Director: Elizabeth Banks

Writer: Jimmy Warden

Stars: Kerri Russell, Alden Ehrenreich, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Ray Liotta

Synopsis: An oddball group of cops, criminals, tourists, and teens converge on a Georgia forest where a huge black bear goes on a murderous rampage after unintentionally ingesting cocaine.

How can you screw up something so basic like Cocaine Bear? That was the question I asked myself while sitting through Elizabeth Banks’ insanely promising, yet terribly unfunny movie that lacked both fun and cathartic slapstick humor and massive amounts of gore. The film is based on the true story of a Black Bear who shortly died after ingesting a duffel bag full of cocaine in 1985. However, it revises the part where the bear died and instead goes on a killing spree while looking for more cocaine to snort. Doesn’t that sound incredible? Doesn’t that sound like the return of cinema? Music to my ears! Finally, this could be Hollywood’s answer to Quentin Dupieux’s Rubber, and yet…

There are some sequences that do work in this movie, and spoiling them would rob you of the pleasure of discovering them for yourself. All of them involve Margo Martindale’s Ranger Liz, who oversees the national park in which the Bear is located. Martindale’s comedic timing is perfect, teetering the line between absurdly self-aware and just frightened enough that when the Bear charges, you believe in her willingness to protect visitors at all costs. She’s the best part of the film (she has every funny line and best action setpieces to herself), alongside Alden Ehrenreich whose delivery of “The bear! It f—ing did cocaine!” is exactly why he was cast in the role in the first place. 

Ehrenreich has decent enough chemistry with O’Shea Jackson Jr. who plays his drug dealing partner, but Jackson can’t match the same level of comedic skills that Ehrenreich, Martindale, or even Isiah Whitlock Jr. (who plays a police detective whose deadpan line deliveries are legendary) bring to the table. It’s unfortunate that every other actor in this incredible ensemble are nowhere near as good as the ones mentioned above. Even the late Ray Liotta, in one of his final film roles, looks completely bored playing Syd, the drug dealer on top of the operation to retrieve the cocaine-filled duffel bags. He’s barely in the film, and when he’s in it, his performance is a total sleepwalk. What a shame, since this will be one of the last times audiences will see Liotta on screen. 

And while there are many cathartic sequences in Cocaine Bear, most of its insanity lacks a severe amount of gore. The CGI Bear doesn’t look convincing, nor scary. It makes a weird guttural sound every time he’s close to cocaine, which doesn’t make it feel like a menacing creature, and the same can be said for how the film edits the bear’s drug trips. At one point, a character mentions “it’s Christmas with cocaine,” and Christmas bells are heard to signal that, hey, this is snow for the bear! Boring. 

The action is also quite haphazardly shot. There’s an incredible ambulance chase that happens almost halfway through the movie, but it’s the only sequence where the bear feels like a menacing threat to the characters. It’s also the only time in which Banks and cinematographer John Guleserian craft something visually exciting and push the gore to the extreme. One shot of a hand barely hanging on a character’s arm is powerful enough to provoke a strong reaction. The film’s climax is so poorly shot and set in the laziest setting possible (a dark cave!) that all momentum it tries to create is lost in a sea of murky cinematography, poorly conceived CGI, and shoddily written dialogue. 

As such, the insanity that is Cocaine Bear is only reserved for its trailer, which promises an insane ride at the movies, only for the movie to be a total whimper. It never doubles down on its premise enough to make it feel like a blast. Aside from a few great performances and select fun action scenes, most of Cocaine Bear’s impact falls flat. This could’ve been the movie to save all self-referential movies. However, it’s the single biggest disappointment of a film made in the 2020’s so far. That’s not good. 

Grade: D+

Director: Christopher Landon

Writer: Christopher Landon

Stars: Jahi Di’Allo Winston, David Harbour, Anthony Mackie, Jennifer Coolidge  

Synopsis: Finding a ghost named Ernest haunting their new home turns Kevin’s family into overnight social media sensations. But when Kevin and Ernest investigate the mystery of Ernest’s past, they become a target of the CIA.

