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Hrm. Not bad. Not bad at all. I don't associate the MCU or Marvel in general with subtlety so, if true, I'd add a star to Ant Man 3.

It would explain how the device went from mapping the QR to opening a gateway precisely where needed safely after Kang had been dealt with.

 Ahtman wrote:
It would explain how the device went from mapping the QR to opening a gateway precisely where needed safely after Kang had been dealt with.

Which is also a move He Who Remains pulled in Loki. Nobody could find Loki and Sylie while they were on Lamentis. Then, suddenly, a huge branch and a 2 doorways open up right where they need it just as they are about to die (in an event that should not be capable of creating a branch). "Every thing you have done, I paved the road. You simply walked down it."

It would be well within their capabilities to just drop a door where they wanted it letting people go where they want them to.

Ryan George deserved his own TV show.

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:
Ryan George deserved his own TV show.

I so agree. Even when he takes apart movies I like, I still find him wildly entertaining.

I wonder if in the future someone was to create two teams of people where one team watched all the MCU and the other team watched all the MCU Pitch Meetings, who would win a MCU trivia contest.

Ryan George's other stuff, like the first man to open a restaurant is pretty good too.

Also relevant, Tom the Dancing Bug's Aunt Man.

https://www.gocomics.com/tomthedancingbug/2023/02/24

 bbb wrote:
Just saw it. It was okay at best. Because it was so CGI heavy almost nothing feels like it has significance. Felt like a lot of weird for the sake of weird.

A possible explanation for that...

Off to see it either tonight, or tomorrow afternoon.

I do like the wee cinema in town. It’s cheap, it’s cheerful, it’s walking distance. Alternative is a short drive to Ashford and the multiplex.

I really enjoyed that.

Shades of Ragnarok and Tron Legacy.

Pacing was good, acting was good, visuals were superb, plot was decent enough. Fun battle scenes too.

Second best Ant-Man movie for me.

I went and saw it this weekend.

That was..... all sizzle and no steak. They set up a potentially good character arc for Scott and Hope being counter-balanced by Cassie and Janet. Then, they make the weakest of gestures to it and move onto setting up the next Marvel movie. Weak sauce.

These phase 4 movies have forgotten two important elements that Pre-Endgame movies had:

1. Each movie was self-contained and stand-alone with a complete character arc for the main character to learn and grow with, not just power to the next chapter.

2. They chose a genre and aped the major conventions, only with Super-heroes in it. I have no idea what genre this was supposed to be. I do know that this was not an "Ant-man and the Wasp" film, as they were barely in it. If anything, they were just a convenient cape to put into the plot they had mapped out.

Despite the care they put into making the Quantum realm look cool, and the care they put into making Kang and great villain, they forgot that this was suppose to be a movie about Ant-man and his new family. This movie really had the wrong tone and feel for who Ant-man is.

I almost did not bother to go see this, as the Phase 4 movies have been DCEU levels of bad. However, I decided too as it was at my small, locally owned cinema and I had unexpected free time. This did not make me want to run out and see more MCU films.

 Easy E wrote:
These phase 4 movies have forgotten two important elements that Pre-Endgame movies had:

Quantumania was the first Phase 5 movie, setting up the rest of Phase 5.

 Ghaz wrote:

 Easy E wrote:
These phase 4 movies have forgotten two important elements that Pre-Endgame movies had:

Quantumania was the first Phase 5 movie, setting up the rest of Phase 5.

Phases 1,2, and 3 were marked by Avengers movies. There's pretty much nothing to mark the transition from phase 4 to 5 apart from them saying, "Uh, new phase, everyone. New phase."

Is it phase 5 because the villain is Kang? It is still mostly dealing with hang-over crap from Endgame, only this time it is hang-over crap in the Quantum realm.

If so, I will amend my statement and say things set post-Endgame have been getting worse instead of improving.

 Easy E wrote:

2. They chose a genre and aped the major conventions, only with Super-heroes in it. I have no idea what genre this was supposed to be. I do know that this was not an "Ant-man and the Wasp" film, as they were barely in it. If anything, they were just a convenient cape to put into the plot they had mapped out.

Eh, can't say that. This was so much of a Star Wars film I'm legitimately convinced its what happened to Trevarror's original script for Rise of Skywalker.

Saw it this weekend and overall liked it. It's fun, but forgettable. You can also see how it was still impacted by the lockdown all over the place and a lot of places where stretching the VFX team to do all those shows cut into the polish despite having a beautiful art direction throughout. The most notable thing for me is that it feels pretty obvious that this was at one point intended to be the big reveal of Kang and likely got delayed out to the point where they had to spill the beans to right the ship. It feels like the original plan was to make MODOK the villain everyone expected and Majors's reveal as Kang to be a big surprise rather than what they sold the entire movie around.

On that note, I did kind of love MODOK. After Taskmaster I was a bit wary of another revamp, but there's a lot about this version of the character that works really well and still ultimately ends up capturing the character. Visually he looks suitably ridiculous but its clear there's something off about the effect. It's clearly the actor's face stretched across a bubble rather than something that gives his features (especially his nose) a sense of dimension. Still, really enjoyed the character and probably would have enjoyed the movie more if I thought he was the main villain going in.

Yeah, I think you are right about Star Wars. I recall turning to my wife during the "cantina" scene and asking.... "When did we start watching Star Wars?"

I did enjoy that MODOK tied back into the actual Ant-Man series.

One thing that was dearly missed was Luis doing his classic Ant-Man recap stories. Like Easy E said, it didn't really feel like much of an Ant Man movie barring quantum realm stuff, especially since the novelty of Ant Man is seeing him being undersized/outsized to normal every day objects, which really means nothing when the backdrop is some otherworldly place like the Quantum realm.

Also, kinda surprised people were happy how MODOK was portrayed? He's just a punching bag, verbally and physically, with everyone just telling him to stop being a dick and they hamfist a completely unearned "redemption" at the very end. I'm not sure if everyone just dropped the bar really low for villain (even side villain) expectations but you would hope he has more meaning or purpose to his character than learning "not to be a dick" if they're just going to kill him off.

It tied in to the original villain being so desperate for approval, literally from just about anyone. He was actually a bit of consistency in a movie that veered away from it so much.

It was not a good depiction of George Tarleton, but Darren Cross was a character who had a similar manic ego that makes for a good MODOK regardless. MODOK isn't a particularly consistent character regardless, but I consider this a pretty inspired take that gives the character connections to work with that he normally lacks. He didn't lose a bit of what makes the character work.

Also, he's essentially responsible for Kang's defeat. That really shouldn't be undersold.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Easy E wrote:
Yeah, I think you are right about Star Wars. I recall turning to my wife during the "cantina" scene and asking.... "When did we start watching Star Wars?"

I did enjoy that MODOK tied back into the actual Ant-Man series.

When Kang drops down to deal with the Rebellion personally I made a joke that this should have been Kylo. Seconds later he stopped the spear in midair and I nearly lost it.

The only thing I liked in that movie was an army of giant ants (yeah, I like ants).

 Shadow Walker wrote:
The only thing I liked in that movie was an army of giant ants (yeah, I like ants).

Honestly the giant ants evolving technology was kind of an interesting subplot and I'd have liked to see more of it.

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:

 Shadow Walker wrote:
The only thing I liked in that movie was an army of giant ants (yeah, I like ants).

Honestly the giant ants evolving technology was kind of an interesting subplot and I'd have liked to see more of it.

Agreed. It would be great to have it explored more.