Visuals 5/7: Most of the time this movie was beautiful the design of the creatures and environments were outstandingly realized. I will say there are points in time where it’s awkward to see human beings interact with strange creatures. Yet, realistically the creature design takes half steps rather than full leaps and I find that disappointing, ultimately every non animal sentient being they meet is just built like a human with some type of flair. At the beginning of the movie the Rotoscoping looks really bad but it drastically improves after a certain scene about 20 ish minutes in. You’ll know when you see it. Trust me you’ll see it.
Soundwise 3/7: this movie is extremely inoffensive. To the point that it’s disappointing they aren’t trying harder to push for a unique sonic experience. Honestly if it weren’t for Ant-Mans theme being very good I’d probably go 2/7 that song is honestly almost overused in this movie.
Acting 3/7: this was at best a 2/7 without Johnathan Majors. He kills this performance. Honestly I’m very surprised to say this but Bill Murrey probably has the 2nd best acting performance in this movie. Other than that it really feels like everyone else was just having another walk to the water cooler. I wish I could say I enjoyed the debut of Kathryn Newton into the MCU but honestly I’m not seeing any thing of note to point out. I hope to see more out of William Jackson Harper it felt like he could have excelled with more screen time, but I honestly don’t think I can include him within the umbrella of straight up mediocrity that I’m putting the rest of the cast in.
Cinematography 4/7: I don’t really have too much to say here, like all of the other MCU movies I don’t think Marvel fumbles this category. In fact I think it’s the only one the modern movies always beat the older ones. Maybe that’s just because they were more experimental at the beginning? I don’t know but I think even Love and Thunder (I don’t want to talk about it) is shot and presented better than all of Phase 1. It’s good it’s what they do well at this point but it’s not blowing me away either.
X-Factor (Connectedness) 3/7: I can’t talk about this too much without spoiling the whole thing but ultimately the stakes and the value of the decision’s characters make in this movie is depressingly inconsequential. That’s all I have to say.
Fight Choreography 4/7: like sound it’s inoffensive. Ultimately I should probably change this category out for another at some point. Hey idk I guess we’ll see. A lot of big spectacles the end is the only thing that makes this a 4 and not a 3.
Plot 2/7: wow this plot is surprisingly lack luster for the introduction of a major villain, but that’s exactly what it is. Let me amend or explain by saying that there is no challenge of threat in this movie that the characters don’t instantly overcome. I mean honestly it’s shocking the maguffins they introduce just to move the plot forward. It really felt like the story was being railroaded in D&D by a shitty DM. I’m not going to go into detail about the plot but it’s probably the worst part of this movie bar-none. It sucks because at points in time it feels like they’re gonna unwrap a new layer to the plot and invigorate the story but they never do and it sucks. There’s things I like about this story but there’s so many more things that I don’t even hate I just don’t really care about and I think that’s the thing I find the most disappointing. I can’t make myself care about this plot. These stakes a supposed to be massive but they never are because there’s always a simple solution right around the corner.
I need to vent something else about the plot. Can we stop treating the characters like comedic punching bags? The whole opening of the movie every character acts like Scott Lang is some dumbfuck idiot and treats him like shit, I understand that’s the joke but honestly it makes me feel like his relationships to the others is really dysfunctional and sours the emotional scenes throughout the movie.
Lastly I gotta say I wish we were introduced to Cassie in something else. The whole theme of her character is that she fights for those who can’t fight for themselves and that’s fine but we’ve never seen her show that she has the conviction to do so. It makes her seem like more of a virtue signaler than a character that actually gives a shit and that’s too bad because ultimately that flaw just makes the stakes feel even less valuable. Idk I probably would have preferred to have seen or have heard of her in Falcon and Winter Soldier given how she’s introduced in this movie as someone who’s fighting for people who were displaced in the Blip (what a stupid name, I mean it literally makes a joke out of a mass genocide. The characters of this world should care about this)
Total Score 3/7 : this movie is like a patch of grapes. The grapes that are good are amazing. The ones that are sour are terrible but he ones you’re eating most often are just grapes. They don’t blow you away or particularly matter all that much. Then at the end of the day when you’re brushing your teeth you’ll remember the taste of the sour ones and feel some of the acid still left in your cheeks and it’ll make eating the grapes at all feel like a mistake.
A more in depth and spoiler ridden review of the plot will be live on the 23rd on the next page. Thanks for reading -Reed F Wilson.