In the wake of Justin Roiland being brought in on felonycharges, and the widespread sharing of some… worrying interactions with underage fans, there have been concerns about what this will mean for the future of Rick & Morty (We’ll ignore the fact that the status of fiction in the wake of potential real-world shittiness shouldn’t be the main concern). After the news that he had been let go from the show where he voices the two main characters, and has had a major role in shaping what the show is and has become, I have seen worry that his booting will end up kneecapping the show. That his brand of thoroughly abrasive meme humour is what makes the show worth watching (I’d argue that it’s the writing that does that, but we’ll get to that), and that without him, the show would be muted and gutless. I have no real stake in this fight, even as someone who is still a fan of Rick & Morty, but judging by how this film turned out, I’m starting to realise that worries of a PG-13 Rick & Morty not working have some validity to them.
So, we have what it is essentially a domestic family dispute being staged within a wacky sci-fi world, full of bizarre alien creatures that look like they were designed with jokes in mind rather than anything resembling coherent evolution, where they are constantly under the thumb of a dimensional traveller who is an exile from a society that is made up of doubles of himself, all framed with musings on the absurdity and meaninglessness of existence and awkward jokes about people’s holes.
I mean, I can’t be the only one who sees the resemblance here, right? Even the character traits this time around are noticeably similar to the Smith clan, just shuffled around a bit: Hank Pym and Janet van Dyne as Jerry and Beth with their relationship squabbles, Cassie Lang as Morty with her being the one wanting the most to actually help the people they run into, Kang The Conquerer as a more outwardly-charismatic Rick, right down to the gathering of his Variants in the mid-credits scene literally being called the Council of Kangs.
There’s also the minor fact that the film’s writer, Jeff Loveness, has done extensive work for the actual Rick & Morty show, and it seems that between him and fellow alumnus Michael Waldron, they are what will carry the MCU through Phases Five and Six right into the next Avengers films. However, where Waldron’s work in the latest Doctor Strange movie left me rather cold, I had much more faith that Loveness could make that transition work. After all, he’s the guy who helped put together The Vat Of Acid Episode, a series highlight and an out-there display of cathartic cruelty even by the show’s usual metric.
What I’m saying is that, even though I recognise way too much of this as repurposed material from something well outside the sphere of Marvel, that on its own isn’t why this doesn’t work. Rather, it’s because nothing is really done with any of it beyond the surface. The backdrop of the Quantum Realm only ever feels like that: A backdrop, not a place with any sense of worldbuilding or structure or just place within the larger MCU. Yes, in spite of the fact that this isn’t even the first time the Realm has been featured in one of these films, it’s still quite flat.
Same goes for the characters. Both Ant-Man and the Wasp (both generations) are rather dull as on-screen presences, with Paul Rudd and Evangeline Lilly in particular suffering the worst from the general lack of focus going on. Putting aside the bizarre character inconsistencies (Scott Lang spends most of the film more focused on getting his family out of the Realm than saving anyone else, but then talks about how he never looks the other way?), they just aren’t that interesting and it feels like any sense of life has been dragged out of them kicking and screaming.
The only real exception (on the good guys’ side, at least) is Cassie Lang… and even that, I have mixed feelings about. On one hand, the recasting of Emma Fuhrmann from Endgame is a bit of a low blow, especially with how much of an upgrade the character has gotten here, and that kind of presence could have given a lesser-known actress a much-needed increase in attention in the industry… but hey, this wouldn’t exactly be the first time anAnt-Man film has involved creatives being shuffled out over concerningcircumstances.
And on the other hand… well, I’ve really come to like Kathryn Newton as an actress thanks to her work in films like Blockers and Freaky, and she does really damn well in the role. Not only is she the real deal as an on-screen superhero, serving as the conscience for the main team throughout in how she immediately wants to help the people under Kang’s rule, she’s been given the film’s ‘big’ moments where she rallies the troops, and even convinces a villain to make good (Regardless of anything else, “It’s never too late to not be a dick” is a quote I’m going to carry with me from this). Even though all of this ends up further exposing just how lacklustre the rest of her family have become, she does well here.
There’s also the specific decision to make an Ant-Man film, which up to this point have mainly been about funny heist capers with a superpowered twist, the big introduction for who will be the next Thanos… but as shown on-screen, it actually makes sense thematically. The film’s strongest moments (which, admittedly, are concentrated at the back-end of the film) are when it contrasts the position of Kang, a multiversal dictator who has laid people, planets, and entire timelines to waste in his neverending war with himself, with the guy who talks to ants. While some of the more revolutionary ideas hit an odd tone (hearing a character in a Disney-made film allude to socialism as a political structure worth learning from is… well, the kind of Emmanuel Goldstein shit that is annoyingly on-brand for them at this point), the visual and thematic notion of a single giant ruler being weaker than a million little guys… have to admit, that hit home for me.
But even with my weakness for superhero sentimentality, I still have to call a spade a spade and declare this as rather disappointing, especially as the beginning of the next Phase of the MCU. It borrows plentifully from Rick & Morty in its characterisation and approach to multiversal sci-fi, but without the compressed storytelling where a dozen different ideas are knocking around at once and all making some kind of impact, it feels like a pale imitation and not much more. It doesn’t help that it has enough of a foundation to work as a different direction for the Ant-Man films up to this point, and yet the real connections end up staying in the background, while the foreground sticks with incredibly bland jokes (it has been quite a while since I’ve seen the MCU whiff this badly with a decent-sized crowd at the cinema) and a lot of narrative movement without much actually happening. If they made Cassie Lang the main character, kept Scott Lang and the van Dynes at home, and had MODOK be the main villain while Kang pulled his strings from behind the curtain a la Thanos in Guardians Of The Galaxy, this could’ve worked much better. But as it is… eh.
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