Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania

 

Score: C

Directed by Peyton Reed

Starring Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Michelle Pfeiffer, Jonathan Majors, Kathryn Newton

Running time: 124 minutes

Rated PG-13

Long Story Short:  The most diminutive Marvel hero continues his adventures in Quantumania, alongside partner Hope, aka the Wasp, and company.  Ant-Man movies are usually the "detours" from the main Marvel narrative, but this one is intended as a major plot centerpiece, unfortunately.  The sci-fi blockbuster style here is 180 degrees from what we've seen before, and hope for.  There's still some fun to be had here, but by Marvel standards it's a significant failure.

Having helped the Avengers save Earth from destruction, Scott Lang (Rudd), aka Ant-Man, is taking full advantage of his celebrity, from writing a best-selling memoir to happily greeting a grateful public.  Not everyone in his family is as satisfied, however, particularly his daughter, Cassie (Newton).  The Quantum Realm - where Janet van Dyne (Pfeiffer) was once lost but where the Avengers also found the key to defeating Thanos - still holds many secrets, and Cassie has been determined to explore them.  Soon the entire family finds itself back in that strange dimension, though, and Janet's past returns to menace them.

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, the third Ant-Man film, is entertaining but among Marvel's weakest films, due to its trading the series' signature charm for a more generic blockbuster feel.  Ant-Man 1 and 2 focused on ex-con Scott's exploits in trying to rebuild his life, both helped and hindered by friends and family, as the superhero life interferes on (an appropriately) small scale.  The third film, however, fully dives into the sci-fi-heavy Quantum Realm that exists only on the periphery of the other films, showing a world that is at once overstuffed with creatures and cities but also disappointingly familiar.  The QR, and its "society", is essentially a mash up of Star Wars and Marvel's own Guardians of the Galaxy, complete with goofy-looking aliens and a rebellion.  Therefore, aside from a few minutes on Earth at the beginning, the style of the first Ant-Man movies is entirely replaced by that of those bigger, better-known sci-fi entities - and Quantumania is significantly worse off for it.  In addition to losing Ant-Man's con-artist, not-so-heroic zest and replacing it with broad, overly familiar sci-fi setting and plot, the script is also quite a bit weaker than Marvel's standards and not nearly as funny as it should be (at least, not for adults).

Perhaps the biggest factor in the success of the first Ant-Man movies was Scott's relationships, both old and new, but, while there are some character highlights here, they, too, suffer from blockbuster bloat.  The dynamics among them, each interesting as individuals, are dulled to stereotype thanks to overreliance on plot. Cassie, Scott's daughter, has been in the previous films in very small but very cute and effective roles.  There was so much potential here, now that she is a young adult, to show how a variety of influences - both good and bad - have shaped her.  But she is mostly a generic, strong, but still learning heir to the superheroes; I certainly welcome more strong female roles, I just wish the filmmakers gave her a unique and creative personality.  Scott and Janet get the other main roles; each gets enticing themes - for Scott, what his purpose is now that he's saved the world, for Janet, how she balances protecting yet being open with her family - but too much of their screentime is pulled into action and/or plot mechanics.  There are also two surprising cameos - one old face, entirely unnecessary and increasing the sci-fi ridiculousness, the other one new and much more welcome and hilarious.  Kang - introduced in the Loki streaming series, which it helps to have seen but not essential - is pretty interesting in his first scenes with Janet, but then turns into yet another generic villain, a surprisingly ineffective one at that.

There is plenty of action, which at least keeps the pace moving well (and at just over two hours, mercifully shorter than the gargantuan running times of other recent films).  But, once again, it suffers from the shift to sci-fi blockbuster.  There are a few neat ant-themed parts, especially a semi-psychedelic one in which an army of Ant-Man clones works together like an ant colony.  For the most part, though, the clever, subtle, sneaking action of the first Ant-Man movies is replaced by overdone big sci-fi laser battles.  There is, of course, a huge climactic battle.  But it almost pulls it off at the very end, when Ant-Man and Kang finally get a more visceral face-off, and we almost get a shocking conclusion that could have had intriguing carry-over into future Marvel films.  Instead, we get the clean, disappointing ending.  Sigh.

