Film Review - Antman and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023)

 Antman and the Wasp: Quantumania is the 31^st Marvel Studios film and the first to kick off Phase 5 of the MCU and this time Scott Lang (Paul Rudd), his daughter Cassie (Kathryn Newton) and the Van Dyne’s Hope (Evangeline Lilley), Janet (Michelle Pfeiffer) and Dr Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) find themselves trapped in the Quantum Realm after an experiment goes wrong but while there they meet the Conqueror known as Kang (Jonathan Majors) who rules this Realm and is keen to get out and conquer the multiverse.

 

Quantumania is an interesting film in that when I saw it and came right out of it I enjoyed it enough but the more it has sat with me I have just wanted to forget all about it and I don’t think it is even that bad of a film.

 

But why is that well I will go into that but I want to talk about the positives first:

 

- The first of those is Jonathan Majors as Kang, he was sort of introduced in the end of the Loki series on Disney Plus but here he gets his proper introduction as the new big bad going forward and he makes a very memorable impression here, he’s soft when he needs to be and he shows off how powerful he can be when he gets to and those fight scenes are particularly good and the hints at him fighting the other Avengers across time had me very intrigued about those battles.

 

- And secondly the other cast are good as well, Paul Rudd is as charming and likeable as ever as Antman/Scott Lang and his bond with the now grown up Cassie still remains the heart of the film and this specific sub series of films in the MCU and its good to see, Lilley and Douglas are good but they don’t get as much to do while Pfeiffer gets a lot more to do here and it shows because she has some great moments here.

 

And yet this movie as a whole is forgettable and that comes down to firstly the visual look of this film, so much of it is spent in the Quantum Realm and it hurt my eyes to look at it after a while as it all kinda looked a bit fake and artificial as if it was all shot in the Volume like a lot of other Disney films and shows are nowadays and I’m getting really sick of it especially after how good Avatar: The Way of Water looked back in December.

 

And lastly the storytelling here is not great, its not horrible but so much of it feels very weird and not in a good way, at times your watching this almost knock off of Strange World other times it feels like Dune and other times it feels like its trying to shoe horn in the traditional Marvel comedy and it is now bad comedy because it just undercuts the scenes way too much now and again after the Way of Water played everything pretty much straight I’m really fed up with the constant quips and comedy in so many of these big films.

 

And so that was Antman and the Wasp: Quantumania and its fine but you won’t have much desire to watch it again after seeing it and it only confirms evermore that the MCU really should have ended with Avengers: Endgame because everything since just hasn’t been any good but when your holding up your home studio endings are to be ignored, 2 out of 5.

Film Review - Babylon (2023)

 Babylon is the new film by Damien Chazelle and takes place in late 1920s and early 1930s Hollywood which underwent a big transition from the silent film era to the sound or “talkie” era as they called it then, caught up in these changes are Manny Torres (Diego Calva) who is keen to get work in the movies, Jack Crawford (Brad Pitt) a silent movie star who wants to transition to sound and Nelly LaRoy (Margot Robbie) a young girl who dreams of stardom.

 

Babylon is sadly a mixed bag for me and it’s a bit of a bummer to say given that I’ve been a bit of a fan of Damien Chazelle’s work as I admired his direction on La La Land in 2016 and I really enjoyed his previous film First Man in 2018 even if Universal mishandled its release back then but before I delve into why I feel mixed I want to mention its big positives:

 

- Firstly the film is very nicely photographed by Linus Sandgren who also photographed First Man and the James Bond film No Time to Die and this movie looks great, the big crowd recreation scenes look fantastic especially on a big cinema screen, the party scenes feel lavish and theatrical, the sound stage scenes look good and the Los Angeles desert looks hot and dusty.

 

- Secondly there is a great score here by Justin Hurwitz with its many party scenes having this jazzy bombastic soundtrack that I was tapping my toes too, there’s a nice slower theme for Manny and Nelly and there are some other big brassy tunes like Voodoo Mama and Coke Room and the Finale, this is one musical score you are going to want to listen to when the film is over.