Recently, I engaged in a strange double feature of Ingmar Bergman’s Oscar-winning 1973 drama Cries and Whispers and Christopher Landon’s newest horror comedy We Have a Ghost, the latter now available on Netflix. The two films surprisingly have a couple of things in common, namely the central ideas of death and grief, but something the films don’t share is the same running time. Cries and Whispers is a finely observed and richly detailed narrative that packs a lot into its brief ninety minutes, director Bergman not wasting a single minute to moments that don’t matter. We Have a Ghost, on the other hand, should’ve been the same length, and yet the movie drags on to an outrageous two hours and seven minutes. The one I wanted to go longer was Cries and Whispers. The one that could’ve ended by the hour-mark? The very bad and empty We Have a Ghost. 

One of the pains of watching a terrible movie like We Have a Ghost is knowing it was written and directed by an incredibly talented person. Christopher Landon has been a quiet master at the comedy horror genre, the two Happy Death Day movies being blissfully entertaining, and his 2020 genre entry Freaky a delight, and his best work yet. This is a guy who knows how to pace a horror film, where to put the comedic bits, how to use a gifted cast, and where to dump the buckets of blood. Therefore, I found myself scratching my head a lot as I took in We Have a Ghost, which never knows what kind of movie it wants to be and which has a slow, often sloppy pace that’s made even worse with its sinfully long running time.

The movie begins like a standard haunted house movie, Kevin (Jahi Di’Allo Winston) and his family, including his dad Frank (Anthony Mackie) and his mom Melanie (Erica Ash), coming to realize there’s an adult male ghost living in the attic—a man with a bad comb-over named Ernest (David Harbour). For about a half-hour, We Have a Ghost explores an interesting concept—what if instead of being scared by the ghost in our house, we tried to profit off it and become social media superstars by sharing the ghost’s images and videos online—and it’s this segment of the story that works the best, one that brings in Jennifer Coolidge as an egotistical psychic. But then the film drops that idea and starts veering all over the place, getting Ernest out of the house, sharing how he came to die, and giving us about seven different endings that are mostly serious, in a film that comes across as nothing more than a silly horror comedy.

Classic horror comedies like Beetlejuice know what they’re trying to be, and they don’t apologize for it. If you want to be a scary haunted house movie, fine, commit to it. If you want to be a horror comedy like Ghostbusters and Beetlejuice, then commit to that. The biggest problem with We Have a Ghost is that it never knows what it is, the tone is all over the place, so it’s hard to ever become invested in the story and characters. Ultimately the film fails at pretty much everything it’s trying to do. In a film like this, tone is everything, it’s even more important I’d argue than pacing and raising the stakes, and with three or four movies essentially battling it out, the viewer is left closing their hand, and grasping only air.

There is a moment at the end of We Have a Ghost, for example, in which I believe the director wants us to be welling up with tears. But the film hasn’t earned those tears. Ernest for the longest time is a goofy-looking jokester ghost who makes dumb boo noises while floating through the air and tearing CGI flesh away from his face. We’re supposed to then feel sympathy for him later when the film turns serious? Imagine if at the end of Beetlejuice, Tim Burton gave us a five-minute scene of Geena Davis and Alec Baldwin reuniting with their living loved ones, sans irony or humor. It would come off as odd, right? 

The cast in We Have a Ghost try, but they’re all playing their roles as if they’re in different movies, Anthony Mackie playing things for real, David Harbour trying to emulate Slimer from Ghostbusters, Jennifer Coolidge playing her role like an SNL sketch. And then there’s the villain of the film, which I won’t give away here, but he’s playing his role as if he’s in a terrifying follow-up to The Conjuring. Nobody seems to know what kind of movie this is supposed to be, including its own writer-director. The mix of tones reminded me a bit of Peter Jackson’s 1996 box office bomb The Frighteners, which has elements of horror and comedy and then turns serious in the final half-hour. But no matter the flaws, The Frighteners is always entertaining and filled with creativity and imagination. We Have a Ghost just leaves you feeling nothing.

