Review: Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania

The first Marvel film of the year is always as exciting moment for me as I feel it sets the tone for the blockbusters for the rest of the calendar.

It's usually the first big box office taker and with this franchise so deep into its timeline, the stories are just going to be stranger and hopefully more daring.

Especially with this current phase and saga is all about universes crossing over and timelines being disrupted and altered as well as our beloved characters encountering cosmic civilisations.

This latest release involves an Avenger that I think many of us never thought would get a third film as the titular character. But with Ant-Man, we somehow did. I was always sceptical about Ant-Man having his own films. I wasn't sure how you could make this character entertaining and being able to carry its own sub-franchise. But the first two Ant-Man films were surprisingly decent. I liked the backstory, how much they play with the technology used and that the tone is largely comedic.

Another thing that I've liked about the Ant-Man films, is the strong family connection. That aspect does get well utilised in this latest adventure. But the amount of world expansion and visual effects in this almost completely overshadows the family side of the story.

Paul Rudd continues to have that natural charisma and everyday man persona that works well once again.

I was disappointed to see Evangeline Lilly not be given that much to do. While she still looks great in the role. There is not so much to talk about apart from just be support.

Jonathan Majors was given a good introduction into the film franchise. That calm presence with sinister undertones has given a villain that has a lot of potential for this franchise to continue to be successful. But maybe not in the same way as it was by the end of the Infinity Saga.

Kathryn Newton was solid and believable in her role, Michael Douglas was perfectly functional window-dressing as you would expect and it was nice seeing Michelle Pfeiffer be a lot more pivotal character than originally expected.

There are a couple of surprises that I will leave for you to discover. One was unexpected but surprisingly fine in its execution. The other was odd and unintentionally funny, which was a real shame.

The production design is dazzling and highly imaginative. It continues to show how more cosmic the MCU has become. It's got flashes of Star Wars, Flash Gordon, Guardians Of The Galaxy and Valerian.

While the visual effects are spectacular in their creation, there were some jerky moments that made it too obvious that we were on a big green screen as the practical characters didn't seem to blend well with the digital.

I'm going to have to be harsh with the script as it wasn't that great. Apart from maybe some of the stuff Majors was given to say, the rest just felt like weak exposition and a lot of the vintage Marvel gags felt out of place or just not that funny.

So while the previous two Ant-Man films have had situations where the stakes have been a lot smaller and grounded. This one while small in scale from a literal sense has high stakes from a universe and timeline one. Sadly, I don't think the amount of content and cogs it had to make this story function matched for its quality of story-telling and pacing.

There is a lot that they are trying to develop here and as a piece of film it didn't feel completely engaging for me. It's most certainly not a bad film. There is enough to enjoy to a satisfactory level. But it is most definitely in the lower section when ranked against the other MCU installments.

It's clear that less is more with the Ant-Man character and his support, and it might be what this entire film series needs to be at the moment. I know that historically the source material does get sillier, which is why I have been accepting a lot of the more outlandish moments. But it still doesn't excuse the writing not taking bigger swings and the pacing not flowing as seamlessly as it could.

It's understandable why some audiences are losing interest in this current phase as it will be hard to match the satisfaction of Avengers: Endgame. But I will forever stick with it as I remain curious and I know that everything this franchise does has a purpose as the Marvel team themselves know where this is going and how it will conclude. So unlike certain other major franchises, they have a clear end goal.

In my view, the multiverse saga has been a mixed bag with its films but largely positive with its TV shows. We now move into phase 5 and I hope this concept can give us an adventurous vibe and a sense of fun as it's all been a bit too serious for its own good so far. Spider-Man: No Way Home and Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness have been the exceptions and I still have a soft spot for Eternals. But with the best multiverse film to not be one made by Marvel shows that this concept is still yet to be mastered by this major studio.

As usual, there is a mid and post credits scene. Both are important as this could give us an indicator about what is in store for Marvel's next big blockbuster.

Rating: 7/10

Review: Knock At The Cabin

It's nice that we're long past the wilderness phase of director M. Night Shyamalan's career.

Since releasing 'The Visit' in 2015, Shyamalan has been on a pretty solid run of releases and it's great to see that the anticipation for his new releases is consistently pretty healthy.

The concept for this latest instalment has another peculiar concept that belongs in something like The Twilight Zone. Like with a lot Shyamalan's previous work, the way it is introduced is nice and simple to follow and is played around well enough to make it a tense experience.

However, I was honestly disappointed that it wasn't the complete Shyamalan experience that we're used to having. But there was still plenty of aspects to know that you were watching one of his films and it gave us some solidly executed sequences as well as a number of strong performances.

Dave Bautista was a surprising highlight. While it has been clear for the last few years that he is improving as an actor. This latest performance shows that becoming more than just good. The choices of projects that he is choosing are very wise and well utilised. With Bautista having the majority of the screen-time and dialogue, his presence and performance showed me that we are witnessing an accomplished actor that is truly challenging themselves.

