Control Review: Quantumania
I loved Quantumania.
I sit, in my chair in my living room, one of those fat white men, writing an article reviewing a comic book movie. Brie Larson doesn’t make movies for me. I weigh too much but have lost thirty plus pounds now — I’m down in the 270’s most days. I work out most days, too, and I shower regularly. I work at my writing, too — I work hard to try to make this into a career. I don’t care if I don’t make much money at it — I work like crazy to make it as a writer. I work hard. I work.
Ant Man and the Wasp: Quantumania got bad reviews because reviewers think that it’s cool to criticize the MCU now. The MCU is on a down slide — they are sinking fast — and the critics love writing about it. They didn’t care if the movie was entertaining or not; they just wanted to be cool and say that the MCU was hurting, bleeding, on the down turn. Critics love to tell you that you are doing poorly. They love to criticize. I don’t love to criticize. I love to encourage. I thought this movie was excellent.
The critics shouldn’t have hated it. It’s an MCU movie — through and through. There’s nothing fundamentally awful about the formula. It has silly humor undercutting everything. It has a villain trying to do something irrevocably evil. A world is at stake. Its hero is an Avenger — one of the famous ones. Why, then, does this movie piss off so many critics? It is at 48% on Rotten Tomatoes, a terrible rating for an MCU movie. The audience rating, meanwhile, is a positive 84%. People liked the movie. Critics didn’t like the movie. That is fascinating to me.
I thought it was an excellent addition to the MCU because it showed a brilliant villain, Kang, and showed him fight a guy who talks to ants — a real underdog. Kang is a smart, well-spoken gentleman. He also is brutal and evil and wants to conquer. He has killed Avengers — or so he says. He isn’t batshit crazy like Thanos. He just conquers — with brilliance. He is so smart and has such advanced technology that he can take over anywhere. He doesn’t have super strength or speed or stamina — that I know of. He’s just smart and hardworking and clever. He’s great.
This is the best comic-book movie Marvel has made in a while. It’s excellent because it’s a fun, rocking ride through a quiet little reality that’s weird and exotic and fascinating and lots of fun. I enjoy seeing good people trying to stop villainous bad guys who are trying to do something despicable.
Scott Lang, the Ant-Man, his partner Hope, aka Wasp, and some other people travel to the Quantum realm to investigate Kang. Let’s be honest — this story is about a nice man so smart that his intellect threatens to kill trillions and destroy realities. He is so bad that he had to be banished to the tiny little Quantum universe beneath our own.
Kang is this story’s main character other than Ant-Man and the Wasp. Kang is an interesting character. He is a nice, kind man. He is giving. He seems to care. He does not, however, tolerate his goon, MODOK, speaking up when he is talking. He also wants to kill Ant-Man’s daughter — which is pretty damned villainous.
He has advanced technology — technology from the future. He has an army of goons who are easily defeated by the characters, just like all of these movies. His villains have little flying machines that they fly around in and shoot at the characters with.
Kang and Janet Van Dyne, the original Wasp, were trapped in the Quantum Realm together. They bonded. This relationship went poorly when Janet realized that Kang was guilty. That relationship was interesting — Kang works with people until they try to stop him. He doesn’t just rape babies or anything.
Update: This blog entry has been difficult to write. It’s been sitting for a week on my computer, being written and re-written. I am going to spend a week on each of these blog entries from now on. I have had trouble writing a simple review of a fun MCU movie. I don’t know why. We’ll see if more time helps the blog or not.
I liked the movie. I don’t know why it was so unpopular. I don’t know why the MCU seems doomed. I don’t understand. I enjoyed the movie, the characters, and the formula. It seems fine.
Thanks, and take care, friends.
