Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania

★★★1/2

Mild spoilers

Directed by Peyton Reed

Written by Jeff Loveness

Quantumania is frustrating. Ant-Man has always been about the little guy (even the movie mentioned that repeatedly), but like the big boys he now has to handle a universe-ending threat of his own. (It even tries to ape Aquaman’s gonzo visual aesthetics, likely in an attempt to also achieve a similar box-office result.) But that makes Quantumania feel just like a formulaic Marvel entry instead of the fun “palate cleanser” (a term used by Paul Rudd himself) that many of us are reluctant to admit we needed, even as we griped about how inconsequential the Ant-flicks were.

Other problems:

Too many characters, a very smart villain that started doing stupid things near the end, the sorely-felt absence of Luis and his compadres of X-Con Securities Consultants, and the jettisoning of that wonderfully snappy editing style from the earlier films.

However, all is not lost.

The cast is fantastic. Jonathan Majors is the standout here, and his performance alone is worth the price of admission. Kang is absolutely menacing but also interestingly complex. I was fascinated by the level of gratitude expressed by the supposedly ruthless multiversal conqueror towards his savior, when he had absolutely nothing to gain from doing so, except a tiny sliver of what’s left of his humanity. Pfeiffer was given more to do this time, and her scenes with Majors were electric and made you forget you’re watching a superhero flick. Rudd, Douglas, and Lily are reliably good in spite of the limited material they had to work with.

I also liked that they pitted the main supervillain of the entire Multiversal saga against the most bottom-ranked Avenger, lower than even Hawkeye. This created a palpable sense of danger, where for the first time in the series of Ant-films you don’t feel that any of the characters are safe, by simply having the villain being way out of the heroes’ league by a million fold. There were a few times I thought, “they might actually be doing it.” A major cull to set the path for future Ant-Girl/ Stature/ Stinger Cassie Lang. The stakes in Quantumania certainly felt a lot higher this time round.

I know it should have been obvious just from the title alone, but I didn’t know the movie was set almost entirely in the quantum realm. I don’t watch trailers, so this was a genuine surprise for me, which worked in favour of the film. The other thing I wasn’t expecting wasn’t the identity of the big star cameo of the film, but that they made the person do something a little more sinister than just the usual jokey schtick cameos are expected to do.

Speaking of cameos, there is another one that seems to be getting mixed opinions, but I thought it was really funny, and the one where the aforementioned has a scene with Cassie Lang got the biggest laugh from me.

All an Ant-Man flick needed to do (for me) was to be entertaining. Despite some story directions that didn’t work and some other quality issues, I think it did the job, and there are a few but enough of the good stuff here to at least warrant a watch. Some of you might disagree, but I think Quantumania has a slight edge over most of the Phase 4 films but not as good as No Way Home or Shang-Chi.

My thoughts on the mid and end credit scenes (SPOILERS):

I thought the Kang variants (army?) were quite goofy. The Empire Spoiler Podcast gang joked that it reminded them of the Eddie Murphy’s films where he played multiple characters. The one with a clip from Loki Season 2 was just a very short teaser that featured Loki, Mobius and Kang in a scene, but doesn’t seem like anything of consequence, or even exciting, other than the fact that it’s coming.

Avatar: The Way of Water

★★★★★

I don’t know if it will have longevity in the physical media format, or that its breathtaking spectacles would translate well on the small screen, but Avatar: The Way of Water is a sight to behold on IMAX 3D. James Cameron may be asking us to pay a little more than twice the ticket price to see it, but boy did he make every cent count! The 3D effects were fantastic, but what’s more impressive is how the CG has gotten so advanced that my eyes just surrendered and accepted that Pandora and every living thing on it is real. The attention to detail is also just insane (wait till you get to the underwater bits), and is integral in selling the realism. The visuals are truly a huge part of what made this movie amazing, thus it is imperative that you see it on an IMAX 3D theatre.

But all is for naught if the storytelling wasn’t good. I have to admit, the story here is pretty standard affair, but a very well executed one. The reason the film was three hours long was because Cameron actually took the time to establish all of his characters, and gave each one a distinct and likable personality, so that when things got real serious, you’d actually care. Once you’re emotionally invested with the characters, it doesn’t really matter if the same plot device from the first act was recycled for the finale. I was impressed that they even created some shades of grey to some of the characters on both sides of the fight that added an interesting dynamic to their relationships. This actually made me want to watch the sequels now because I’m dying to know how this is all going to turn out in the end. So, yes, generic story, lazy even, but done better than any crowdpleasing affair like this ever deserved to be.

Overall, Avatar: The Way of Water is visually stunning, emotionally engaging, and one heck of a thrill ride! A true blockbuster film in every sense.

An American Werewolf in London

★★★★1/2

Super-synopsis: Two American backpackers wander into the Yorkshire moors and gets attacked by a werewolf. One of them survives, but becomes a werewolf himself and starts eating unsuspecting Londoners whenever the Blue Moon song plays in the background.

When I was a kid in the 80s, this movie was shown repeatedly on TV, albeit censored. What they didn’t cut though was the werewolf transformation. Of course, it was one of the most incredible movies I’ve ever seen, and stoked my imagination in a way Teen Wolf was never able to. Throughout the decades, for some reason I’ve never revisited the film, until Arrow Video released their beautiful 4K set, so I guess it was time to return to The Slaughtered Lamb.

As a werewolf flick, it was an evolutionary leap, providing a visceral, literal view of the werewolf transformation that haven’t been seen in any other film in the genre before. They also ditched the hybrid man-wolf design and went with a giant hound beast on all fours as the final form, which actually made the werewolf scarier. The movie also added to the mythology with its own original ideas, such as the victims coming back to haunt David but in their mauled and decomposing states, which ensured that the film continues to deliver on the horror in between the werewolf bits and kept the film interesting and engaging throughout. The nightmare sequences were also a nice touch.

I wished there was a little more characterization for the main characters . The trio of David Naughton, Jenny Agutter and Griffin Dunne were charming as hell, but David seemed only mildly troubled by the brutal death of his good friend Jack, and was mostly cheery and goofing around throughout. I guess they needed to sell the romance with Agutter’s Nurse Price, and a troubled and traumatized lead wouldn’t be a very fun person to fall in love with. It also felt that Price was the real protagonist of the film, but she also didn’t get enough screen time to establish her character a little better. For example, the whole subplot of the doctor investigating David and Jack’s attack could have been given to Agutter’s character instead. John Woodvine did a good job playing the doctor, but his character was unnecessary. It felt a little bit like a set up for a Van Helsing or Dr. Loomis-like character for possible future installments, but that never materialized, which made the character even more pointless in hindsight.

Another minor gripe would be the final reveal of the creature. Rick Baker’s work was fantastic, but he was working with a small budget and the technological limitations of that time, so any time the beast is in full reveal, it looks like a puppet with one static expression. I would have kept him in shadows at all times, but again this is just a minor nitpick. Rick Baker is still an incredible talent - my favourite of his work here is Jack’s gnarly face and neck wounds.

Since my last experience with the film was with the truncated TV version, I was surprised to hear the f-bombs and see the sexy, sexy stuff involving Naughton and Agutter, and that scene in the cinema, which only now did I realise was showing a skin flick all along. Luckily I was using my headphones or my neighbours would have thought I was having a very good time that night.

And a good time it was. A solid werewolf flick that has yet to be surpassed even till this day. I enjoyed Benicio del Toro’s The Wolf Man but An American Werewolf in London still edges over it. Highly recommended.

Originally published on my Facebook Page, here.