Stealing from "Star Wars." Ignoring The Wasp.
MODOK butt! Fans are seriously frustrated with "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania."
The first big issue fans took with "Ant-Man and the Wasp:
Quantumania" is the lack of Quantum Realm rules. The entire premise of
the Quantum Realm is that it is an unknown location seemingly ruled by chaos. However,
the film tries to reflect this by letting a bunch of inexplicable things happen and not giving the
audience any sort of explanation for the events. While a few things were explained — like how the
"ooze" let the characters understand every language if consumed — that just left the
other aspects of the Quantum journey that were not even touched on even more confusing.
For example, how could humans breathe air in a subatomic atmosphere? It makes sense that the
creatures who live down there have adapted to their surroundings, but when Scott and company
head to the Quantum Realm, they can all breathe the air without their suits. One fan on Twitter
even questioned how breathing was even possible if the Quantum Realm is smaller than air molecules.
"This isn't exactly ant science, is it?"
One of the biggest gags of the film is the introduction of MODOK. The man behind MODOK
turns out to be a face that "Ant-Man" fans will recognize from the franchise — Darren,
played by Corey Stoll. Making Darren the person inside the mechanism is a decent enough idea,
especially since Marvel films love to bring back familiar faces. However, the character
ultimately ends up being little more than a big joke and not much of a threat at all. What's more,
the CGI for MODOK is incredibly bad, to the point of being distracting. One fan on Twitter said,
"There's LOTS of questionable CGI in this one. MODOK in particular looked atrocious."
Though the character is definitely supposed to be hard to look at, there is no scenario
in which he is supposed to be this ridiculous. The character's visual representation makes it
impossible to view him as a threat, too — even more so because of the random, unnecessary nude
shot the audience is surprised by when he is fastened into his machinery. One fan asked,
"What did I do to deserve seeing MODOK butt naked?"
MODOK is good for a few laughs but is otherwise mostly a frustrating and
forgettable character because of the poor CGI and the unnecessary nudity.
"It's a hole so deep, it cannot be filled."
When Scott and his cohorts are pulled into the Quantum Realm, they immediately get separated.
This leaves Scott and Cassie searching for Hank, Janet, and Hope. Having spent 30 years
in the Quantum Realm, Janet knows the most out of all of them and is their best bet to navigate
their way through the chaotic environment. Janet leads Hank and Hope to a bar of sorts,
and fans of the "Star Wars" franchise may feel familiar with this setting — especially because
of its distinct similarities to the Mos Eisley cantina in "Star Wars: A New Hope."
In "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania," creatures of all kinds are seen drinking
together at the bar — just like in "A New Hope." This led some fans to believe that
the bar scene was further proof that "Quantumania" was trying a little too
hard to be like "Star Wars." One Twitter user was upset about the similarities and tweeted,
"Why was Quantumania just a weird Star Wars rip off?!?! MCU baby, what is you doing"
Another Twitter user noticed some similarities with another popular MCU film, writing,
"Quantum realm is basically star wars x guardians of the galaxy."
Though the creatures are not the same, and there are certainly some unique elements, the energized
music and overall setting were too similar to the famous cantina scene for many viewers.
One consistent theme throughout all of the "Ant-Man" films is Scott's love for his daughter,
Cassie. Their relationship is Scott's motivation for everything he does in
his life, and Scott does not hesitate to put himself in harm's way if it means ensuring
Cassie's safety. This is no different in "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania."
When Cassie and Scott are captured by Kang, Scott is asked to use the Pym Particles to
fix the energy source for Kang's ship so he can escape the Quantum Realm. However,
Scott refuses to do this because he does not want to help Kang and act against Janet's instructions.
Kang tries to torture Scott to get him to change his mind, but he does not budge. His opinion
quickly changes, though, when Kang begins to torture Cassie and threatens to kill her.
Kang torturing Cassie, though not totally unexpected,
is a low blow. Nothing in the world is more important to Scott than Cassie,
which is made clear by the scene where all of the Scott possibilities are working together to
acquire the energy source only in an effort to save Cassie. A fan wrote on Twitter,
"The 'for Cassie' scene with Scott's probability variants forming an anthill had me bawling."
Fans agree that Scott's love for Cassie is the best part of the "Ant-Man" series,
making the fact that he has to watch her in pain all the more upsetting.
