17 February,2023 12:14 PM IST | Mumbai | Johnson Thomas
A still from the movie, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (Pic courtesy: Twitter)
An uncomfortable jazz-colored visual/ production design coupled with a rather tedious and boring expansionist ideology, bulbous characters, and badly timed comedic performances, make this effort, Marvel cinematic universe's biggest clunker yet. It's definitely the most unsatisfying Marvel Cinematic Universe build-up ever!
Narratively speaking, this is basically Cassie's (Kathryn Newton) coming-of-age story. So there's more of her and Scott (Paul Rudd) than there is of the Wasp/ Hope Van Dyne (Evangeline Lily). But Michelle Pfeiffer's Janet van Dyne, former wife of original Ant-Man Hank Pym (Michael Douglas), who was lost to the Quantum Realm for 30 years, is part of the main story here. While Michael Douglas continues to get some juicy moments, the supervillain here, also known as The Conqueror/ Kang feels like a hollow incarnation from a tired-out universe of variegated aggression. Kang is meant to be a fearsome and all-powerful villain possibly positioned as such for the next Avengers team-up. But Jonathan Major hams it up royally in a role that is poorly written. His idea of menace feels rather one-dimensional.
Cassie who was separated from her father Scott for around 5 years has invented the signalling machine that can garner responses from the Quantum realm. But as things go, it doesn't work as it's supposed to and inevitably transports the entire cast into the quantum realm.
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As long as the characters were in the real world (and that's all too brief) this film was playful and fun. The minute it gets into the quantum realm, your eyes go glazed and your senses become numb. That's the kind of effect the audience should expect from a visual design that reflects a craziness that is hard to decipher. The Quantum realm looks like a multi-layered circuit board anointed in psychedelic burned-out colours and it's neither eye-pleasing nor intriguing. The strange new creatures inhabiting that world are neither endearing nor funny so there's little to latch on to for most of this film's runtime. Even ace cinematographer Bill Pope fails to make this a meaningful experience. The science also feels slap-dash and totally unbelievable.
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Returning director Peyton Reed and screenwriter Jeff Loveness' attempt at comic-book adventure fails to rise up to the occasion of being the firestarter for MCU's phase 5. The most boring Marvel villain, outrageous costuming, generic sci-fi action archetypes in a derivative world that fails to get out of a pointless cycle of action and violence - this film touches rock-bottom very early in its runtime. The dialogue lacks wit and the performances feel heavily laboured. Even at 125 minutes runtime this film feels exhausting and enervating.
