Ant-Man: Quantumania — How to Build a Cinematic Cash-Grab | Anatomy of a Failure

foreign [Music] [Music] didn't expect to see your Protege again after what happened to you Ant-Man and the WASP of quantumania is the 31st MCU movie in which everyone's favorite ant-oriented Marvel Superhero gets sucked down to the mysterious Quantum realm to do things we all love to see things like wandering around aimlessly and stumbling into quirky half characters without real substance and being hit on by living broccoli and as a whole quantumania is another not so good new MCU entry to add on to the list probably one of the worst so far there are things to laugh at sure but even those mostly for the wrong reasons it's basically Marvel's own Black Adam and Shazam too by far the biggest reason for its value being that it's a Shameless cash grab and before I unleash the Rage of the MCU fan base too much let me explain the reason Ant-Man quantumania is a cash grab is because it's not an Ant-Man movie so much as it is another Marvel movie that happens to feature Ant-Man it wasn't made because the filmmakers thought there's more to be done with this character and more to explore with this world now it was made because Marvel is a machine in need of another movie and Ant-Man is one of the established characters they have left and the quantum realm is another mandatory CGI World they can put him in that's literally how the project began with Marvel I don't know how it works with every project but like they knew they wanted to do something in the quantum realm they wanted to do a complete tonal shift from the other two so they wanted more of like a Sci-Fi Quantum realm adventure and then they wanted potentially to use Kane the Conqueror as the villain and because of that no matter how much fun quantumania may be for some or of how cool it may look to others it doesn't matter the movie could never survive the fact that it shouldn't exist that the cash grab aspect poisons everything here Ant-Man the character isn't Ant-Man anymore Ant-Man the movie is in an Ant-Man movie anymore and the whole thing basically exists just to serve the new villain in a superficial Manner and so today what I thought would be useful to do is to look at quantumania through this cash grab lens and try to understand why it's Ant-Man in name only why exactly it's hero and content and point of existence are ruined not only to learn why it failed but also to know what to look out for with your own movie because honestly it feels like this was made by a DC double agent working at Marvel which Believe It or Not may not be too far from the truth because the couple low ranking people I know at Warner's have told me that there is an ex-dc Wars person now pulling the strings at Marvel a person you have heard of so even though it may get me in trouble I'm gonna do a filamento exclusive expose of who that is at the end though because I don't want to get in too much trouble and because in order for that exposure to make sense my cash grab argument has to make sense first so here's why quantumania is a cash grab and how to not make your project the same firstly the reason Ant-Man the character isn't Ant-Man anymore is because he has lost his defining personal specificity to the point of becoming a blank shell with a gimmick used for whatever Marvel wants to introduce what I mean look at the beginning where you may notice that the things that made Scott Lang Scott Lang don't exist anymore he's basically just a guy living his life with the added fact that he's Ant-Man with people loving him for saving the world with the Avengers and with other people confusing him with Avengers and basically every scene being about him being a hero in the MCU why are you time traveling with Captain America will I be there when the Avengers need me absolutely how did the hawk turn me into a baby wouldn't fight Captain America not insane which can be funny and kind of the point here but it also leaves Scott himself empty because what exactly is it that separates him as a person from the noise of all the other MCU Heroes that he's funny well others are funny plus many other things that tease an ordinary guy pulled into a crazy situation well others are that plus many other things as a whole Scott as a person has nothing to distinguish himself from all these other people aside from the things he lacks that they have with the exception of being and to bring context to this even though Scott was never the standout MCU character he initially had these specific aspects about him that made him him he was an ex-con Master Thief who struggled to make things right with his distant daughter and who had to steal something to fix things that's what separated him from the pack my days are breaking in places the stealing are done what do you want me to do once you're breaking your place and steal some trouble whereas here all that is gone he's not a thief stealing anything or a dad needing to fix things with his family or in any real meaningful way involved with the law he's pretty much just Paul Rudd being Paul Rudd with the added fact that he has this gimmick of being Ant-Man and the main issue this lack of defining personal specificity creates is that it leaves god without purpose and thus the story purposeless he's like a stick in a river carried wherever Marvel wants the river to go he happens to be shrunk down to the quantum Realm by someone else he happens to be attacked by creatures down there and then he happens to be captured by locals and then captured by the villain's henchmen and taken to the villain nothing about the story is driven by or even dependent on the fact that Scott is the hero the hero could be anyone put Scott on vacation and give his suit to someone else and the story would still function mostly the same we can help each other with Ant-Man shut up because as is typical with cash rap Stories the main hero doesn't matter the movie isn't made because of them but