Saturday, February 25, 2023

Movie Review: Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania

Movie number 12 of 2023

The Movie: Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania

The Cinema: Reading Cinemas, Altona North

Stars: 3.5

Ah, Marvel, you've done it again. 

Milked something that maybe should be put to bed ages ago - but then again, maybe not.

In the latest foray into the Marvel Cinematic Universe gives up the somewhat hapless Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) and Hope Van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly) going back into battle as Ant-Man, bringing his family along with him. 

IMDB.com describes the movie as such:

"Scott Lang and Hope Van Dyne, along with Hank Pym and Janet Van Dyne, explore the Quantum Realm, where they interact with strange creatures and embark on an adventure that goes beyond the limits of what they thought was possible."

And that's all you need to know about this. In some ways this film is a bit of a hot mess, but with a lot of redeeming qualities.

The best thing about this movie is the special effects and the action. They are great and make up for the fact that this is a very silly movie when you think too hard about it. 

It's got all you need for an action movie. An omnipotent baddie named Kang (Jonathan Majors) who's hell bent on destroying everybody around them. There's one of the henchmen, MODOK. aka Darren Cross (Corey Stoll) who's a hoot - much like the Black Knight in Monty Python. There are also some great cameos. Bill Murray always makes a good cameo as does William Harper Jackson, although with the latter I keep thinking that Chidi from The Good Place would never do stuff like that. 

Michael Douglas (Hank) and Michelle Pfeiffer (Janet) reprise their roles from the previous movies. Michelle Pfeiffer is amazing, more for the fact that she's so gorgeous - nothing changes. Kathryn is also solid as Scott's daughter, Cassie. 

But here's the thing. If you're a Marvel fan, of which I am, you'll like this. If you're new to the Marvel Universe, you're probably going to struggle. 

And I did fall asleep for a little bit at the start. 

It's a silly film. No doubt about it. But the effects are great and it's fun. I took my friend's 12-year-old sons along with me and they enjoyed it as there were lots of things blowing up. 

It is what it is. It's not one of Marvel's best films, it's not one it's worse ones either. 

And there's a part of me that wants to go back and watch the previous Ant-Man films to remind myself of a few things. 

It was a nice diversion for a Saturday night with friends. 

Today's song:

No comments: