Ant-Man and the Wasp have opened to a lackluster audience response, and it’s a far cry when you compare it with other MCU movies such as Avengers: Infinity War and Black Panther that have been released in the current year. The movie took over a week to cross $100 million in Box office, while Infinity War crossed a Billion mark in the same amount of time.
Clearly, there have been mistakes made by Marvel and it would be foolish of them to just bury it under the carpet, as some writers are suggesting. The fans have almost written off Ant-Man sequel and the only thing that sparked excitement was the post-credits. Well, that means the end of the Ant-Man franchise. Here’re 10 mistakes that they could have avoided:
No real stakes:
The template of MCU has always been a light, fun, superhero adventure film where good guys will always win in the end. Ant-Man and Wasp just followed the template without adding any depth to the narrative. There were no real stakes involved, as the entire movie played safe along predictable lines.
Weak Plot:
The plot of Ant-Man was intriguing as a ordinary Joe ‘Scott Lang’ becomes a superhero Ant-Man. But the sequel had nothing to do with Ant-Man, instead in many ways Scott Lang was just a supporting character. The whole movie was about rescuing Hank Pym’s wife Janet Van Dyne who miraculously survived the most dangerous dimension (nobody knows how).
Where is the villain?
Marvel fans have often complained about weak villains in MCU movies but in Ant-Man and Wasp, there were no villains. They were just a bunch of rookies pretending to be villains, trying to steal Pym tech or Lab as they call it.
The Ghost was supposed to be this bad-ass antagonist carrying out the sinister agenda of Dr. Bill Foster (Lawrence Fishburne), as it turns out, Dr. Foster even stopped Ghost from doing bad things knowing that she may die without the tech. The other bad guy Sonny Burch was a street-level black market dealer that even Luis & co could handle.
Action scenes were underwhelming:
Marvel movies are popular among masses as they feature well-choreographed, slick, high-octane action scenes that hook the views onto the screen. But Ant-Man and Wasp had pretty low-intensity action or chase sequences that felt like 1980’s.
Luis was funny but annoying:
Michael Penea has a great comedic timing and he does make you laugh few times, but after a certain point he becomes annoying as hell. His jokes were not landing and he came across as a jerk.
Quantum realm’s experience ain’t fascinating enough:
Hank Pym defined Quantum realm as “the reality where all concepts of time and space become irrelevant as you shrink for all eternity. If Ant-Man can shrink down to the smallest of the small, he will enter this nothing, this non-reality. All of time and space will be open to him. He could literally change the universe around him Dr. Manhattan-style. And he could traverse time at will.”
All of us were pretty psyched to check out the mysterious dimension ‘Quantum realm’ and the challenges it would throw at Ant-Man. Firstly, it was Pym who made the trip to the sub-atomic realm, secondly, he rescued Janet almost like a piece of cake. It was so easy and quick that it was like a trip to wonderland.
Janet Van Dyne barely had any screen time:
We were supposed to know more about Hank Pym’s wife Janet Van Dyne, but she was given very little screen time and we have no knowledge of why is she doing, what she is doing. Again, it was more hype, less substance.
Evangeline Lilly is hot as Hope, but not fit for Wasp:
Evangeline Lilly is a good actress who pulled off Hope Van Dyne in Ant-Man, but she lacks attributes needed to become a superhero people could believe in. Evangeline failed to sell herself as Wasp which kills the possibility of a Wasp solo movie in the future.
No epic moments from comics:
Marvel Comics had nothing to do with Ant-Man and Wasp, which is why there was’s a single epic moment worth cherishing from the movie.
No effort to build on the Ant-Man franchise:
There was lack of sincerity and honesty on the part of makers to treat the sequel as part of the larger Ant-Man franchise. It was just a movie to fill the void created by Infinity War as there is no Marvel movie for the rest of the year.
Don’t Miss: Ant-Man and the Wasp Box Office Collection Could Be The Lowest Grossing Ever in Phase 3!
