlie Cox. The central case of the episode really did just play second fiddle to the blossoming relationship between Jen and Matt, which by the way when that hit it was the biggest fist in the air moment ever. I think Jen is at her most likeable here and you really do feel for her when Matt goes back to New York. I personally hope that maybe in the last episode she moves out their and starts her own practice and the two can explore things a bit more, but hey maybe that is just a fan fiction dream.

I also really enjoyed the end of the episode were things took a sharp dark turn. At first I was about to role my eyes that the big villain of the series is an organisation of incels, but then I thought about it and realised that it was actually perfect. The fact that not only do they steal Jen’s blood but they also try and slut shame her makes the fight so personal, and I really liked the fact that we saw her truly hulk out at the end, my one note is that I would have liked to see her go way more savage like full on berserker, but I guess this isn’t the audience for that.

Overall, this episode made up for all the wine mum jokes, all the awkward feminist rants, all of the man hating and the god awful mess they made of Titania.

Pros.

Jen really comes into her own here

The surprisingly dark twist at the end of the episode

Seeing Jen sort of hulk out

Bringing in Daredevil

Jen and Matt were a great couple

Cons.

I would have liked to see Jen go way more hardcore at the end of the episode

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She-Hulk: The Retreat

3/5

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

Jen, played by Tatiana Maslany, heads to a retreat for a few days to try and get over the fact a guy she likes hasn’t text her back.

Once again the show promised Daredevil and didn’t deliver, like I have said before I am now convinced that he won’t show up until a post credits scene in the final episode and he will have been used to try and draw in audiences who don’t care about a show about a whiny, spoilt white girl who has a series of wine mom issues and first world problems.

I would say however in favour of this episode that it is probably one of the better ones of the series and has Jen actually think about how she views herself which I thought was interesting to see. I liked the character growth she got, and thought that bringing back Tim Roth’s Abomination was a very good idea. Fun was had.

I didn’t like that during her therapy scenes they used actual tweets about the She-Hulk show as why she feels bad about herself, as I think this just makes the show look petty. Likewise I also think it is a bad look when one of the main stars of the show Jameela Jamil has to go on the record saying about how much the show has upset men, as though all criticism against the show is sexist. It makes the whole production look like it has a chip on its shoulder.

Another thing that I thought was bad, please do believe though I am finding all these negatives with the episodes it probably is one of the better ones, is the fact that Jen’s latest potential love interest is revealed to be a villain. This continues the shows obsession with every none established male character having to be bad or incompetent in some way, though I suppose her therapy buddies do kind of balance things out on that front.

Overall, better but still not good, luckily there is only a few episodes left.

Pros.

Maslany and the focus on Jen

Bringing back Roth

The therapy scenes

Cons.

Still no Daredevil

Continued man bashing

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She-Hulk: Just Jen

3/5

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

Jen, played by Tatiana Maslany, goes to a wedding.

Compared to a lot of the other episodes of this season I actually thought this was somewhat better. I liked the focus on Jen rather than She-Hulk and thought that Maslany got a lot of moments to shine wherein her charm really did come out. I think it is hard to watch this episode and not like the character of Jennifer Walters.

That said it is far from perfect. They bring back the dumpster fire that is Titania, played by Jameela Jamil, who ruins the wedding scenes which she is in and also gives us one of the worst fight scenes ever in the history of the MCU. Moreover, they also have a b plot about a guy being sued by a bunch of his ex-wives and the joke is that he is terrible. To me this just came across as man hating plain and simple, it seems that it is very hard for this show to have any male characters, that isn’t already an established part of the MCU be shown in a good light.

In addition they also draw attention to the fact that even though last week’s episode ended with a tease for Daredevil that this episode would just ignore that. As I have said before drawing attention to your bad writing doesn’t suddenly make it good it is just doubly bad and lazy. I really do think that this show has to use the promise of Daredevil as a crutch to get people to keep watching, if they announced tomorrow that Daredevil had been cut from the show I bet the viewership would quickly nosedive.

Overall, better than the last few episodes but still troubled.

Pros.

Maslany is very charming

A lot of the jokes land

It makes me warm to Jen as a character

Cons.

Titania is still awful

The b plot is just garbage

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She-Hulk: Mean, Green And Straight Poured Into These Jeans

1.5/5

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

Titania, played by Jameela Jamil, is fully ruined and dragged through the mud so that the writers can make some mom jokes about the youth culture.

Honestly, I don’t know why I am still watching this show. I will say that I am doing it so that I can give all you who read these reviews a complete picture of the series, in truth maybe I am masochistic. This series is just awful at this point and is getting steadily worse by the episode. The one positive I will say about this episode is that Griffin Matthews totally crushes the scenes he is in and brings a hell of a presence to the MCU, one that it has been sorely lacking, the whole side story about She-Hulk’s new clothes was the most entertaining part about this episode.

Countering that the whole courtroom sequences with influencer Titania were terrible, the jokes didn’t land, staying firmly in the wine mom category of humour, and Titania was fully ruined as a character as yet another of Marvel’s classic villains are reduced to nothing more than a bad joke.

Something else I didn’t like about this episode was the line wherein She-Hulk, played by Tatiana Maslany, says how one of the benefits of being She-Hulk is that she can walk home wearing headphones at night and not have to worry about attackers. Now I know this is a huge problem but I am really getting sick of She-Hulk as a show inserting these forced in political points, for the most part the MCU has remained apolitical and that is how it should be. I watch these films and shows to escape the grim realities of the real world, and all these sort of lines do is drag me back in to the bleakness.

They do tease Daredevil, played by Charlie Cox for the next episode but it feels more desperate than exciting, they need something to keep you around for.

Overall, this is certainly the worst MCU project yet.

Pros.

Matthews

I like that the superheroes now have an outfitter

Cons.

They ruin Titania

The mom jokes

The forced social commentary

It is not funny

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