Christopher Landon is a talented filmmaker, and I want to think this is a mere hiccup in what will continue to be an inspired career as a genre director. Part of me wonders if some of the fault goes to Netflix, a company that likes to throw money at big stars and name directors but then often doesn’t focus on the quality of the storytelling. I’m thinking of films like The Grey Man and Your Place or Mine, which with tighter scripts could’ve been solid entertainments but instead drone on and on with no end in sight. We Have a Ghost is sadly another entry in that group. Skip this tired, overlong misfire, and give the excellent Freaky a watch instead. Now that’s a Christopher Landon movie worth your time. 

GRADE: D

Director: Greg Barnes

Stars: Tyler Hyde, May Kershaw, Lewis Evans

Synopsis: In place of a third studio album, the band  shares the music they’ve been playing live for the past year.

Black Country, New Road: Live at Bush Hall alluringly explores the next stage of one of the best modern bands out there. Their latest material contains their usual personal and expressionistic lyrics, despair, and bliss being ever-present, yet with a sharper melancholic undertone that goes back to the departure of their former frontman, Isaac Wood. 

What else can be said of the English rock band from Cambridgeshire, Black Country, New Road? For starters, I think they are one of the best groups working today, even though they have only released two records – ‘For the First Time’ in 2021 and ‘Ants from Up There’ in 2022. Every music publication has written about them and their young masterful artistry, raving about their newly-forged discography, multi-instrumental variations, and genre-crossing records. It’s a thing of beauty; at a time when the majority of mainstream music (and art, in general) is filled with mediocrity and lackluster emotionless dribble, Black Country, New Road is creating some of the most exciting, unique, and outright ravishing pieces of work I have seen in quite some time by a recent act. Their records speak to many listeners, even though the lyrics are written from a deep emotional space inside the minds of their respective writers. The music editor of Now Then Magazine, Sam Gregory, even called their last record “the best album of my adult lifetime” in a loving piece dedicated to sincerity and romanticism in it. 

Four days before the release of their second album, BC,NR’s frontman, Isaac Wood, announced his affable, yet unforeseen, departure from the band due to his struggles with his mental well-being. Everything felt like it was crashing down; everyone started worrying about their future. I thought they would break up entirely and become another group with immense talent that stayed together for less than a handful of years. However, the members (Georgia Ellery, Tyler Hyde, Charlie Wayne, Luke Mark, May Kershaw, and Lewis Evans) voiced their support for Wood’s decision to leave. Because of that, they abandoned their plans to tour with material from that record. Instead, they started from scratch with their new six-piece composition, sharing vocal roles and implementing new techniques to appear like that band we all love, albeit in a new direction and perspective. Whatever they do next would be a bold choice, as they had to see where their sound would be after their lead’s withdrawal. 

They thought out their next steps, thinking and curating carefully, and concluded with a post-Isaac Wood “reintroduction” tour showcasing new tracks. During that tour, Black Country, New Road did three shows in December at London’s classic venue, Bush Hall. The group decided to record the performances there instead of doing another studio album with that new material, hence creating the concert film (and documentary, narrowly) Black Country, New Road: Live at Bush Hall, directed by Greg Barnes and mixed by the legendary John Parish. Each of those shows has a different visual theme inspired by high-school theatrical productions – When the Whistle Thins (pastoral settings), The Taming of the School (80s-themed prom night), and I Ain’t Alfredo No Ghost (which is an eye-rolling, yet funny title) – that the band members wrote minor lore off. As a result, each stage looks purposefully corny, and the bandmates know it (as they dress for the part); the audience is also in on the gag. 

