a great experience

Marvel has done it again with “Ant Man: Quantumania.” The newest installation in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is a fun and entertaining movie that fans are sure to love. With funny characters, fast paced action and beautiful work done by the CGI team, “Quantumania” is in the running for one of the best movies of the year.

While critics claim that the movie was mediocre at best, “Quantumania” has all of the stepping stones for a great movie. The characters all have amazing chemistry, playing off of each other very well and creating scenes that are both hilarious and heartwarming. The acting makes the emotional scenes hit hard with the cinematography and music score makes the audience sympathize with the characters.

Even though there were some plot points that could have been fleshed out more, like Scott and Cassie’s conflict on her going out and being an activist, “Quantumania” perfectly sets up the next movies in the MCU with the reintroduction to Kang the Conqueror and the multiverse along with the buildup for Loki season two.

While at this point it is all too common in the MCU, the usage of CGI is to be expected. However, the CGI and special effects in “Quantumania” were fantastic, creating an alien world that is both fantastical and mysterious. When applied with the cinematography, each shot in the movie is breathtaking to look at. While some movies in the MCU could do without, “Quantumania” does a good job with using the special effects.

Overall, while the movie isn’t perfect, it is still an entertaining watch for Marvel fans, or even those not familiar with the MCU. Great characters, story and fight choreography create an experience that should leave the audience satisfied.

CRAIG MCKINLEY Staff Writer

Mental health is an important topic that often lacks the discussion it warrants. It’s sometimes covered in different types of media, and mediums such as games do this even less often. With all that said, I’m delighted to share a game that considers the topic effectively. “Celeste” describes anxiety with realistic responses to experiences, fiction-based analogies and cues from the music and the screen. Not only did Maddy Makes Games and Extremely OK Games manage to express this in their story, but they did so without significant sacrifice in the rest of the game. While this type of experience isn’t entirely expected from a two-dimensional game with jumping and climbing, this surprise is well worth playing through.

The player experiences “Celeste” from the perspective of Madeline, a woman trying to reach the summit of Celeste Mountain in spite of her anxiety. While many video game stories focus on doing something grand such as saving the world, this one is more personal and smaller scale. She’s not climbing the mountain for anyone else. She’s only trying to prove to herself that she can make it to the top.

During the story, she meets multiple characters that she can’t always discern as being for or against her. These personalities often appear to be more for or more against, and Madeline second-guessing herself makes understanding these characters more difficult. But often when Madeline is offered help, it creates a personal scene and sometimes even offers the player advice that has real world applications.

“Celeste” isn’t just narrated through words though. It also makes effective use of environmental cues. The graphics use light, darkness and complimenting and contrasting colors to draw the eyes to emotional scenes or important game elements. This is helpful in a game such as “Celeste” where the pixel resolution isn’t a priority. The music also carries weight when necessary, and at more positively significant times can fire the player up. Players of “Minecraft” may be excited to hear that Lena Raine, who worked on some newer music tracks of “Minecraft” was also behind the soundtrack of “Celeste.”

As well told as the narrative of “Celeste” is, it’s not experienced passively. Whether it’s better or worse for the player, they will need to take an active role in progressing the story. Playing through each level, while demanding at points, can feel rewarding and be very forgiving. Thanks to precise movement and challenges to overcome and feel good about, victories often feel earned. What’s even better is that upon failing a challenge, the player continues from the last checkpoint they passed. This is the start of every room, and sometimes more often, in “Celeste.”

Still, the default experience can still be difficult, as it requires quick reaction, solving of movement-based puzzles and observation of moving elements. Thankfully, there is an option to make the game more approachable. Assist Mode is available as an option to help