Michael's Movie Grade: B+
An excellent superhero film.
Though this movie may take our heroes to a strange new world, its heart lies where the heart of the previous films was. That is to say in the relationship between Scott Lang (Ant-Man) and his daughter Cassie. While many may point to the lighthearted humor as being what makes the Ant-Man films stand out from other Marvel movies to me what has made this series special is that they are the most goodhearted Marvel films. This has been heavily shown through the relationship between father and daughter which has always been very sweet and touching. While this film raises the stakes and puts the characters out of their element, I am glad to say this relationship remains at the heart of the film. With Cassie now being a teenager, we have a whole new part of this relationship to explore. Cassie has grown up to be a lot like her father and not always in the best ways. As Scott has learned greatly from his mistakes, he admires her for having the same good heart as him but doesn't want her to make the same mistakes he did. Yet at the same time Cassie feels that her dad hasn't done enough actually helping people after the events of Avengers: Endgame. She feels that what she is doing (which causes her to get in trouble with the law) is more help than anything her dad has done lately. Despite this friction though the pure love and respect these two have for each other is always clearly evident. I am glad that this film didn't go done the cliché family drama route and have Cassie say she hates her father. Instead even when they are in the middle of this friction they tell each other how much they love each other. This was not only refreshing but also more fitting for these characters and the heart and soul of this trilogy. Cassie here is also trying to be her own superhero and I love how even though her dad is not crazy about the idea (he is of course worried that she might get hurt), he still gives her pointers and feels proud of her when she does a good job. I also love that Cassie doesn't immediately have this superhero thing down pat but needs to learn and work at it. Again this relationship is so sweet and good hearted it made the whole film work for me and kept me emotionally connected no matter how over the top the story could get. The wonderful chemistry between Paul Rudd and Kathryn Newton doesn't hurt either.
This film also introduces the next big villain for the MCU, Kang the Conqueror (though we saw a variant of him in the Disney+ series, Loki). This film does a wonderful job of building up this character. Before you even see him, this movie makes you feel how major of a threat he is. I also love the way he is handled here. Jonathan Majors plays him in such a charming way, that you can see how he can win others over to his side easily. At the same time this performance is in many ways quite low key, yet always with a certain weight to him. His conversations with Ant-Man and Cassie, truly are chilling. What makes them so creepy is how causally and calm he talks about killing so many people, like it is. This makes him feel quite different from previous MCU villains. What also makes this character work so well as how little humor there is when he is around. Much of the film is very comedic, but during the scenes with him there is much less comedy. The fact that the lighthearted feel of the rest of the film disappears when he is around, really drives home the point of just how serious this character is. I am excited to see what Marvel does with him next.
Though this movie is not as packed with humor as the previous Ant-Man films, the lovably silly comedy here is just as wonderful as ever. This is especially true of the opening scenes which had me laughing quite a bit. The parts about Scott's book made me laugh out loud. It is obvious that Paul Rudd and director Peyton Reed (who directed the previous Ant-Man movies) still know perfectly how to deliver this type of comedy. Also delivering really funny moments here is Michael Douglas, who delivers every joke he is given perfectly, and he makes these jokes much funnier than they would be by any other actor. This movie also has a fast moving and fun feel to it and the 2 hours fly by. I also love that this movie truly feels like a comic book come to life.
I do have a couple of problems with this film though. One is that after having the previous two movies build up to the quantum realm, when we get to spend a great time with it here, it is quite disappointing. It is simply a bland and generic fantasy world. Admittedly there are some good gags with how weird the place is, but it never distinguishes itself from so many other movie fantasy worlds (there is definitely a strong Star Wars influence here). My other major complaint is MODOK. While yes this has always been a silly character (even in the comics), the problem is he never really feels like a threat here. It could be because of putting him with live action characters or it could be because they never build up any reason for this character to be anything but a joke. Because of this, any serious scenes make him feel completely out of place here. It is true he can be funny here, but even a silly over the top villain needs to feel like a threat. The CGI on MODOK is also really bad. It goes beyond just looking silly to looking kind of embarrassing. This is the kind of CGI you would except to see over 20 years ago, not in a current big budget movie. Coming from the same studio that has brought Rocket Raccoon and Groot to life so well, it is hard to say why it went so wrong here.
This movie may have a few big faults, but the humor, action and family drama are all wonderful and make this a delight for superhero fans.
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