Stop me if you’ve heard this one before, but the Marvel Cinematic Universe is not what it once was. The mighty Marvel method — punch-em-up Pixar movies with hot people — is not crowd-pleasing the way it used to. Second-weekend dropoffs are increasing, action figures are piling up on the pegs, and internet naysayers smell blood in the water.
On this week’s podcast, Ryan Steans of the Signal Watch and I diagnose the problem: it’s Jeff Loveness’ fault! Armed with an interview with the Ant-Man & the Wasp: Quantumania scriptwriter, we dig into the movie’s many fatal flaws, including: why Kang the Conqueror doesn’t understand what conquering is, why Loveness doesn’t understand what socialism is, and why you didn’t actually like the probability storm scene.
The podcast is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, YouTube, Overcast, Audible, Stitcher and lots of other places. Come check it out!
As usual, the episode’s broken up according to the Syd Field three-act structure.
Here’s Act 2:
And Act 3:
You can come back here for the next episode, or look for it wherever you listen to podcasts!
Next week:
Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer!
— Danny Horn
Superheroes Every Day 
I usually have no problem with mindless entertainment if I’m in the right mood and I know what to expect going in. And yet I still had a problem with this movie. Danny’s line about it being about “what we can make as opposed to what makes sense” sums it up very succinctly. I think they took leftover concept art from the last Dr. Strange movie and used it as the Quantum Realm. The only real nod to Quantum Mechanics was the multiple Scotts and I rather liked that bit.
I found M.O.D.O.K. very silly and visually not well-executed. I didn’t know him from the comics. I totally forgot about Darren. M.O.D.O.K. does have the only character growth in the movie, even if it’s handled ineptly.
There were creatures and visuals that seemed to purposely recall Monsters Inc. and Star Wars. Is it out of laziness or lack of originality or just a nod to their Disney overlords? In any case, it is unwise to remind your audience of better movies.
I was surprised to see Bill Murray and disappointed that he played such a dull character. Why get Bill Murray and not even give him one good line?
Michael Douglas walking in with the Ant Army was bonkers but fun.
The story and the dialogue both needed work, but the blame needs to be shared with whoever hired someone who had never written a movie script before to write this movie. I watched it to the end, though it was touch-and-go at the one hour mark.
The best part for me was seeing the post-credit scene of Mobius and Loki. I rewatched Loki on Disney+ after the movie. Quantumania suffers so much in comparison. I hope that Marvel has really gotten the message: No matter how talented or likable your actors are or how splashy your special effects are, your movie succeeds or fails because of the story.
LikeLike
I love your summary there at the end. 100% in agreement.
LikeLiked by 1 person