Dr. DVD

Caught this Friday and found it entertaining overall, but it was still a bit too much MCU formula. Jonathan Majors and Michelle Pfeiffer were the stand out performances, and I'm glad Pfeiffer was given a role that allowed her to remind us of what a great actress she can be at times. MODOK was more or less a joke, and I didn't really care for all of the obviously recycled Star Wars CGI. I gave it 3/5 stars, or a B-.

gmanca

ah that’s cool, didn’t know that!

haha, fair enough! I did read that they cut a scene where Hope has a son; the child actor had it on his instagram page.

candyrocket786

The retractable MCU helmet thing is just beyond annoying now that even during the fight scenes it makes absolutely no sense.

mwbmis

I know he's not in the movie, but Cassie's step-dad is a cop. I'm pretty sure the cops would have called him.

I enjoyed the first two lows stakes Ant-man caper movies. This wasn't that. Meh. Like others I also missed some of the supporting cast, especially Michael Pena. I don't know how you can watch the first two movies and reach the decision that is character you don't need for the third one.

RocShemp

The director claims there was no room for Michael Peña's character because most of the movie takes place in the quantum realm. I dunno, Luis reacting to the quantum realm would have been awesome. But, hey, he at least should have had an early or late cameo in the film.

DJariya

Twitter

$104M estimated this weekend. Highest grossing Ant-Man movie. That's huge. But this is also the most expensive movie of the series, especially since it's like 95% special effects.

candyrocket786

And 100% Green Screen 😆

I'm guessing massive drop next week?

DJariya

It will be No. 1 next week. Only competition is Cocaine Bear.

ViewAskewbian

Put Cocaine Bear in the Quantumrealm and you've got a movie!

RichC2

The day to day drops this weekend we're less severe than expected considering the lukewarm reaction (opening weekend is normally strong regardless but tends to show some droppage on the day to day which didn't happen here) so odds are it will hold up okay.

dsa_shea

The fact that Kang is powerful because there are so many of him diminishes the impact of Kang the Conqueror, in my opinion. They shouldn't have dispatched him so easily. The version they presented in this movie should have been the last one standing, as he is the closest version to the one in the comics. The rest of them that we saw in the montage were a bit silly.

ViewAskewbian

Silly maybe but true to the comics. Pharaoh Rama-Tut was the first (albeit pre-name Kang) version of the character after Nathanial Richards. Tough confusing, the Immortus variant that acted more as leader in the post credits is a future version of Kang/Rama-Tut/Richards. Scarlet Centurion was also shown, despite with a different color scheme. Victor Timely was also shown in the Loki Season 2 tease. The Council of Kangs shot was actually a pretty good recreation of the panel from Avengers #292.

council-of-kangs-in-marvel-comics.jpg (1400×700) (srcdn.com)

story

Just waiting for Rick & Morty fans to claim that Marvel stole the idea for the Council of Kangs from the Citadel of Ricks.

Osiris3657

I haven't seen it yet, but was surprised to see a 47% on RT today. Is this the worst reviewed Marvel movie?

DJariya

https://editorial.rottentomatoes.com...movies-ranked/

Tied with Eternals for the lowest

Decker

I think it was overly-harshly reviewed. But I get it, I feel it's got the burden of too many MCU films. And being set in the Quantum Realm really lowered the stakes, IMO.

Also this is the second time in two years that we've seen Kang get killed in a very simple and easy way and have been told that this is a very consequential action. So there's a lot of familiarity and a sense of Deja Vu.

I'm still fuzzy about why this Kang is so much more important than the thousands of others. He didn't seem all that powerful or magnificent in the Quantum realm.

clckworang

I went into Wakanda Forever with pretty good expectations and was let down. Based on early reaction, I went into this with really low expectations and was pleasantly surprised. That doesn't mean it was great. I'd maybe even struggle to call it good. It was decent. It kept my attention well enough, and right when the movie was starting to overstay its welcome, it started wrapping itself up.

Kang was a clear highlight, but it was great to see Douglas and Pfeifer given more to do. There was some good humor, but it wasn't as funny overall as past entries.

dex14

I didn't think very much of it, but it doesn't deserve to be anywhere near Eternals.

TheBang

Yes, this is my biggest complaint about Kang so far. This one was pretty cool, but when he's defeated by basically a small swarm of ants, I don't see how he is so dangerous as to have killed Avengers in so many timelines, as he claimed. It's interesting that we get to see multiple iterations of him (He Who Remains, this one, etc.) and experience and learn about their powers, and then defeat each one to get some satisfaction, but it also makes me wonder about how he's going to be Big Bad in the Avengers movies. Is it just going to be because there are infinity Kangs to fight? Or is there going to be One Big Bad Kang who the biggest and toughest of them all? I'm not too familiar with Kang and his comics history, so I don't know if any of this is true to that.

I get it. This is film is really deep into the MCU mythos building. A lot of films in Phase 4 had the most tenuous of connections to the rest of the MCU, but this one was all about introducing and building up Kang for later storylines. There's nothing even about him that was specific to making him the big bad of the Quantum Realm. It was solely about him and building him up to be a threat for the greater multiverse and timelines. There's little character development or other interesting storylines in the film. So, of course the critics hated it. But for Marvel fans, this stuff is much better than mediocre fare like Black Panther 2.