Perhaps the most frustrating part of "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania" is the anticlimactic
third act, which finally showcases Kang's power. Throughout the film, Kang is portrayed as this
ominously powerful being. He can kill on command and has seemingly unlimited strength that comes
from his helmet and suit. Beyond that, he does not hesitate to show this power off when he wants to
get his way. It makes sense that when Kang fights Scott the two are evenly matched — after all,
Kang's suit is damaged and Scott's suit is still intact. However, before Kang's suit is broken,
it is ultimately the ants and MODOK that take him down, which seems a bit silly.
The ants were pretty advanced, as Hank explains,
but it doesn't really seem like that — even combined with MODOK's sneak attack — would
be even remotely enough to beat the man who has killed several Avengers. The way
that Kang is ultimately defeated ends up feeling more like a cop-out than a well-deserved victory.
At the end of the film, Janet is able to open the portal to get everyone home, but they have to move
quickly. Hank and Janet jump through, followed by Hope. However, Scott pushes Cassie through
but stays back to keep Kang from getting out, leading to an intense battle. When it seems like
all hope is lost for Scott making it back, Hope crashes through the portal at the last second and
helps Scott take down Kang. However, the portal closes, and Scott and Hope are left in the Quantum
Realm…for all of two seconds, until Cassie reopens the portal, allowing Hope and Scott to escape.
The situation seems incredibly anticlimactic, with no stakes or consequences that have
any impact on the characters. They defeat Kang, but instead of getting stuck there,
giving Cassie and her grandparents a chance to try to get them out over time,
they are immediately able to make it home. One fan tweeted,
"The movie would've felt more consequential if Hope/Scott were stuck in the quantum realm."
It makes sense how Cassie was able to quickly open the portal, but the pacing felt off. Even
a brief scene of Cassie panicking and trying to reconnect the device would have added some
needed drama to the situation. For many fans, to have Hope and Scott's sacrifice mean virtually
nothing, as they are saved immediately, is frustrating and narratively unsatisfying.
"Easy-peasy." One of the biggest
criticisms comes from the film's lack of Hope content. There is a lot of room made for Paul
Rudd's Scott Lang to tap into the plot and his emotional depth, while Jonathan Majors' Kang the
Conquerer steals the show. Michelle Pfeiffer dives into her role as Janet as she guides the family
through the Quantum Realm. However, Hope, played by actress Evangeline Lilly, is shoved to the side
in favor of these other characters. Fans found this pretty disappointing — especially since the
film is supposed to be "Ant-Man and the Wasp," not just "Ant-Man." One fan on Twitter said it best,
"Evangeline Lilly as Wasp in #Quantumania felt nonexistent or maybe I can articulate it by
saying she was there physically yet her presence wasn't felt."
Another fan theorized on Twitter that Lilly might've been shoved to the sidelines because
of her vaccination views, which she publicly talked about during the coronavirus pandemic.
However, as the same user points out, Letitia Wright, who took the lead in "Black Panther:
Wakanda Forever," has similar views and is in nearly every scene of her film.
No matter what the reason, it is clear that the Wasp is much less of a priority
in this film and seemingly in the MCU in general. Lilly has a lot of talent
and brings a lot to the scenes she is in, but she is not in nearly as many as she
should be for it to be considered an "Ant-Man and the Wasp" film.
Though this is not a specific moment from the film, we would be remiss if we did not
mention how upset fans were upon the recasting of Cassie. Everyone knew young Cassie from the
first couple of films would be recast because of the blip, but Kathryn Newton was not supposed to
be Cassie. The role was supposed to be played by Emma Fuhrmann, a young actress who played Cassie
for a brief scene in "Avengers: Endgame." Her emotional depth and resemblance to Rudd's Scott
Lang were evident from just a short scene with the two of them — so why did Newton play Cassie?
When Fuhrmann was cast, Cassie's role was just a small, bit part for one film. Now that Cassie has
been given a more important role in the MCU, the casting team at Marvel opted for someone
with more experience and a more recognizable name. Unfortunately, Fuhrmann was not told of
this change directly, and many fans weren't happy. In a Twitter post, one fan wrote,
"Emma Furhmann, Cassie's actress from Endgame,
was robbed of the chance of a lifetime and found out about it the exact same way
we all did – through the announcement on social media. They didn't even tell her."
The way it was handled is devastating and leaves fans wondering if Fuhrmann
would have been the better choice for the role.