Better Never Than Late on "Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania"

I'm about to go on another vacation, but this one will be a full, real vacation for me. I am going to Mexico, to an adults only resort, with my wife. That means no writing from Tuesday to Friday. But I did want to leave you all with one more movie review before flying off for a week. I'm sure RD will do stuff, I told him to put up some of my older stuff if he wanted to, but I wanted to do one more before taking some time away.

Over the weekend we did date night and it was my wife's turn to pick the movie. She is very much into Marvel and superhero movies, so she picked "Ant-Man: Quantamania". She was trying to decide between a few, and this one was next in order for how we have watched the MCU movies. I had heard some reviews for this prior to watching. Some were okay, some were not so okay. I figured it was going to be good because I am a big Paul Rudd fan, and the first "Ant-Man" movie was shockingly great. Hell, I even enjoyed the sequel.

Unfortunately this one did not meet my expectations. I was pretty bummed out with this viewing. I expected so much more, but the movie did not fully deliver, at least for me. The movie was almost devoid of the humor that the first one put out there so expertly. The second one even had humorous elements. But this one, outside of MODOK, was not very funny. I felt like they totally underused Paul Rudd's excellent comedic timing. Michael Pena and TI were not even in the movie. The villain was completely humorous. His family was not funny at all. This movie took itself way, way too seriously. Except MODOK. I actually enjoyed MODOK the most in this movie. He was the only one who seemed to realize they were making a multiverse movie within the Ant-Man world. All of these superhero movies are wild, but Ant-Man may be the oddest of them all. MODOK got it, no one else did though. Paul Rudd seemed like he had very little to do in this movie that he is supposed to be the star of. He had moments, he got to show his skills, but it was few and far between. His acting missed the mark. Wasp was barely used as well. She didn't do much and wasn't asked to do much. Bill Murray showed up for one scene. It was fine, but there could have been more. Michael Douglass and Michelle Pfieffer had bigger parts, especially Pfieffer, but they seemed aloof. Pfieffer seemed more like the main character, but she held little weight. They did use Ant-Man's daughter more in this movie, but it felt like a not as good "Hawkeye" passing of the torch. The "Hawkeye" tv series did a much better job going from Jeremey Renner to Hailee Steinfeld than this movie did with Rudd and the actor playing his daughter. It felt rushed.

Then we have Johnathan Majors as Kang. For as great as he was in "Loki", he was chewing scenery far too much here. I think he was undercut by his own horrific offscreen allegations that came out after this movie, but his performance would have been too much even if that never came out. He was too big and over acting. It felt like every scene was a monologue and Majors was trying to show how great of an actor he can be. It did not fit in this movie for me. At all.

I will say, the scenery was cool. I liked the way it looked. But the acting, the dialogue, the story, it was a miss for me. I found myself bored and annoyed at the same time. I wanted this movie to be as fun as other Marvel movies I truly like. That never happened. I think the whole idea of multiverses is already over done and overplayed. It is too much. There are too many things they can simply bring back just by saying they were in a different universe. That was what they did with MODOK. It felt cheap.

Oh well, they cannot all be winners for me I guess. But "Quantamania" really missed the mark in my opinion. I'd recommend skipping it, unless you're a completionist. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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Better Late than Never to Catch the Great "Ant-Man"

Early screen test footage

With the release of the new "Captain America: Civil War" trailer being dropped today, I want to talk about another superhero movie I recently saw and loved. Yes, it does feature one of the heroes that will appear in "Captain America: Civil War", but it's not Spiderman. That's right, Spiderman is going to be in the movie and his appearance at the very end of the trailer is awesome. Seriously, if you haven't watched the trailer yet, read this, then watch it. "Captain America: Civil War" looks like it is going to be great.