Definitely. There didn't seem to really be any reason why Janet would have lied about what was in the Quantum Realm, either in the real world, or even once they got into the Quantum Realm. If I'm not mistaken, wasn't the reason given basically that she was embarrassed that she had helped Kang repair his power core and thus led to the destruction and subjection of many quantum people?

I guess the real-world reason is because they didn't plan for that and had to retcon some explanation in, and that was the best they could come up with?

So yeah, overall, I felt like this was just OK. A few other questions/complaints:

• It was really convenient that only the ants fell into some kind of time dilation that allowed them to advance 1000 years?
• I didn't have a problem with MODOK's weird face dimensions or appearance or whatever. I had a problem with the quality of his skin. It looked very fake, very plasticky or something.
• Bill Murray's appearance/scene seemed to have very little point or impact on the plot. They way they introduced him seemed to be like, "And here's Bill Murray!! Isn't that cool?!"
• How did Cassie get them back to the real world at the end? The portal that they initially went through was generated by Kang's power core, and is not the normal way to get out of the Quantum Realm. So, how then, from the real world, did Cassie open a similar portal to bring Scott and Hope back?

GatorDeb

1. He's a fan of Antman and asked to be in the movie.
2. Didn't she grabbed the core from his ship and used it to open the portal? It seemed to me she grabbed something from his ship.

Boba Fett

I’ve really been disappointed with the MCU post Far From Home. I went into this figuring it was my last time bothering with theatrical releases as Kang and MODOK are two of my favorite comic characters. I was pleasantly surprised. It’s far from a perfect movie but only second to No Way Home for me in terms of enjoyment post Far From Home.

I can’t believe this got savaged and crap like Wakanda Forever got praised. Even Multiverse of Madness is pretty mediocre apart from its third act and a step back for the character.

TheBang

Just to show how badly they pivoted on the Quantum Realm, here's a good point I saw on Reddit that I'd forgotten about:

"Janet at the end of Ant Man 2: "hey let's have Scott go to the Quantum Real just to test, that'd be cool"
Janet in Ant Man 3: "DON'T GO TO THE QUANTUM REALM, DON'T EVEN SEND SIGNALS TO THE QUANTUM REALM, QUANTUM REALM BAD, AND I CAN'T SPEAK ABOUT THE QUANTUM REALM. Why? To protect you. Sure, I'd have protected you better if I told you everything from the beginning but this is the best way I swear!""

I read a bunch of articles now trying to figure this out, and I don't think she grabbed anything. Every recap I've read says that Janet uses the multiversal core and ship engine to open the portal and tells everyone on the radio they have "one shot/chance" to get back home. They go through the portal, and then Kang and Scott fight and Hope comes back. They throw Kang into the power core, along with Pym particles, and it all implodes, obliterating him and shutting down the portal. At this point, I thought, well, I guess they're stuck together in the Quantum Realm for a while now. But then Cassie uses her Quantum radar thingy to track them, and then re-opens the same portal (HOW??) to let them come home. The portal that was supposedly "one shot" and powered by Kang's power core. WTF?

Getting in and out of the Quantum Realm is that treacherous shrinking and growing journey that we've seen in the previous movies and at the beginning of this movie. Stepping through a portal to a different place/time is multiversal tech that we've seen that the TVA and Kang have. Cassie doesn't have anything like that. Every recap I've read just says something like "Cassie reopens the portal" or "Cassie opens a new portal."

GatorDeb

Ooohhh how they opened it the second time.

Yeah that made no sense

I never read any comics at all but I've seen every superhero movie and I was enjoying the heck of this spectacle.

Boba Fett

I feel like the original ending of the film was “he was right behind us” and the ensuing fight and everything that followed was reshoots. There were very early rumors that Scott wasn’t going to appear again at all until the final Kang film.

TheBang

Yeah, while trying to figure this ending out, I just read that the whole movie plot was leaked last October. Most everything in the leak was the same as the released movie except the ending. The original leaked ending was that Kang escapes, and Scott and Hope are stuck in the Quantum Realm. Apparently, they reshot the ending a month ago.
https://comicbookmovie.com/ant_man/a...ap=1#gs.qm8jss

One more issue I remembered. I swear I'm not trying to nitpick this movie to death. I liked it all right, but these glaring issues are hard to ignore. Why did Kang kidnap Janet? He brings her to his citadel and.... nothing. He doesn't gloat at her, doesn't threaten or torture her, doesn't spout exposition at her, doesn't demand anything of her. There doesn't seem to be any purpose as to why he brought her, and she just kind of stands around watching things, until she kills the guards and then opens the portal. Did I miss something or forget something? It seems like the only reason she was kidnapped and brought there was so that she could be there to open the portal for them to escape at the appropriate time in the plot. I feel like maybe there was some thread or subplot or motivation there that was lost in the edit or reshoots.