Weekend Watch: Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania, Star Trek: Picard Season 3
Scott Lang shrinks to confront a new threat and Jean-Luc boldly goes for one final mission
Image Credit: Walt Disney Studios
Welcome to the latest edition of Weekend Watch, in which I recommend (or occasionally warn against) movies or TV shows I’ve been checking out. This week, Marvel goes full Quantum and Star Trek rounds up some old friends. Follow James on Twitter: @jamwhite
It’s almost hard to believe that the Marvel Cinematic Universe has made it to 31 movies, but here we are with Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania.
Of course, it has been a long road since Iron Man kicked things off (at least for the current MCU), with movies – and in the last few years – TV series of varying quality. Yet Team Marvel has always had a keen eye for what makes these comic book adaptations work, juggling tone, style and characters effectively and building a massive fan base. Not every outing works, but the company’s hit rate is on par with early Pixar.
Some have felt that it stumbled a little more in the most recent phase, the post-Avengers: Endgame era offering up more misses than hits (though I enjoyed much of it). And now the third Ant-Man film kicks off Phase 5 with another mixed bag.
The appeal of the Paul Rudd-starring movies has always been their keen blend of comedy and lighter-weight stakes than some of the massive instalments (though Rudd’s Scott Lang and Evangeline Lily’s Hope Van Dyne have played a part in a couple of those bigger outings). Mostly, they have been a chance for director Peyton Reed and the various writing teams to bring the funny while providing fun adventures that don’t (barring one or two moments) have ripples extending out in the wider MCU. You didn’t need to, for the most part, possess a wealth of information about other Marvel stories to understand the adventures of a former thief-turned-shrinking (and occasionally giant) superhero who can communicate with ants. Oh, and who was fired from Baskin-Robbins.
But with Quantumania, the feeling from the higher-ups is clearly that Lang and co –– including Hope’s parents/genius scientists Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) and Janet Van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer) and Scott’s now grown daughter Cassie (Kathryn Newton) –– should now err towards the sort of world-building (or perhaps that should be world-extending) business of so many other movies. Chief among that tracklaying is introducing the latest incarnation of Kang (Jonathan Majors), a character we technically met at the end of Loki’s first season on Disney+. Though he was a multiversal variant called “He Who Re…” You know what? If the very mention of that makes your eyes glaze over, all you really need to know for this one is that Kang’s bad, he’s in the Quantum Realm (a universe all its own beneath our own) for Reasons and he’s being built up as a Thanos-level menace.
Scott and co. are sucked into the depths of the realm after Cassie and Hank devise a signal beacon that can communicate with it, and soon learn that there are creatures who view Kang as the worst threat imaginable. Janet also has experience with him, since she was trapped there for 30 years until her rescue in Ant-Man And The Wasp.
All of this is explained in large expository doses that tend the grind the movie to a halt, Jeff Loveness’ script straining to dish it all out naturally and falling back on some annoying tropes, such as Janet not explaining why she’s so secretive about her realm time and one particularly frustrating moment where we flash back to earlier in the movie even as Hank explains something that plays into the big finale. Dear writers: we’re not dumb. Just let events play out organically.
And while the first two films’ biggest CG excess was the shrinking/growing effects (and some background plates so Atlanta could play San Francisco), here we’re confronted with a vibrant, squishy world clearly shot on greenscreen or with Mandalorian-style volume technology, that, while impressive, always calls attention to itself.
Yet I found plenty to enjoy about the film. While the tone is slightly more muddled, trying to mix the comedy of the past with the adventure and stakes of an Avengers-level movie, there’s something to be said for the cheerful heroics of Rudd and the rest, the squabbling family dynamic still well in place. The setup showing Scott’s life now (including his memoir, Look Out For The Little Guy) is fun, though I did miss the presence of Michael Peña’s Luis, who could have explained all the Kang business in amusing monologue form.
Diving into the Quantum Realm feels more like a Star Wars film or something out of 1950s sci-fi, but it’s still effective and entertaining, the various weird creatures adding value and coming across as characters rather than just jokes (props to another Ant-Man veteran, David Dastmalchian for swapping his previous role with voicing a gooey creation who is obsessed with one element of humanoids). Reed also indulges in some creative surrealism, though you might be put in mind more of a Doctor Strange film.
It all rolls along the way you might expect, with rebellions, reveals, retrieving a McGuffin and roared threats to our heroes. Rudd is front and centre, though the movie finds much more this time for both Douglas and Pfeiffer to do. Lily is still somewhat sidelined, sadly, though she does enjoy some key action moments. And Newton has more to do than be Rudd’s daughter, going on her own journey to discover what she can achieve when she’s not letting her sarcasm overrule her activism.
Majors shines as Kang, shading a basic villain role with much more interest, his expressive face and charismatic choices make the character work. There’s also a new, controversial take on another classic Marvel villain which doesn’t quite work as well but is funny at times.
If you were happier with Ant-Man and the rest as they were, you might be more annoyed than satisfied with this new direction. But it shows that Marvel is still willing to take some risks, even as the big finale fits right into the classic CG clash mould.
This is a promising, if flawed start to Phase 5, and Kang is already a villain who feels like he could be an interesting change from Thanos’ Infinity Stone obsessions. As an Ant-Man outing, it’s less successful but retains enough of the charm to work.
Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania is in UK and US cinemas now.
Image Credit: Paramount+
Given that I spent a fair chunk of my review of Star Trek: Picard’s second season bemoaning the overreliance on nostalgic references to the bygone era of Patrick Stewart’s heyday on Star Trek: The Next Generation, what I’m about to say might come across as a little hypocritical.
Because I bloody loved the deep dive into TNG’s history that made up the first six episodes of the show’s third season. Old friends! A new threat! Seemingly hundreds of lingering shots of model starships! If there was a comparable moment to the critic moment from Ratatouille, it would be me enjoying the likes of Jonathan Frakes’ Will Riker and Stewart’s Picard talking about old times and solving fresh interstellar crises.
While Riker, Marina Sirtis’ Deanna Troi and various characters played by Brent “Data” Spiner had shown up in Season 1, this is full-on TNG reunion mode, yet every one of the classic cast felt like they had a reason to be there. This wasn’t some Love Boat-style round-up of guest stars turning and smiling at the camera.
The second season of the show singularly failed to capitalise on its nostalgic elements, but the third feels like Picard pulling itself out of a gravity well and hitting full warp speed on the entertainment front. Even the opening credits had changed – from the wistful, flowery likes of the first two seasons to a short, sharp throwback to the crew’s past.
New elements, such as Amanda Plummer’s compelling, quirky villain and grouchy Captain Liam Shaw, played by Todd Stashwick (who gave great snark, but did occasionally cross the line into unrealistic behaviour –– I have trouble believing even the most belligerent captain refers to a retired admiral and decorated fellow officer as “you boys”) work well, and the driving plot, kicked off by a distress call from Dr. Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden) is impactful and impressive, and is never derailed by emotional character beats that work well within its structure.
The return of the old crew is so delightful that a subplot featuring Picard regular Raffi Musiker (Michelle Hurd) felt less than compelling by comparison (at least until it involves another Next Generation face).
While Season 2 had me wondering whether a third would be worth watching, this latest run has me sad that Picard is wrapping up. Though I’m not sure that the Dilithium crystals had enough controlling agents in them to sustain another dip into Trek history, so perhaps it’s better to go out on a high. And this is a very high high, especially for those like me who grew up on TNG.
Star Trek: Picard Season 3 airs weekly on Paramount+ in the UK and Prime Video/Paramount+ in the UK. I’ve seen the first six episodes.