 

But alas despite those strong technical qualities this film did indeed leave me mixed and its for one big reason:

 

- The films storytelling on the whole and there is a lot of it in its 189 minute running time just left me cold and I feel this way because while watching this movie I kept saying to myself “Here’s to the Fools who Dream” which was the logline for La La Land and Chazelle I feel touched on very similar ideas in this movie in that movie in terms of wanting to make it big, having a dream and the demands and sacrifices that have to be made to achieve that goal.

 

But that film handles those a lot better because it never loses sight of who its core focus is, its Mia and Sebastian and their connection together whereas here the focus is split between Jack’s story and Manny’s story and Nelly’s story and because of it it felt like a whirlwind mess without any core story focus or any emotional core to hook this towards and after a while I felt nothing and just wanted it to end.

 

And so that was Babylon and it was a movie I was keen to see but after a while left me cold and feeling nothing despite its great technical achievements, the best movie about movie making for me still remains Robert Altman’s The Player and I don’t think anything’s going to top it for me, 2 and a half out of 5.

Film Review - Knock at the Cabin (2023)

 Knock at the Cabin is the new film by M. Night Shyamalan and is based off of the 2018 novel The Cabin at the End of the World and stars Jonathan Groff and Ben Aldridge as Eric and Andrew a couple who take their young daughter Wen (Kristen Cui) to a cabin in the woods which is later invaded by 4 strangers (Dave Bautista, Rupert Grint, Abby Quinn and Nikki Amuka-Bird) who want to them to choose which one will die in order to prevent a global apocalypse.

 

Knock at the Cabin is a solid effort from M. Night Shyamalan who with the exception of Glass from 2019 has had a pretty good run of films in the last few years with Split, Old and now this movie and I found myself invested in this film and the choices the family has to make lest those who came to their cabin have to judge themselves on behalf of parts of humanity and the film does very well telling this premise and bringing out the tension.

 

What also helps is the solid performances from the actors, Bautista has been keen to push himself since starting in movies and that is paying off here as he is calm, collected and totally convinced of what he has to ask this family to do, Grint at times overdoes the anger but he is good as well as are Quinn, Amuka-Bird, Cui and Aldridge.

 

But my favourite performance is by Jonathan Groff who at times doesn’t believe what he is being told but he undergoes a good character arc and it was for me the main performance that helped this movie and there are some big changes from the ending in the book but I think they are changes that worked out in the long run.

 

And so that was Knock at the Cabin and it’s a solid thriller by M. Night Shyamalan that is worth a watch, 3 out of 5.

Film Review - Devotion (2023)

 Devotion is a new Netflix film and takes place in 1950 just as the Korean War is starting and concerns 2 naval pilots, Tom Hudner (Glen Powell) and Jesse Brown (Jonathan Majors) the first African American to serve as a Naval Aviator but with the War heating up these 2 and their naval pilots will have to work hard to help the effort and come back home alive.

 

Devotion is quite good and when I was watching it I was reminded a lot of the 1990 film Memphis Belle which starred Harry Connick Jr, Sean Astin, Matthew Modine and Billy Zane among others and like that film this was very much a drama film first and a war film second but both films balance both of those elements very well and this one though it is 140 minutes long never dragged or lost its pace for me.

 

The first reason for this is the cast, Powell is good here even if at times it feels like he’s doing a different version of his Hangman character from Top Gun Maverick but Jonathan Majors is excellent here and though at times he does his soft talking he really delivers a great performance here and it is easy to see why he is headed for great things in the years ahead.

 

The second reason is also the use of the early 50’s history, this is long before the Civil Rights movement of the 60s and only 5 years after the end of the Second World War but you find yourself getting really interested in the time period and what’s going on, the fears of a third world war loom over some of the films events and the sight for some of a man of colour as a Naval Aviator is both one that some don’t like while others see as inspiring even though Jesse himself in one scene of the film just sees himself as another Aviator regardless of his skin colour.

 

Also there is some war action here but not an awful lot but when it is there it is good to watch and blends in well with the drama elements of the film.

 

And so that was Devotion and not an awful lot to say about this one, I liked the history, the story and the actors even though it doesn’t quite hit the heights of Dunkirk or 1917, 3 out of 5.