‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’ is the MCU at its worst

By Spencer Ball STAFF WRITER

There’s a scene in “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” where our hero Scott Lang is caught in a “probability storm.” Thousands to millions of Ant-Man clones pop into existence around him, representing every possible choice he could make at each moment. Despite being the manifest of infinite possibilities, the clones invariably have one thing to say upon appearing: “What the hell?”

If the creative team was trying to make a fourth-wall-breaking joke in this scene about the film’s probable critical reaction, then they succeeded spectacularly. Because no matter how much I think about this movie, “What the hell?” is my response every time.

Much of the “Quantumania” plot can be gleaned from the title. Lang is going about his daily postuniverse-saving life when his daughter Cassie’s science experiment goes awry. The malfunction sends the two, along with Hope van Dyne (the Wasp), and her parents Hank and Janet, to the Quantum Realm, a hidden universe that can be accessed by shrinking down below the size of atoms. There, the family encounters all flavors of subatomic oddities including an ooze-imbibing alien race, living gelatinous buildings and creatures that look like humanoid broccoli.

But the Langs and van Dynes are far from alone. Much of the Quantum Realm is now under the merciless rule of Kang the Conqueror, one of many multiversal Kang variants who was exiled there by other Kangs. It turns out that this Kang has a history with Janet from her 30 years in the Quantum Realm, and our heroes are Kang’s best chance to escape his otherworldly prison and resume terrorizing other timelines.

I can encapsulate many of the film’s flaws by saying it feels like a Saturday morning cartoon — and not a particularly good one. In one sense, this is literal, as the film’s visuals are such an explosion of CGI that the movie may as well have been animated. In another, the film appears so concerned with making sure every single moment is entertaining on paper that it fails to approach anything worthwhile.

The weakest link of “Quantumania” is the writing. The film never provides viewers with a solid grasp of what is at stake if this Kang escapes, nor does it ground the movie in character-based emotional stakes beyond shallow cliché. It even fails to capitalize on stakes suggested in the trailer.

While it is revealed that Kang attempted to bribe Janet with the chance to go back in time to when her daughter was young, he only ever o ers to send Scott back to the present despite the time he missed with Cassie due to a prison stint and the Blip. What’s more, the beats of the third act are painfully predictable and the ending trivializes the entire movie that came before it.

Given that this is the final product, it’s getting harder to see Marvel as anything but a soulless corporate machine which knows that even if it makes a bad movie, it’ll make hundreds of millions of dollars anyway. And this isn’t coming from a nose-curling, Scorsese-praising cynic who hates superheroes and fun. I hold the dubious achievement of having watched everything in the Marvel Cinematic Universe — even the DVD one-shots, Ed Norton as the Hulk and the eight-episode a ront that is “Inhumans.” There are very few Marvel products I wouldn’t say I liked.

Even the worst movies in the early phases functioned as passable standalone entertainment. The default formula — a paintby-numbers hero’s journey, one or more of a CGI army, a same-vssame fight, and a big beam in the sky for the climax and a teaser of the next movie at the end to keep you hooked — produced movies that were enjoyable, if sometimes uninspired. Phases 1-3 cared about telling discrete stories, and the interconnected cinematic universe of it all was just a way to make the stories bigger and bigger.

When I saw Marvel start to take more creative risks in Phase 4 and stray from the sacred formula, I was hoping these movies would actually be better than the formulaic films that came before. Instead, the quality of the MCU is all over the place, and the defense of weaker fare is that it sets up unseen future projects. It pains me to see the argument that “Quantumania” never needed to be that good, since the real point was introducing Kang.

To make matters worse, the film fails there too. “Quantumania” has the rare honor of su ering from too little exposition, alienating casual and die-hard audiences alike. For viewers who never saw Kang introduced in the final episode of “Loki,” the significance of Kang and his variants is near-totally lost. Meanwhile, if you’ve met He Who Remains, then “Quantumania” o ers nothing new. We already know an inexorable wave of evil Kang variants is on the way and a war between multiverses is com- ing, and the main takeaway of this film is exactly that.