Ben Aldridge and Jonathan Groff were good together and bounced off Bautista and his characters crew well to heighten the situation and tension. Youngster Kristen Cui was great in it. This young talent showed great presence and maturity and could easily cope with the adult actors around. I hope this is the first many of projects.

Rupert Grint was a nice surprise to see in another big screen project and his performance gave us a great reminder how good of an actor he still is. The same goes for Nikki Amuka-Bird who I know more for her TV work.

I liked how they made the most of the small cast and locations. That's especially thanks to the camerawork which was very effective and nicely varied. Even from the opening scene, you get some striking choices in the angles that already give the viewer an unsettling vibe.

It covers topics such as the influence of the media and religion and identity. However the ending did feel like those ideas were never fully fledged and only touched upon. 

It did leave me expecting more given it was Shyamalan at the helm. It concluded in a pretty conventional way. Thankfully, it didn't downgrade my overall view of the film. But you just always have that natural expectation of an abrupt or cleverly constructed twist. It just ended up being very literal by concluding with one of the two ways we were set-up with at the beginning.

I think it may have been more effective if it didn't show as much as it did outside of the characters location. I think bringing that fear of not knowing what is happening around them could have made what we saw in the end more effective.

While I did enjoy it on the whole, there were clearly parts that could have easily been better developed or executed.

But I would still recommend this. The concept works well enough, there are a number of good performances, it's shot really well and the tension mounts up nicely.

This is another solid entry by Shyamalan. He may be lacking that initial impact he had on the industry with The Sixth Sense and Signs. But he's still on the right track for potentially giving us another instant classic.

Rating: 7/10

Review: The Fabelmans

While director Steven Spielberg may be in his late 70's, he continues to produce incredibly crafted features that regularly get recognised in the major awards.

For me personally, I don't think he has made an all-time masterpiece for about 20 years. But as his back catalogue is unmatched for extremely high quality, it is easy to let that go and we can still appreciate what Spielberg continues to make.

For many including myself, he will forever be considered as the greatest film director of all-time as well as regularly collaborating with the greatest film composer in the form of John Williams.

They both return for what is simply Spielberg giving us his childhood and early life as an aspiring film-maker in the film medium.

For many that know his story of how it all began, the opening will have you giddy with excitement. It certainly had me with a big smile on my face.

Then once I got what was being told, I was then getting invested in what was a moving drama that shows the conflict between career ambitions and family life, coming of age and the love between a mother and her son. It is also Spielberg showing us how magical cinema was and still is to him and the translation onto screen was well executed and very relatable.

It moves at a really pleasant pace and gives several memorable sequences. The ending almost comes out of nowhere, knocks us back in amazement and gives us a wonderful moment that sees the beginning of an icon.

The cast do a terrific job right across the board. Michelle Williams gives quite possibly a career best performance. Granted it is a very showy role. But Williams makes the most of it and gives us a full range of the characters emotions. It certainly made for captivating viewing.

Gabriel LaBelle was a very capable lead and while he had help by the rest of the casts star power, there was plenty that solely required LaBelle and this was a breakthrough performance.

There were some nice standouts by Judd Hirsch and Seth Rogen. Hirsch may not have had much screen-time. But he absolutely steals every scene he is in. As for Rogen, he continues the trend of comedic actors being surprisingly comfortable with a more serious role. I completely forgot I was actually watching Rogen.

Paul Dano is as good as ever and gives great support to LaBelle and Williams in particular. There is one special performance at the very end that deserves props. But as it will spoil the ending, I'll just leave it there. With that mind, the final mention has to go to Julia Butters who continues to showcase her amazing talent at such a young age. Her breakthrough in 'Once Upon A Time... In Hollywood' now carries with her contribution in this. Be sure to keep an eye on Butters' future projects.

As with any Spielberg film, it's shot beautifully by Janusz Kaminski, the production design by Rick Carter is polished and the score by regular collaborator John Williams perfectly enhances every scene to the equivalent of sifted icing sugar on top of a cake.

I can confidently say that I enjoyed this. It might not quite be up there with some of Spielberg's mainstream popcorn flicks as it lacks those iconic moments and appeal for a mainstream audience. But the personal touch and heartfelt emotion this has makes it very rewatchable and another welcomed addition to Spielberg's already impressive back catalogue.

For followers of Spielberg's career, they will see a lot of what they already know. But seeing them manifest onto a big screen feature is an absolutely delight to watch and still feels refreshing.

But general fans who may not realise how to close this is to Spielberg's life, they will see a moving drama that can be as a story about the love between a mother and her son.

While I think a lot of us would prefer Spielberg to give us more summer blockbusters, these personal and more serious projects that he's been part of for the majority of the last decade still give us that magic that reminds that Spielberg for many is still the best.

Rating: 8/10