I was really excited for this film; the trailers made the stakes seem high with a story that was somewhat mature in tone. Unfortunately, I was ultimately let down. The overarching plot was pretty good. I liked the arcs our characters had, particularly Scott and Cassie Lang. But the minor details are where things get messy. We get introduced to so many new characters, concepts, and story details in the quantum realm, resulting in an overall film that is not very digestible. There is too much going on and not enough time to fully flesh out the details. The dialogue is pretty poorly written. At some points in the film, I was literally laughing out loud at what the characters were saying. It felt exactly like a TikTok skit exaggerating and mocking superhero movies. Cassie Lang has one line that is probably THE MOST CRINGY LINE EVER SPOKEN IN THE MCU. The performances were decent overall. Most of the acting in the Ant-Man films is a little cheesy and campy, which mostly works in the small-scale stories they tell. But with the large, expanding story that the film is attempting to deliver, it just felt cheap. Kang is really amazing. Jonathan Majors was a tier above the rest of the cast; I can't wait to see more of him but also feel like he was wasted here. Finally, the visuals were really inconsistent. Some scenes looked quite good, with interesting and detailed settings, while others clearly featured three characters standing in front of a green screen. I mean, in some scenes I swear I could see slight black outlines from the keying technology. Where is the budget going in these films? They really need to slow down in postproduction because this is becoming a major theme. One thing I will note is that I thought MODOK looked really good. It was always going to be difficult to pull off a live action version of him, but they did a stellar job. Overall, I am pretty disappointed in the movie, but the movie gave me enough to make this a somewhat average experience. The MCU needs to pick it up this year because it is on a major downward trajectory. Score: 52% | Verdict: Average

**Quantumania is a step up from most of Phase Four. It felt like a Thor: Ragnarok impersonation, and lost the fun of the other Ant-Man films.** My feelings are so mixed on Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. The first two Ant-Man movies were so great because they were low-stakes with self-contained stories that weren't consumed with saving the universe but instead were set in less a fantastical world that allowed the goofy size-changing antics really shine. Quantumania threw Ant-Man into an outrageous world, changing him from the zany character of the film to the normal character and stripping him of some of his charm. Quantumania felt like a cross between Thor: Ragnarok and Rise of Skywalker with some Power Rangers sprinkled in there, and the result was… decent. It really wasn't a bad movie. It has some funny parts and was better than most of Phase 4. Bill Murray was loads of fun for his brief part and Jonathan Majors is going to be an awesome big bad in the MCU. But it all felt like a familiar save the universe comic book movie and sadly made Ant-Man feel out of place in his own film.

"Oh, Daddy - It's all my fault!". Well no "Cassie" (Kathryn Newton), not quite. You certainly developed the piece of communications kit that lands everyone in the quantum soup, but the blame really must go to Peyton Reed and Jeff Loveness for directing and writing this latest emanation from Marvel's increasingly un-special film factory. It starts off with a great little device that could quickly put Papa John's out of business before we are sucked into the cantina from "Star Wars" (1977) where our recently arrived travellers find themselves pursued by the ridiculously un-menacing "M.O.D.O.K" - a sort of robotic killing version of the golden statue from the top of "Raiders of the Lost Ark" (1981) after it had had a good time with "V.I.N.C.E.N.T" from "The Black Hole" (1979) - before Michelle Pfeiffer "Janet" explains to her family (and to us) just what has led them to a predicament where they must avoid the evil clutches of "Kang the Conqueror" (Jonathan Majors). Now this gift that keeps on giving for this studio never struggles to impress visually, and the imagination of those who create these magical effects and alien shapes and sizes must be commended. However, this latest offering featuring, in my view, the weakest of their arsenal of characters is just entirely derivative and unremarkable. Aside from a very few bon-mots from Paul Rudd the dialogue is dry and the action scenes are all concentrated in one or two sequences whilst the rest of this serves as little better than colourful padding for the thinnest of storylines. Rudd is quite an unassuming kind of actor. Engaging, yes - but somehow just too lightweight for the grandness of the surrounding imagery. Michael Douglas ("Pym") features sparingly and the cameo from Bill Murray might have worked better in "Guardians of the Galaxy" - here it is almost laughable. If these are to keep coming off the production line as thickly and quickly as seems likely, then somebody somewhere is going to have to spend much more effort on developing stronger and more compelling stories because the audiences are surely immune to the vibrancy of the special effects by now. This is really forgettable fayre.

A fun one! I had a terrific time watching <em>'Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania'</em>, despite hearing 'meh' things about it here and there online. It surpassed my expectations, to be honest. Great cast, entertaining action, super interesting world building (my favourite from the MCU for a while, in that regard) and the humour is good. Star of the show in my opinion is Michelle Pfeiffer. I don't recall her standing out in <em>'Ant-Man and the Wasp'</em>, but here she's excellent from beginning to end. Elsewhere, Jonathan Majors is brilliant - great to see that guy all over the place recently. Paul Rudd remains a strong lead, while the likes of Michael Douglas and Kathryn Newton are positives too. Love the Quantum Realm setting. I'm nothing like an MCU nut, I'm only aware of the films, so didn't know what to expect, but the place looks fantastic - from the enviroment to the creatures; shoutout Veb. Like Pfeiffer, Corey Stoll didn't really register on my radar in prior films, but him as M.O.D.O.K. is a lot of fun. Looking at my personal MCU ranking, this goes in at no. 8 - I didn't anticipate that! A literal quick glance at the average rating on here suggests I'm in the minority but I truly found much enjoyment from this. Quite the improvement on Ant-Man 2, which is at the bottom of my aforementioned ranking.

Okay, there are a plethora of reviews here by Marvelettes and more, so I will only give my gut response. Perhaps this movie was doomed to disappoint me, because Ant Man is still my favorite Marvel film of all for its wit and humor. That humor grew out of his interaction with his daughter and other people. This movie removes him to a strange complex world that struck me as a cross between the bar in Star Wars and the deserts of Dune. He was out of his element with his grown daughter and now-aged cohorts and it left me rather bored, surprisingly. But without my baggage, I am sure others enjoyed it immensely.

Honestly this is easily my favorite out of the series. Still funny as normal but there's a lot more action and cool looking stuff in this movie. Really good movie.