'Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania' Was Not The Home Run For Marvel That It Was Promised To Be
'Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania' has been a movie with some pretty insane hype around it (even for Marvel standards) ever since we found out that Jonathan Majors' Kang The Conqueror would be making his big screen debut here.
Even in the weeks leading up to the film's release, it was promised by Marvel Studios VP of Production and Development Stephan Broussard to be an "epic sci-fi war film" that was as integral to the MCU as 'Captain America: Civil War' - you remember, the movie featuring the debut of Spider-Man AND Black Panther where the Avengers have an epic airport fight and break up at the end?
I think it's safe to say that expectations for 'Quantumania' were sky high after comments like that.
Not to mention, we all saw Jonathan Majors as Kang variant He Who Remains in 'Loki', and that performance was SPECTACULAR; this being the true cinematic kick-off to the Multiverse Saga, how could it not be even better?! Right?!
Folks, I'm honestly very sad to report that I did not find 'Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania' to be the home run that it was promised to be.
It just came out last night, so I don't wanna spoil anything in this blog, but as I say in the above clip from My Mom's Basement: it's a movie with a lot of great stuff in it, but I don't think it's a great movie. It's really messy and tonally all over the place, feeling like a completely different movie in the first and second half.
There's enough good in it for it to still be enjoyable, especially if you're an MCU diehard, and I'd even say it gets great for certain stretches of the movie (all of the Kang/Janet van Dyne stuff was tremendous), but I didn't leave the theater high-fiving Clem and talking about how awesome it was. I left the theater feeling a little underwhelmed…and have just felt more and more underwhelmed the more I think about it.
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I believe the expectations that Marvel set was one of the biggest factors in that, honestly - it was just nowhere near a movie like 'Captain America: Civil War' on any level whatsoever and I don't think we should've been told to expect that. I'm surprised Marvel would even let that fly after an already rocky reception to Phase 4!
Despite that, Jonathan Majors as Kang DID deliver in my eyes, as he was easily my favorite part of the movie, and he's someone I want to see so much more of in the future. He didn't necessarily feel like the Thanos-level threat we were told he is in this, but there's still plenty of time to develop that.
As of right now, 'Quantumania' sits at 48% from the critics on Rotten Tomatoes, making it the lowest-rated MCU movie ever.
It's only the second movie in the Marvel Universe to have a Rotten rating, as well - 'Eternals' being the first.
Do I think it deserves the WORST score in MCU history? No, definitely not.
I think this movie is far more enjoyable than many of the low-end MCU projects, if only for Kang and for the amazing mid and post-credits scenes. I just think critics are much harsher on superhero movies now that we've seen the story retold so many times - understandably so….
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On top of that, the audience rating for 'Quantumania' is all the way up to an 84%, and I've heard from quite a few friends who loved it, so I suppose I could be in the minority here! I just liked it. I thought it should've been a home run, but it was only a single.
Oh well! Onto 'Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3'…
Check out our full, spoiler-filled 'Quantumania' review at the top of this blog - or on the podcast feeds below….