The group invites them to join the special event in style, and indeed they do, going all out, particularly from the prom-night-inspired show. These preparations and costume-filled festivities encapsulate Black Country, New Road’s ingenuity and dedication to reinvention. The first few seconds of the film focus on why people care about the band and what their music means to them. But, this is cut off immediately because the introductory song for the shows at Bush Hall, titled ‘Up Song’, captures those feelings from the perspective of the band and their appreciation toward Isaac Wood, singing: “Look at what we did together, BC,NR friends forever”. For this song, cinematographer Jack Maddison gives us glimpses of the audience welcoming the lyrics – dancing and singing along – all with an emotional tie to their love for them. There are also audience members who are recording the show with classic VHS cameras, whose footage is added onto the concert film so the viewer (us watching at home) can feel immersed in the show and make the fans feel special.

The editing team, consisting of director Greg Barnes and Kev Corry, is savvy in seamlessly intercutting the different performances. They consider the lyrics when playing with the footage shot at Bush Hall, making sure that the lighting also ties to them as well. However, one brilliant element manages to jump right off the screen. Throughout the short fifty-two-minute runtime of Live at Bush Hall, Greg Barnes concocts not only a unique experience that showcases the following stages of modern musical talents but an intimate one. It feels like a reunion of close-knit friends, all joining hands, embracing the expressive and stirring wonders of young masterful artistry. The quick glances of the audience’s faces mirror ours, watching at home. And after each song ends, the rupture of cheers from them brings a smile to the band member’s faces. 

Black Country, New Road’s new material featured at the Bush Hall concerts is just astonishing and spell-binding, to the point where you can’t just stick it into one specific genre. Pop punk, art rock, post-rock, and jazz influences are all scattered from track to track, often implementing most (if not all) of them in the same track. Black Country, New Road just delivers one beautiful song after the other, all covered in melancholy and bliss, adjoined by ‘A Moon Shaped Pool’-like instrumental breakdowns that add to those emotions in their tracks. However, a specific song would make any fan shed a tear due to the intimate and personal notes adjoined by May Kershaw’s smooth voice: ‘Turbines’. May repeatedly sings, “Don’t waste your pearls on me; I’m only a pig”, rewording the English phrase “pearls before swine”, meaning offering something valuable to someone who does not comprehend its worth. 

Although May’s interpretation of the lyrics remains unexplained, we might attach it to many things that have caused emotional wounds. Since the release of this concert film, I have been listening to their new material repeatedly. And each time, I get something new from it – a different feeling, a different emotion. There are layers in their personal and deft writing, as well as in May and Tyler’s haunting vocalizations backed by somber piano notes. If Live at Bush Hall is the next stage, or a glimpse of what’s to come, for one of the best bands in the world right now, then we are in for a magical and awe-inspiring journey. It may not be technically the best concert film out there. But, Live at Bush Hall definitely leaves a big emotional impression on every person who watches, whether you are a fan of BC,NR or not. 

Grade: A+

Director: Michael B. Jordan

Writer: Keenan Coogler and Zach Baylin

Stars: Michael B. Jordan, Jonathan Majors, Tessa Thompson

Synopsis: Adonis has been thriving in both his career and family life, but when a childhood friend and former boxing prodigy resurfaces, the face-off is more than just a fight.

The original Rocky film will always be what this franchise, and any boxing movie truthfully, will spend its time chasing. Not only a commercial success but a multi-Oscar winning tale about a fighter doing the one thing he knows more about than anything. When Creed was initially announced, the story of Rocky had regressed astronomically and was only partly saved by the sixth installment of the series, Rocky Balboa. Creed was already fighting an uphill battle and managed to not only provide a compelling “Rocky” movie, but it instantly became one of the best of the franchise. For the first time since the original in 1976, a film in the saga was able to evoke the same emotions and feelings that made Rocky such a classic. Followed up by Creed II, which was another stellar outing, this spin-off series proved it had staying power and was even in a position to overtake the champ.

Now in the third installment, Creed III starts with a young Adonis (Thaddeus J. Mixson) sneaking out and going to watch his best friend Damian Anderson (Spence Moore II) box in an underground ring. After winning the fight, and the bet Damian placed on himself, the two head to a liquor store which leads to Adonis and Damian getting into an altercation that would alter their relationship forever. Flash forward 15 years, and current Adonis (Michael B. Jordan) is finally getting his rematch against “Pretty” Ricky Conlan (Tony Bellew). This isn’t a normal fight, however, as this is the last fight of Adonis’s career after announcing his plans to retire following the fight, no matter the outcome. Luckily for him, he manages to keep his title belt and leave boxing as a champion.

His life after boxing consists of raising his daughter Amara (Mila Davis-Kent) as well as running the Delphi Gym and promoting the newest champion Felix Chavez (Jose Benavidez). That is until Damian is released from prison and he, as well as the past that Adonis has been running from, resurface. He lets Damian train at the gym and spar with Chavez to get his feet back on the ground, but when Chavez’s upcoming opponent Viktor Drago (Florian Munteanu) can’t fight, Damian gets the chance to finally become the world champ he thought he would be from a young age. This fight puts Damian on the map as he begins to antagonize Adonis for living the life he felt he always deserved. After three years of retirement, Adonis decides that he can’t keep running from his past and needs to meet it head-on in a fight between who he was and who he became.

Shockingly, the story itself was one of the weakest parts of the entire film. Screenwriters Keenan Coogler (the brother of Ryan Coogler) and recent Oscar nominee Zach Baylin (King Richard) manage to evoke some emotional moments throughout whether it be Adonis’s aging mother or the relationship he shares with his daughter, but the underdeveloped script gives off a feeling of a behind-the-scenes look rather than a narrative feature. There definitely was some reclamation that had to be done as this was the first film to not feature Sylvester Stallone’s Rocky; while some of the charm was lost, it did allow Adonis to stand on his own feet as the focal point of this story.

In this film standing opposite Jonathan Majors was never going to be an easy task. Majors delivers an antagonist whose brutality and tenacity, mixed with his determination and tragedy, provides a good medium for the audience as someone they can root for and against at the same time. The Rocky series in particular always had an issue when it came to the antagonists being one-note villains whose only goal is to inflict pain on the protagonist. That is Majors’s goal with Dame, but it comes from a place of pain and resentment not for what Adonis did when they were younger, but for forgetting about him at his lowest. He also conveys Dame with empathy, and in what is easily the most physically demanding role of his career, he still displays the quiet nature that not only helped him breakout in 2019’s The Last Black Man in San Francisco but proves himself as one of the most captivating and compelling actors in Hollywood.

Where Creed III shines brightest of all is in the directorial debut of Michael B. Jordan. Jordan taking over as director isn’t surprising given that Sylvester Stallone directed quite a bit of this franchise with Rocky II, Rocky III, Rocky IV, and Rocky Balboa, but while Stallone was better on paper than he was behind the camera, in just one film, Jordan has proven himself to be an audacious visual storyteller. How he manages to tell the story through the camera can make up for the lack of story in the script itself, and the fight scenes are truly where he shines. Early on, Jordan talked about how he wanted to incorporate anime fight scenes in a live-action way, and while these sorts of fights could have been gimmicky, he and cinematographer Kramer Morgenthau are able to work the scene beautifully crafting some of the most intense and visually appealing fight scenes in quite some time.

His ambition didn’t stop there, however, as he magnificently used the final fight to tell the real story of the film. Fighting in the Rocky/Creed franchise has never been about being the best, there has always been a bigger picture to the battles being shown and how Jordan frames and tells the story of the final fight through the visuals and the choreography, stripping away all of the noise and displaying two people who are fighting for much more than a title. It was a truly risky but worthwhile move that reminds you what these movies have always been about, picking yourself up even after you’ve been knocked down.

While Creed III might be the lowest of the trilogy due to a thin story, it is a dazzling directorial debut from Michael B. Jordan and another prominent turn from Jonathan Majors that makes this film an entertaining addition to the Creed saga. The original Rocky is and always will be the gold standard for films of this franchise, but now three films in, it is clear that the reins have been passed and this franchise belongs to Adonis Creed.

Grade: B

Directors: Jon Erwin and Brent McCorkle

Writers: Jon Erwin and Jon Gunn

Stars: Jonathan Roumie, Nicholas Cirillo, Kelsey Grammer

Synopsis: The true story of a national spiritual awakening in the early 1970’s and its origins within a community of teenage hippies in Southern California.

Filmmakers Jon Erwin and Andrew Erwin are known for their spiritual films focused on Christian stories. In Jesus Revolution, Andrew offers his place as co-director to Brent McCorkle, while Jon Gunn helps the other Jon with the screenplay that tells the origins of the Jesus Movement, an evangelical Christian movement that began in the late 1960s to early 1970s. The movie’s target audience is pretty clear, but does it also work for people totally disconnected from any religion, God, or anything that transcends science?

Personally, I believe that a review should make clear the author’s position concerning the main theme of the film. If I’m not part of the target audience, I must be honest and pass on this information somehow; otherwise, readers may be misled into believing that the movie isn’t for them. Roger Ebert said it best, “a good review is one that manages to get the reader to realize they would probably enjoy the film even if the author is of the opposite opinion”. That said, Jesus Revolution is clearly intended for Christian viewers and/or people with a strong connection to any religion.

Despite being born into a Christian family, I don’t believe in any God nor am I religious. In fact, I couldn’t be further from that. So how can a movie like Jesus Revolution be interesting to someone like me? If there’s one thing Erwin and McCorkle get right, it’s the separation of faith and spirituality from religion. Everyone possesses the first two attributes, whereas religion is necessarily linked to some kind of entity or organization – so much so that some are described as cults.

Therefore, as a viewer outside the spectrum for which the film was made, Jesus Revolution is at its best when it focuses on recounting the true events that gave rise to the respective movement, as well as offering a more positive perspective on the hippie community. The mere idea of thousands of young people leaving everything behind to follow Jesus Christ in the incredibly dedicated form of decades ago is impressive in itself. These days, with so much technology in our hands, it’s hard to imagine that such an awakening could happen again in the same manner.

Jesus Revolution takes advantage of the extraordinary performances of the cast – Kelsey Grammer is mesmerizing as Chuck Smith – and one of those ideal scores for relaxation and meditation to elevate a story that, unfortunately, cannot escape a repetitive narrative structure that, on many occasions, sounds too, well, preachy. Deeply inspiring dialogue should happen spontaneously, but the movie relentlessly pursues conversation after conversation with key expressions, popular sayings, and “sweet words” that come off as forced and sanctimonious.

In addition to that, Lonnie Frisbee (Jonathan Roumie) is a character that raises tons of questions. During the first half of Jesus Revolution, Lonnie holds a unique, personal connection with God, demonstrating an unparalleled devotion to the divine and being a tremendously positive influence on everyone around him. However, as the narrative unfolds, Lonnie becomes extremely self-centered and hypocritical, caring more about the attention and fame he receives for performing theatrical miracles than about his initial mission of unity, peace, and love.

The film concludes, and the truth is that I don’t comprehend the character’s genuine intent. Jesus Revolution also diminishes the impact of drug consumption in the community and even tries to have fun with it, which I don’t particularly appreciate. Ultimately, Greg Laurie (Joel Courtney) and Cathe’s (Anna Grace Barlow) self-discovery arcs, as well as their love relationship, turn out to be the most compelling storylines.

I recommend the movie for devout viewers with a strong connection to Christianity, but for those without religious ties, Jesus Revolution won’t convert you.

Grade: C

Director: Peyton Reed

Writers: Jeff Loveness and Jack Kirby

Stars: Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Michael Douglas

Synopsis: Scott Lang and Hope Van Dyne, along with Hank Pym and Janet Van Dyne, explore the Quantum Realm, where they interact with strange creatures and embark on an adventure that goes beyond the limits of what they thought was possible.

It has been a hot minute since the last Marvel Film blew me away. Phase 4 movedright by, and of the 7 films and 8 television shows, only 4 struck a chord with me. Marvel is in a post-Thanos slump, and I personally hoped that Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania would signal the end of its morning period. Ant-Man has typically been the small stakes Avenger, and Marvel could use a return to those smaller stakes and strong emotional core that defined phases 1-3. To that end, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is not just a disappointment. It is a massive misfire from Marvel Studios.  

 Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is an amalgamation of so many disappointing films, and I could point to the various reductive elements within. I fully intend to explore and explain why these elements both seem reductive and feel out of place. But fundamentally, Quantumania suffers from what the rest of phase four has suffered from: writing problems. Apart from Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, every phase four project has been plagued with poor writing. Spider-Man: No Way Home had a plot that felt more like fanfiction than real life, both in its concept (all the Spider-Men teaming up together) and in its explanation for that topic (post-Secondary acceptance is the motivator I expect in a soap opera). Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness changes Wanda’s character completely to what had been seen in every other MCU film prior and ignores the emotional arc Wanda took in WandaVision. WandaVision is not blameless either, with a modern-day plot that takes away from the rest of the series. The quality of writing in phase four has been worse than what preceded it, though the consequence of the writing is specific to each project.  

 The writing failures in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania does not end with unfunny jokes. Below its failures to work as a comedy, Quantumania’s biggest flaw is its lack of character, and character growth. While there are a plethora of new characters introduced, none of them feel truly integral to the story. M.O.D.O.K (Corey Stoll), Jentorra (Katy O’Brian), Quaz (William Jackson Harper), Veb (David Dastmalchian), & Lord Krylar (Bill Murray) are all new additions to the MCU, but they have so little to do with this film that it’s laughable. While each of these characters play a key part in the plot events of Quantumania, outside of Jentorra, they have nothing to do with our core characters’ growth as individuals and heroes. And even then, Jentorra interacts solely with Cassie, who already was a revolutionary. This massive mismanagement of characters and plot lead to the big problem in Ant-Man and the Wasp Quantumania: There are no character arcs or growth for Scott Lang, Cassie, Hope, Hank, or Janet. These events occur, and nothing changes for these characters personally. Sure, Kang (Jonathan Majors) has now been introduced to the MCU as the next Thanos, but this was already established in LOKI which managed to tell a story with character arcs.  

It’s not that these arcs are outside the scope of Quantumania either. There are a lot of promising threads to follow; Scott and Cassie are arguing about the role of using a suit against police officers who tear gassed a crowd of peaceful protestors; Janet is keeping her time in the quantum realm close to her chest, isolating Hank and Hope; and Yellow Jacket (Corey Stoll) has returned as the fearsome M.O.D.O.K. But of these arcs, only two are actively followed throughout the film, and one of these is M.O.D.O.K. trying not to be a dick – treated as a golden gag. The other active arc is with Janet, but so much of the film follows her doing things and relying on others to trust her blindly that the audience has no clue what’s happening. The script sets up a lot of interesting ideas, but never allows the payoff to exist for more than a moment, and it’s not engaging storytelling. And of course, our protagonist, Scott, has an arc that doesn’t feel earned, because it’s undercut by every beat of the story. Jeff Loveness has failed to make a compelling screenplay, and how these major problems didn’t get noticed in a second draft is beyond me.  