The superhero movie I want to talk about today is "Ant-Man", and yes he is going to be in the new Captain America movie, presumably fighting on Cap's side. But, "Ant-Man", in my opinion, was a really fun and very entertaining movie. I had my doubts when I heard all the stuff about the movie. I didn't think Paul Rudd could pull off a superhero. I heard that they kept pushing the release back. I didn't think an action movie about a guy that can shrink to the size of an ant seemed that cool. And when Edgar Wright said he wasn't going to direct anymore, that was almost the last straw for me. I didn't see the movie in the theaters because I thought it was going to stink and I have two young kids. When it did come out, it got pretty good reviews, clocking in at right around 80% on Rotten Tomatoes. So, my interest became piqued again. Then, I had friends and relatives tell me that it was pretty good and they thought I'd enjoy it. I kept putting it off, even renting it from Netflix, but not watching it for almost three months, but man am I glad my wife and I watched it this past weekend. I really enjoyed the hell out of it. Like I said before, it was entertaining and completely action packed. I really loved that they got right down to the action. First scene of the movie is action packed and the rest is much of the same, with some slower moments sprinkled in.

But, let's look at all the things that kept me from watching it in the theaters.

First, the Paul Rudd thing. I didn't think he could pull it off, but he is really good in his role. The thing about Paul Rudd, he is just a really good actor. He can play goofy, like "Wet Hot", he can be charming, like "They Came Together", he can be an asshole, like "Knocked Up", he can be a teen heart throb, like "Clueless" and now he can add superhero action star with "Ant-Man". Paul Rudd is awesome and I will never question his acting ability again. Second, the push back of the release date. This usually happens to movies that the studio is afraid will not do so well, but in the case of "Ant-Man", I just think they had to push it to find a new director once Edgar Wright stepped down. I also heard something about having to recast Wasp, but I think the director thing was the biggest problem. But, this director did a great job with this movie. He portrayed a world of ants that was plausible and believable. He did a great job with the fight scenes too. This was a case of a good reason to push a release date. You want to get someone that will do the movie justice. Which leads me to reason three, Edgar Wright dropping out as director. I am a huge Edgar Wright fan. I love all the stuff he does with Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. I saw "Shaun of the Dead", "Hot Fuzz" and "The World's End" all in the theaters and loved every single one. I heard they are doing another and I can't wait to see that as well. Wright is a phenomenal director, so when he dropped out, I instantly became worried. What I failed to recognize though, he stayed on as a writer and a producer. He still was involved, just not the way I thought he should be. But, after watching the movie, you can tell that he had his hand in on most of, if not all, the jokes. This made me happy that, at least, he stayed on as a writer. 

Now, my main original gripe prior to watching "Ant-Man", who in the hell would want to watch a movie about a guy that shrink to the size and control ants? Me, now, that's who. This movie pulled this off to perfection. I believed that a guy like Scott Lang(Paul Rudd), would take on a job like this so he could be with his daughter. He was a thief that just got out of jail and couldn't even keep a job at Baskin Robbins because of his past. Becoming Ant-Man was his last option in life. I also loved Michael Douglass as Dr. Henry Pym, the original Ant-Man. He was older, but wiser and still had an ass kicking attitude. Guys like Michael Douglas and Robert Redford should be thrilled when they get asked to be in superhero movies and these two are excellent in them. Evangeline Lilly, playing the new Wasp, was totally awesome. She was great as the bad guy's, Yellow Jacket, assistant that was spying on him for her father Dr. Pym and she was a total ass kicker too. The scene where she is training Lang and continues to brutally beat him is very funny. When she shows Lang how to control ants, another great scene. Lilly is great in this movie. Yellow Jacket is menacing and creepy and your typical over the top bad guy, but that is the beauty of playing bad guys in superhero movies, you're encouraged to chew scenery and this guy does it great. Then there's Lang's crew who are all very funny, especially Michael Pena.

"Ant-Man" was so good. I'd watch it again before I'd watch the second "Thor" movie, the second and third "Ironman" movies, any of the "Hulk" movies and any "Spiderman" movies, except for the first two. In fact, the only two, recent superhero movies I'd pick before "Ant-Man" would be "Avengers: Age of Ultron" and "Guardians of the Galaxy", but "Ant-Man" is a close third. If you are a fan of superhero and Marvel movies, and you haven't seen "Ant-Man" yet, check it out. It's super enjoyable and extremely entertaining.

Can't wait to see how they use him in the new Captain America movie. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man. He wonders if Marvel can make a good Ant Man movie, is Dazzler next? You must follow the tiny adventures of Ty on twitter @tykulik.