Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023) Review
Congratulations to “The Incredible Hulk” For No Longer Being the Worst Film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe
“Well, all I can say is keep an eye on “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,” which Disney feels positively desperate in selling as a last grasp, pushing the 3D that helped make Avatar a success, as well as a universe-changing villain that would usually entice fans to watch the film in theaters. But my prediction is the film won’t make a billion dollars, and probably won’t even come close, coming in with $750 million best-case scenario, or $600 million in a truly eyebrow-raising, worst-case scenario.
It’s tracking to a $120 million opening, which would be an increase over Ant-Man 2’s $76 million dollar opening, but I don’t think this film will even have the legs that film had to make it to $216 million domestic, because all MCU films are extremely front-loaded now. The hardcore fans and anybody wanting to be a part of the discussion watches them in the first weekend, and there’s usually little to no rewatchable value in theaters.”
I wrote that article and the above on February 7th, 2023, and even I could not have predicted what has happened in the ensuing 3+ months. For starters, this film didn’t open to $120 million, it opened to $106 million. Then it was followed by some of the most catastrophic box-office drop-offs in not only MCU history, but comic book movie history in general.
I said $600 million worldwide was a truly eyebrow-raising, worst-case scenario. Folks, it made $475 million worldwide. Considering it cost $200 million, probably an extra $100 million with marketing, and you have to earn about twice that combined number, to make a profit. At best case scenario, it broke even.
If you want a more detailed breakdown of how bad things were, box office-wise, you can watch with Dan Murrell’s excellent videoes on the subject.
The film wasn’t as an anomaly critically, but it was still problematic. The film is currently tied with “The Eternals” on Rotten Tomatoes as by far the worst-reviewed films of the MCU. And yet, this film’s reviews felt more dire.
Rotten Tomatoes is only a binary arbiter after all. It only measures if a reaction was positive, or not. This may have been tied with “The Eternals” on that front, but the negative reviews were much more harsh to this film. Famously, Vulture’s Bilge Ebiri rightfully called the film a “cry for help.”
And then, somehow after release, things got worse for this film. One of the things most people could agree they liked about this film is the performance of Jonathan Majors as Kang. After being introduced in “Loki” season 1, and holding the screen there pretty well, this was Major’s big introduction on the film side of the MCU.
Marvel was in fact so impressed with Major’s performance, that they decided to build their entire future around him. Thanos popped up here and there before “Infinity War,” but he was really introduced in that film. Kang would make appearances across many Marvel properties, between this film and the the planned 2025 & 2026 Avengers films, where they would fight Kang.
But then at the end of March, Majors was arrested on assault charges in a domestic dispute with his girlfriend. If it was an isolated incident, then like a regular powerful Hollywood person, he could probably skate by an isolated incident. But apparently there was a pattern of behavior, and multiple other victims have come forward alleging many other troubling incidents.
If you think there’s still some grey area, we should let the courts decide, innocent till proven guilty, etc., well, he was later dropped by his management, PR, etc. You know somebody’s fully fucked, when even the rats flee the sinking ship. They clearly know something, and that something is not good.
Now, Marvel hasn’t officially fired Majors, yet, but I think in any case they’ve certainly built contingencies into “Loki” season 2, which he already filmed, and was supposed to be a major part of. My guess though is Kang is going to have an explained, or unexplained actor change, like Grindelwald had in the Fantastic Beasts films. Johnny Depp, who? No, it’s Mads Mikkelsen now, moving on.
It’s such a shame too. Majors was really having a moment. Dude was pretty unknown as of a couple years ago, then he finally gets his big break, an entire cinematic universe plans around him, and he’s also the villain of “Creed 3” from this year, which was a massive hit. And yet, he threw it all away by being a fucking asshole.
So, if this film was a mess before, it’s become almost fucking unwatchable in the three months since. Somehow, MODOK is no longer the most cursed thing about this movie. I mean, fucking look at this thing!
It’s an abomination. An insult to life itself. This was the studio who once made us cry over trees and raccoons, and now they think they can throw any old shit against the wall, and expect it to work.
Marvel looked at this film and was like, ‘cool, more of this?’ They made Kang an integral part of their universe moving forward, running before they could truly walk. They hired the writer of this, Jeff Loveness, to write the next big Avengers film.
Instead of re-assessing how shoddy the CGI and use of digital environments, which was becoming problematic in films like “Thor: Love and Thunder,” Marvel went ahead and made almost nothing in this film practically. We’re in a CGI nonsense world where nothing is tangible, and you can feel it every second of this two hour fucking shitshow.
At least George Lucas filmed a lot of the Star Wars prequels in real locations, in addition to the completely fake environments. This film on the other hand, looks entirely filmed in a shitty digital studio in Atlanta. Characters look copied and pasted into their environments, like it was made in a photoshop class at a community college.
This wasn’t fucking made by two guys on an independent film, this was made by one of the most successful media corporations in existence. There’s absolutely no justifiable reason it should look this cheap and shitty.
Fortunately, this film seems to have been kind of a wake-up call to Marvel. They fired Victoria Alonso, who was part of the problem with the increasing cheapness of the visual effects. Jeff Loveness was fired from writing that future Avengers film. Meanwhile, Bob Iger has talked about Marvel possibly slowing their slate, and you know, not rushing shit before it’s ready.
Will there be any meaningful changes? Who knows. They are being forced to shut down production across the board right now though, due to the writer’s strike, and other impending Hollywood guild strikes. But a lot of stuff was mostly done before the shutdown, and while “The Marvels” and “Loki” season 2 have had extensive reshoots, it might be too late to fix a lot of the upcoming films and shows.
“Guardians of the Galaxy 3” has done well, and been a bounce-back box-office-wise, with positive word of mouth. But it’s unknown whether audiences are truly back on board with the MCU, or whether it’s an isolated incident, considering the finality of that particular series.
Because of its reshoots, “The Marvels” was pushed back from July to November, and that will be very telling of how much of the MCU’s fanbase has eroded. The first “Captain Marvel” made over a billion dollars. Will this sequel even make half of that?
In any case, I don’t think there will be an Ant-Man 4. It’s like the MCU looked at the low-stakes nature of the first two films of this series, which I criticized them for, and pivoted way too hard in the other direction.
I don’t think anybody wanted Kang as a major universe-threatening force in a fucking Ant-Man movie. That’s not was this series was. There was perhaps a happy middle ground, one that may have involved Rick Moranis as Scott’s dad, as the creators once talked about. But this is not it. They seem to have made very few people happy with this third film.
Here, Marvel’s most comedic and light-hearted series became too serious, and too high-stakes. There’s supposedly jokes, but I didn’t even crack a smile. The actors all look miserable, as they’re forced to react to literally nothing. Even the usual charms of Paul Rudd are absolutely nowhere to be found here. It’s like watching a burning building, as people cry for help inside.
I mean, how in the ever loving fuck did they think not bringing back Michael Peña as Luis was a good idea? He was by far the best part of the first two films! And this time he isn’t going to even get a mention, let-alone a cameo? Just… what the fuck are we even doing here?!?
.5/5 Stars
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Currently Ranked:
#41/#41 in “The Marvel Cinematic Universe, Ranked”