Antman and The Wasp: Quantamania is a week away, and it just hit me; we are yet to discuss the film. It keeps slipping my mind, because the trailers are bland.
The Marvel marketing machine throws new TV spots at us every day. And usually, those 30-second bits of footage would set the internet ablaze with speculation about the events of a movie.
My YouTube feed should be saturated with videos from diehard comic book readers who can’t help but compare vital clues in the trailers and TV spots to moments in the comic books, in an effort to predict the twists and turns.
But the internet has been largely quiet where Antman3 is concerned, which is odd because it is the most important Marvel movie to date.
People continue to grumble about this latest phase in the MCU because the movies and shows are strangely disconnected. Remember that massive celestial in the ocean that no one ever mentions? How about that giant face that appeared in the sky at the end of Eternals?
And then there is Steven Strange with his third eye and that Charlize Theron cameo. The world just discovered the Talocans, a race of fish people inhabiting the ocean floor. Thor is galavanting across the cosmos with a godlike child in tow.
Wanda is supposedly dead (but obviously not). White Vision is…somewhere doing…something. Peter Parker warped reality, and now, no one remembers him. Loki killed He Who Remains, unleashing a brand-new multiversal war. I could keep going, but my point is: none of those plot threads are connected.
The MCU is the biggest TV show in history. Each installment is just a new episode in a never-ending tale. But that concept only works if the individual installments have some sort of connected tissue; a thread running through them all, allowing these seemingly disparate projects to tell a cohesive story.
This is where phase four fails. While I have enjoyed most of what I have seen, this so-called Multiverse Saga feels less like a saga and more like a random collection of adventures.
But Kevin Feige gave us hope last year. He said all these projects are smaller pieces in a larger puzzle. His team of writers has littered these movies and shows with clues, but it will take an upcoming film to make sense of them.
All signs point to Antman3 being that movie. It is expected to confirm the theory that every phase five movie and TV show takes place in a parallel universe. Antman3 could also debunk this theory. Either way, Quantamania will finally kick the Multiverse Saga into gear.
Payton Reed, the director, suggested as much in previous interviews. The Antman movies have always been smaller, simpler palette cleansers positioned between heavier MCU films. But this time, Reed has described Quantamania as an Avengers-level film, which lends credibility to the idea that it will explain everything. And yet, no one seems to care.
I blame the second Antman, which was a severe disappointment, especially when you compare it to the brilliance of the first Antman. Some people think the trailers are misleading, and we don’t actually know the plot of this movie.
But if that is true, Disney has done the film a disservice. I want all the theories about the Fantastic Four and Immortus to come to fruition. I want this film to sow the seeds for the next Avengers film.
I won’t complain if Quantamania becomes my favourite film of 2023. But I’m skeptical. I’ll try to remain optimistic.
katmic200@gmail.com
Source: The Observer
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