***

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is a little distressing to me as a big Marvel movie fan.  It's certainly disappointing that, by itself, it's just not nearly as good as its predecessors, especially because it completely abandoned their charming style.  But there is also the direction of the Marvel "universe" overall.  The multiverse theme has developed in a fairly meandering way until now.  Now that we seem to have a major new villain, essentially the new Thanos, the results are so far underwhelming.  I'd also like Marvel to stop the creep of Guardians of the Galaxy style into more and more of its films.  With, of course, a new Guardians movie coming later this year along with The Marvels, I'm very interested, though with unusual trepidation, to see where Marvel goes from here.  With two C-grade movies to start the year, I look forward to anything good, no matter the genre!

* By http://www.impawards.com/2023/antman_and_the_wasp_quantumania_ver4.html, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=72090715

Knock at the Cabin

 

Score:  C-

Directed by M. Night Shyamalan

Starring Dave Bautista, Jonathan Groff, Ben Aldridge

Running time: 100 minutes

Rated R

Long Story Short:  Resurgent director M. Night Shyamalan's latest horror outing offers a twist on the old home invasion plot.  It features some nice roles, including an oddly but well-cast Dave Bautista, and the premise is quite intriguing.  But it goes exactly the wrong direction with the plot, for both creative and real-world considerations, and the film curdles with it.  Skip it.

A young family, dads Andrew (Aldridge) and Eric (Groff) and adopted daughter, Wen (Cui), take a vacation to a remote cabin in the woods, merrily singing and catching grasshoppers.  Literally out of the blue, however, an enormous but seemingly peaceful man named Leonard (Bautista) introduces himself to Wen while she plays near the cabin.  Growing more frightened, Wen runs back to alert Andrew and Eric, but soon the family is taken hostage by a group of four strangers.  The strangers insist that they don't want to hurt the family - but that they must force the family to make a decision, one that will decide the fate of the planet.

**Warning: major plot spoilers ahead! (this is an M. Night Shyamalan film)**

Knock at the Cabin is a decently well-made psychological horror film, thanks to quality acting and some nice suspense, but it is ultimately ruined by taking the wrong path with its main plot and not exploiting the potential of its intriguing premise.  I don't usually watch horror films, and while I enjoyed M. Night Shyamalan's The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable, I haven't seen any other movies by him in a long time.  But I was drawn to the possibility of a horror of ideas rather than the blood and guts I avoid.  The cast does a good job here, creating a believable setup early on and holding it together as well as possible as the plot becomes strained to breaking.  Bautista, not the world's most talented actor IMO, brings a jarring, almost disturbing, gentility to his character.  His team - including Ron from Harry Potter - are bit players but interesting, and Aldridge and Groff as the dads help create some emotional connection to their plight.  The dialogue is decent, the pacing pretty good, and the tone stays pretty consistent and tense (at least until the very end).

The undoing of the movie comes in its creative choices.  The family is asked to sacrifice one of their own in order to avert a global apocalypse, so the main question is: is this just a sick game that the strangers are playing to terrorize the family, or do these seeming-wackos actually know something that could help prevent catastrophe?  From both a creative perspective and one relating to the real world we live in, the answer should have been: they're just wackos (even if sincere ones).  The apocalypse soon begins to unfold, one step at a time, and as it does, it gets more and more ridiculous rather than horrifying (giant tsunami? - OK; people filming planes falling out of the sky everywhere? unintentionally silly).  By going the other way, the film would give the family's resistance more meaning, and Shyamalan could have played with more tricks to make it seem like an apocalypse might occur.  Even more importantly, the apocalypse story line is exactly the wrong plot for our time.  Society often feels overrun with lunatic conspiracy theories - from vaccines killing people (or at least "tracking" them) to secret pedophile elites to rigged or stolen elections.  Knock at the Cabin could have sent a strong message by saying: the wackos may be sincere and scary, but they are WRONG.  Instead, we get just another series of inexplicable (the film doesn't even try to explain) disasters, as if asking the audience to shrug its shoulders and say "what a pity."

***

Well, my decision to go off my usual movie path, via Knock at the Cabin, was a failure.  I probably won't be going to see any more horror movies for a long time (by the way, what the heck is it that makes people want to see them - particularly the slashers?).  I do want to encourage Hollywood to try more intriguing ideas like this one starts out with - just make sure you've got filmmakers who can handle material that's outside the norm.  Hopefully there will be another Oscar contender or two coming to theaters before the ceremony arrives, but at the very least, fun action movies are right around the corner (starting with Ant-Man 3 next week!).  For now, skip this one and stay in for something better on streaming.

* By http://www.impawards.com/2023/knock_at_the_cabin_ver3.html, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=72371404