By Lindsey Bahr
Peyton Reed's "Ant-Man" films have generally served as a kind of palate cleanser to the world-ending stakes of the larger Marvel Cinematic Universe. Paul Rudd's Scott Lang is just an ordinary dude, or so they keep telling us, who still can't really believe that he's part of the Avengers at all. He gets to be the wide-eyed middle-aged fanboy of the group in those films. In his own films, he's just living a blue-sky life in San Francisco as an affable single dad and ex-con who was once fired from Baskin Robbins and who has occasional enemies to defeat.
In this third film, " Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania," in theaters Thursday, he's coasting on his own post-Blip celebrity with a best-selling memoir out, lots of fans around town and a generally sunny disposition — when he's not breaking his teenage daughter Cassie (now played by Kathryn Newton, always an enjoyable presence) out of jail for civil disobedience.
There is a fun, light, sitcom-y touch to these early scenes in which he and his makeshift family, Hope Van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly), Janet Van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer) and Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) sit around the table for takeout pizza. They use their particle technology to blow up the tiny pie.
"I just saved us $8," Pym declares proudly.
But Ant-Man is part of the larger chess board of the MCU, so naturally he's doomed to be sucked into the multiverse mess, setting up pieces for more Avengers films to come with the introduction of a new villain, Kang (played with a maniacal sorrow by the great Jonathan Majors). And the results are mixed. Reed has returned to direct with a new writer, Jeff Loveness, who has also been tapped to write "Avengers: The Kang Dynasty" and it's hard not to empathize with both for the logic gymnastics required to back Ant-Man and his gang into this conflict.
Loveness, who cut his teeth in comedy and has an affinity for comic book and B-movie absurdities, gives Ant-Man his own "Star Wars"-adjacent adventure. There's quite a bit of unrest in the Quantum Realm, with scrappy rebels battling against a powerful ruler with an army of faceless soldiers. But he takes that conceit further and gives the rebels some personality and humor, including William Jackson Harper as the mind-reading Quaz. The villain's a killing machine, M.O.D.O.K., that looks (knowingly) straight out of a "Mystery Science Theater 3000" movie and it is quite entertaining. It's both a nod to the fun of the ridiculousness in sci-fi and a reminder that Serious Superhero Films are sometimes just one crazy special effect away from being Silly Superhero Films.
"Quantumania" also gives Pfeiffer a lot more to do as we, and Hank and Hope, learn a little bit more about Janet's 30 years in the Quantum Realm and the various compromises and allegiances she made to stay alive. Pfeiffer is an unambiguous delight and the real center of the movie despite what the title might claim. Ant-Man just finds himself in the middle of the mess, which starts to drag on in a muddle of sci-fi furnishings that individually are probably quite inspired and interesting but together just blend into a dreary mess.
It's a shame because Reed's films are generally so crisp and styled and are best when focused on characters, not worlds and Quantum Realms. "Quantumania" shines when it is keeping things light and quippy.
But Kang, for what we can assume are bigger story needs, needs to be more serious. Majors is certainly chilling and captivating, but Kang seems like a mismatched foe for a standalone Ant-Man film and the result is a "Quantumania" that is trying to be too many things. One thing it is not is a Wasp movie, though. Lilly gets a lot to do but not a lot of — or any — character development.
"Quantumania" sticks the ending, however. Without giving anything away, we'll just say that Reed and Rudd get to return to their sweet spot, with a bit of a twist.
"Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania," a Walt Disney release in theaters Thursday, is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association for "some sci-fi action violence." Running time: 122 minutes. Two and a half stars out of four.
Lindsey Bahr is an AP film writer
Jennifer Kent On Why Her Feature Directing Debut, “The Babadook,” Continues To Haunt Us
"The Babadook," when it was released 10 years ago, didn't seem to portend a cultural sensation.
It was the first film by a little-known Australian filmmaker, Jennifer Kent. It had that strange name. On opening weekend, it played in two theaters.
But with time, the long shadows of "The Babadook" continued to envelop moviegoers. Its rerelease this weekend in theaters, a decade later, is less of a reminder of a sleeper 2014 indie hit than it is a chance to revisit a horror milestone that continues to cast a dark spell.
Not many small-budget, first-feature films can be fairly said to have shifted cinema but Kent's directorial debut may be one of them. It was at the nexus of that much-debated term "elevated horror." But regardless of that label, it helped kicked off a wave of challenging, filmmaker-driven genre movies like "It Follows," "Get Out" and "Hereditary."
Kent, 55, has watched all of this — and those many "Babadook" memes — unfold over the years with a mix of elation and confusion. Her film was inspired in part by the death of her father, and its horror elements likewise arise out of the suppression of emotions. A single mother (Essie Davis) is struggling with raising her young son (Noah Wiseman) years after the tragic death of her husband. A figure from a pop-up children's book begins to appear. As things grow more intense, his name is drawn out in three chilling syllables — "Bah-Bah-Doooook" — an incantation of unprocessed grief.
Kent recently spoke from her native Australia to reflect on the origins and continuing life of "The Babadook."
Q: Given that you didn't set out to in any way "change" horror, how have you regarded the unique afterlife of "The... Read More