Jonathan Majors as a terrifyingly complex villain and Paul Rudd as the reliably funny, wise-cracking, unexpected hero could not save this mid-tier MCU entry. Phase 5 has sadly officially started not with a bang but with a soft yelp. In today’s parlance, this was more a soft launch than a grand entry. In totality, this was a “Star Wars”meet “Honey I Shrank the Kids” that lacked both the former’s drama, intrigue and pathos, and the latter’s humour and tenderness. It was a fun, entertaining 2 hours with some chuckles and scattered laughs, but at the end, it was hollow and did not really made me excited for the next instalment. That said, after “Loki” and this, I do want more Kang.
The biggest problems that contributed to the emotional vacancy were the supporting characters and the overwhelming use (and reliance) on CGI.
Without a good supporting cast to prop up and support our hero and villain, the story simply lacked an emotional core no matter how hard Rudd and Majors tried to make us care. And boy, Majors really chewed his scenes and exuded an enigmatic malevolence, and Rudd was a constant comedic presence as a almost-reluctant hero.
On our hero side, Kathryn Newton as Rudd’s on screen daughter simply has no comedic chemistry with Rudd. She is a good actress but her comedy chops needs work, and with her having the most screen time with Rudd, their banter did not work which made their scenes rather trying to watch and the second act less urgent and weighted than it should be.
Evangeline Lily, whether it was due to her personal views and opinions or not, was majorly sidelined considering The lWasp is in the title itself. As a result, their emotional payoff was vacant.
But at least we had Michael Douglas - who stole the show - and Michelle Pfeiffer - acting her heart out - to provide the levity, wit, quips and love.
Pfeiffer also had the best scenes with Majors. Though they may have been exposition heavy but, by golly, these two acted against each other so well.
On our villain side, M.O.D.O.K was a hoot!! Deadpanned, absurdist humour that got the best laughs. However, at times it did seem out of sync with the rest of the film. Director Peyton Reed should either have leaned into that aspect for the whole film or used
MODOK a little more sparingly.
The whole movie was also practically one big CGI extravaganza with at least 90% filmed on a green screen (other than the cold open and epilogue). This distinct lack of real sets (yes, I know we are in the Quantum Realm) lent a sense of detachment, both emotional and realistically. It did not help that
Marvel’s CGI quality seemed to be getting worse. This was definitely no “Avatar 2”.
Nonetheless, kudos to the actors for acting in such conditions but director Peyton Reed, writer Jeff Loveness, and MCU head honcho Kevin Feige could have done better. A smaller story with more intimate story telling, without losing the grandeur and immensity of Kang’s plans, could have been done.
Stay to the very end for both a Kang Dynasty (mid-credits) and a Disney+ series (post-credits) scene setters.
No comments:
Post a Comment