Aside from major screenwriting failures, the visuals are the next major letdown of Quantumania. Director of Photography Bill Pope really feels constrained in these full CG environments, and unlike his work on Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, the action sequences in Quantumania are clumsy and lack clarity. A lot of this stems from scenes feeling underlit, with quick editing that does not sell any of the action. Worse yet, there is such a wide array of characters with unique weapons, and yet the action seems completely uninterested in establishing what they can do, unless it works towards a joke. This goes from the smaller roles to Kang and M.O.D.O.K, and it really fails to sell the stakes in the third act. Kang’s move set is a combination of the force, Iron Man’s laser beams, and time manipulation, but none of these are adequately explored or explained enough to allow the audience to understand the danger posed to our heroes in the third act. The disappointing action adds to the major failures of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, because it fails to be engaging as a drama, comedy, and its superhero action is mediocre. This is not to say that Quantumania does not have some stirring visuals; there are some stellar establishing and wide shots that feel made for a windows background. But when most of the film is made up of mid-close ups in CG environments, those few moments of beauty are washed out entirely. 

For all its flaws, Quantumania is not all bad. Firstly, the CG environments are as striking as the Star Wars prequels. The quantum realm truly feels like an alien landscape, and its world design, creature design and production design work perfectly. The miniature cultures and cultural norms sell this new world perfectly and create visual genres for each chapter of the film. This is furthered by the stellar costume design and should not be conflated with suit design. Quantumania’s costumes add layers to this world; at times it’s a space western, at others it’s a post-apocalypse. Kang’s kingdom feels like a kingdom because its costumes denote separate places so well, and it is worthy of applause.

  And speaking of Kang, Jonathon Majors has really stepped into this role perfectly. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is a display of what Majors can do as an actor. He takes a character that has been exiled into the quantum realm by others and turns that emotion into devastating desperation. Every movement and word spoken drips with sorrow and closeted anger. It is captivating, and Majors alone injects life into this dying film. By comparison, the rest of the cast really does not do a whole lot. Paul Rudd is the same loveable Scott Lang we have seen before. Michael Douglas leans into Hank’s curiosity about the quantum realm. These are fine performances, but they are still hemmed in by the clichéd nature of the role. The only performance that left me intrigued in their character was Kathryn Newton, who manages to capture the youthful, unjaded spirit of Cassie well, though she really did not have a lot to do in this film.  

As I alluded to earlier, the suit design of Quantumania is pretty uninspired. Ant-Man, Wasp, and Cassie have fully CG suits, and it is obvious. Nanotech is the Infinity War’s biggest sin, and Quantumania is a notable example of why: The suits do not feel human. There is no fear of shrinking without a helmet because the helmet is always a render away. Characters always have the suit, so you do not fear them being powerless. The suits never break down, so the stakes fall drastically in a third act. And the final major problem is that these all feel the same. Compared to the varying costumes and character design around the quantum realm, the Ant family suits, the M.O.D.O.K., and Kang’s suit all feel the same. There isn’t anything tactile to these suits, they seem more akin to action figures and plastic toys. It is at best cheap, and at worst, confusing.  

 The last flaw of Quantumania is with its premise: the quantum realm is not an interesting place to explore Ant-Man’s core abilities. For all the problems in Ant-Man and The Wasp, the film managed to still use the shrinking/enlarging abilities well. Whether it is to lift a ferry, to skateboard with a truck, or to commit a heist, the core abilities of Ant-Man and Wasp feel fundamental to that story. Now, in Quantumania, the ability to enlarge and shrink feels relegated to the third act, and not natural to this story. The quantum realm may require shrinking to enter, but after that, it could be any superheroes world. And our heroes’ abilities just do not interact with it in interesting ways. No longer is there a toy train that can transform a battle scene, there is only a whole other world that we view solely from the ground. It is a massive, missed opportunity, and it is not aided by the film’s quick, out of left field, resolutions to problems that feel removed from our heroes’ actions. There are two deus ex machina moments in the third act alone, and it really makes the finale feel… empty. 

 Empty may be the best way to describe Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. The elements that break free of its lighting, framing, editing and CG suit problems are taken down by its writing. Personally, I preferred when the quantum realm was a kaleidoscopic empty void outside of time in Ant-Man. Because then, it had stakes and I felt connected to our characters’ fight to see his daughter again. Instead, the quantum realm is a fully realized, gorgeously rendered science fantasy world, but the characters feel empty and void now. 

 Grade: D+