If you’d ask me what the highlights of the previous 2 Ant-Man movies are, I’d probably answer: I don’t remember much about them, but I liked those quirky scenes narrated by Michael Peña and the creative use of shrinking powers during the set pieces. For as forgettable as both movies are, at least I still remember the set piece with the train in the first movie, or the kitchen fight from the second movie. With this movie, I'm already having trouble remembering any specifics, because all of those typical Edgar Wright touches have been erased in favor of being a big CGI extravaganza. So, allow me to do a general breakdown of the three acts instead.

1st act: We get a set-up that's similar to Spiderman: No Way Home, which means it’s in a hurry to get to the main dish, making every main character look like an irresponsible dumbass in the process. Once we get to the quantum realm, we're met with a lot of cringe comedy. The design of the world is fine, it feels like a mashup of prequel era Star Wars, Avatar, The Fifth Element and Spy Kids, not like an original creation. A stronger, visionary director probably would've made a big difference here, or at least one who knows how to use the volume stages, because that might’ve avoided the Spy Kids comparisons.

2nd act: Jonathan Majors arrives to do some actual acting, and he somehow pulls it off despite the hammy, pseudo-intellectual lines given to him by the script. Michelle Pfeiffer also gets some time to shine, when she's on the screen with Majors it feels like the movie actually comes to life for a brief second. Still, the scenes with Kang feel tonally inconsistent with the rest of the movie, and I’m not sold on the idea of him being the Avengers level threat we’ve been waiting for. When it comes to the other actors, most of them are given nothing interesting to do, the supposed co-lead of this movie (according to the title) included. I don't like picking on younger actors, but it needs to be said that Emma Fuhrmann expressed more emotion during her 10 second appearance as Cassie Lang in Avengers: Endgame than Kathryn Newton did here. In terms of story, this portion of the movie is all about set-up and clunky exposition as delivered through monologues. One of the characters even gets introduced with his own 'previously on Ant-Man' recap, which I find insulting and shows what little faith this studio has in its audience. Besides, it probably would’ve been better to cut this character, because his inclusion is easily one of Marvel's worst creative decisions (the design and visual effects are laughable). Generally I'd say this act is pretty boring, and occasionally embarrassing.

3rd act: The movie decides it wants to be Aquaman instead, so we're getting an extended battle sequence of stuff fighting other stuff, with plenty of flashes, lasers and more stuff. It's big, it's loud, and I check out. Every cheesy crowdpleaser deserves its fair share of deus ex machina moments, but this movie spams the action movie trope of 'our main character is in peril only to get saved at the very last moment' to death at this point. Furthermore, the cringe comedy makes a big return, with Corey Stoll delivering a line so bad that it will become a meme (you'll know once you see the movie). More punchy stuff, more pew pew, more 'comedy', and thankfully the movie finally decides it has wasted enough of my time. We get a final montage that includes the first good joke of the movie, and the credits roll. Nothing is achieved, absolutely nothing. This is a cynically conceived advertisement that does not deserve your time.

3/10

loading replies

4 replies

@jordyep Hey! Read your review and thought it was well written and on point. If you don't mind me asking, how long does a review like this take you to write? I started writing comments/reviews about 18 months ago and I feel like it still takes me way too long, lol.

3

OPReply by Jordy
VIP
8

@skinnyfilmbuff Thank you! I think this one took about 15 minutes to write, which is mostly because I had organized my thoughts already in my head when I walked out of the screening. Some movies take a bit longer, especially the ones with like deeper themes and layers. It all depends on the movie, if it’s a generic action movie I usually don’t put in that much effort

@jordyep i agree with more than half of what you say, yet gave it 8/10, while your score was only 3/10 - i wonder whether it's a difference in taste or rating logic, but i'm guessing it's a bit of both

for example, i didn't mind at all that it was somewhat different in tone and style from the first one, although i'm not sure how much of edgar wright actually went into that one in the end

i also don't really mind that the world kinda looks like spy kids - sure, it could have looked better, but i don't think it needed better design, just a bit more polish would have done the trick for me

majors is awesome as kang, always nice to see douglas and pfeiffer in action, even bill murray has a cameo

plus i loved all the weird inhabitants of the quantum realm

for me, a 3/10 would be something that i already expected to be pretty bad, but then turned out to be even worse - something that i would be baffled even got a theatrical release, 2/10 would be something that i probably couldn't even finish and 1/10 is something i hope i'll never lay eyes on :D

this one i really enjoyed, although it's far from perfect

might have even given it a 7/10 if it were a hit, but with all the hate this movie is getting, upgraded it to an 8 :)

I find the Cassie's Line way worse: "It's never to late to stop being a dick", I was about to turn off the movie

Loading...