Perhaps the best thing I can say about “Quantumania” is that it’s ino ensive. The performances by the core cast are perfectly solid given the material — I disagree with some viewers’ maligning of Kathryn Newton — and Jonathan Majors steals the show as a villain I’m sure I’ll love in the future.

The film wasn’t a painful watch, and my criticism lies in it being consistently not good rather than actively bad. But when the most enjoyable part of my theater experience was involuntarily laughing out loud whenever M.O.D.O.K. came on-screen with Corey Stoll’s stretched-out CGI face, it’s hard not to lose some optimism about the MCU and its future.

And it didn’t even have Luis.

Grade: D

Pop singer Ella Jane charms High Noon Saloon

By Lillian Mihelich STAFF WRITER

A charismatic artist who lives in Brooklyn, New York, Ella Jane graced her fans at the High Noon Saloon last Thursday night. Her powerful vocals and intimate disposition towards the crowd were telling of her character and performance mastery.

Ash Tuesday, Jane’s fourth-time opener from Macon, Georgia, set the night’s tone with angsty pop songs executed with impressive voice control. Alongside immensely talented drummer Isabella — known as Splendi on Spotify — and guitarist Sophie Price, the three covered Demi Lovato’s “La La Land,” a nostalgic hit that warmed up the crowd for Jane’s setlist.

It was “detrimental weather for me but a Thursday for y’all,” said Tuesday. Her dry humor was playful, and she made it a point to thank the resilient Wisconsin crowd for their attendance on the snowy evening.

Jane entered the stage wearing a black blazer embellished with white embroidery that read “EJ” and “Marginalia,” the title of her nine-track album released in 2022. Her platinum blonde cut reflected the pink and red lights trickling into her loving crowd. Jane has an infectious smile and between water sips she would speak to the audience as if she’d known them her whole life.

It’s no surprise that Jane has a loyal fanbase. From the first song she performed, “7,” she interacted directly with her audience, made herself available to photographers and smiled for fans’ videos. She related to attendees by detailing her experience growing up in a small town, touching on the familiarity of sitting in empty parking lots and going to drive-throughs when opportunities were sparse. This translated into her song “AUGUST IS A FEVER” that fans eagerly clapped along to.

A group of four friends and family members said they’d seen Jane perform three times and simply had to come to a fourth performance. Julia, a high schooler from Wauwatosa whose favorite song of Jane’s is “bored & blind,” also attended alongside her mom.

Between pulling out an acoustic guitar to play her song “time on” in which she joked about a tumultuous experience with a British man during her one year of college and moving onto the keyboard for “Thief,” an emotion-packed song, Jane proved her multifacetedness. Members of the crowd cried as Jane sang, “I think I’m pushing my luck too far trying to get back to where we are.”

Jane went on to sing Paramore’s “Ain’t It Fun,” where she and her bandmates, guitarist Nicole and drummer Quentin, lit up the venue. There was singing on the floor and an explosion of laughter from the stage.

“God Bless Paramore,” said Jane.

During “Calling Card,” the crowd was split into sections to sing along, and Jane beamed with pride as she heard its “la la la la’s”. The band also played the songs “Sore Loser,” “You Shouldn’t Have Said That,” “Warhol,” “I Wanna,” “The City,” “Crash Cart” and closed with, “nothing else i could do.”

Jane has a broad range from raspy to whimsical high notes that pierce through her ballads. She has a confidence that is convincing and inspiring. She noted the three-year anniversary of “the city” along with her fanbase, whom she wasn’t afraid to walk among when cheering on her opener.

“At the end the change is you guys.” she said. “I was so young and had no idea you guys are out here.”

There will be many more of us out here as Jane continues her musical career. She announced Friday, Feb. 24 on her Instagram, @ellajanemusic that she would be releasing a deluxe version of “Marginalia” on March 24 with two “reimagined” songs.