instead just to be made and before the writers seem very aware of this since when Scott meets the villain Kang he's instructed to steal something for him and now it's like yes finally now Scotland being Scott Lang actually matters great except of course it's just fairy dust when I steal some thing I usually know what I'm stealing it was a multiversal engine core than Janet blew it up right so essentially the villain once got to dive into his ship's blown up engine to shrink it back down so he can use it which is not stealing stealing is taking something from someone without permission it's breaking into someone's house or walking into a store to [Music] where's diving down into a CGI space to help someone with a problem is not that which again makes it painfully obvious that the master Thief Scott as a person has no value in the story and that the story isn't in any way built on him aside from the fact that he has this gimmick of being Ant-Man and so the point is that the only way to avoid being a cash grab on the character side is if this defining value left in the main character to explore whereas with Scott Lang that well here is already dry whatever purpose Scott once had has already been served at the beginning to the point where by the end nothing about him has even significantly changed clearly Scott is in this movie only because he's Ant-Man and because Ant-Man is a property Marvel can use to make a movie which they did if you look at Scott's daughter for example her core being here is all about being sort of anti-establishment and standing up for the little guy kind of hard to see throughout tear gas you fired into the Park full of peaceful protesters and so if you were to make a movie with her it can't then be about her using the Ant-Man suit to stop a new super powered serial killer or something you don't need her for that no the story has to be built on who she is and the gimmick should evolve along with it oh a government agency is tracking and spying on ordinary people with new technology so she figures out a way for people to hide their IP address and keep their files safely encrypted oh the government is geo-locking websites and trading content based on region to oppress and divide people so she finds a way to circumvent those locks and access everything everywhere all by using Pim technology to create this blue bun that would be a story and a movie built on her yeah I'm thinking oh and the blue bun is Real by the way so if you want to safely encrypt your internet data and change your IP to anywhere in the world to surf the web without being seen by governments and hackers and internet providers and unlock all region divided content in all major streaming services which you should be doing get it for yourself it's called private internet access the new best evolved VPN which protects millions of users worldwide without storing any of the data with servers in 84 countries and in each U.S state right now you can get it for 83 off with four free months with the link below you can protect an unlimited amount of devices at the same time with just one subscription and there's even a 30-day money-back guarantee so check it out secondly the reason this isn't even a proper Ant-Man movie is because most of his content doesn't require it to be an Ant-Man movie and could instead be done with countless other properties for context the thing that made the first movie special was the fact that what happened Could Happen only because it's Ant-Man who the hero can shrink down Scott was riding and developing a relationship with an end he was running from everyday items in massive form like water in a tub he was fighting inside a briefcase and even on a child's playset all this was possible only in an Ant-Man movie probably mostly thanks to Edgar Wright who was a big Ant-Man fan and understood how to make it special production [Music] worse in condominium all that is gone there are no ant relationships or interactions with everyday items in a new way or anything like it mostly there's just generic superhero stuff and the main culprit behind that is the idea to sit this movie in the quantum realm which may be the single worst idea in the MCU so far most likely made by the xdc person simply because it makes this being an Ant-Man movie redundant look at the story and the plot in a broad sense for example Scott's daughter has built this device sending a signal to the quantum realm and then someone uses it to shrink Scott and his family down there which could happen with anyone as the hero it could be that Iron Man is checking up on Scott's family while Scott is on holiday and then he gets run down with them and do the same stuff he would use his armor to fight whatever creatures are there he'd get captured by the locals and then by the villain and he'd be coerced by the villain and ultimately fight his army with the locals at the end mostly this movie could be called Iron Man quantumania and be the same which defeats the purpose of it actually being Ant-Man quantumania and to be fair I understand the quantum realm Choice hey Atmos thing is that it gets small so let's make a movie where he goes to this small world I get it but the actual effect is the opposite now that Ant-Man is in the small world it just takes away from the fact that he can become small like when everything and everyone is small it kind of by default means that nothing and nobody you know everyone can be small and with everyone small no one will be and even though Scott can still adjust his size compared to his new surroundings not much can be done with it because it's basically an alien world without a familiar conception of size there are no everyday items that can be used in a new way by playing with their proportions the proportions are all over the place anyway which is why pretty much the only time ant-man's abilities come in play is in combat whoopee do highlight this better with some contrast there are a couple exceptions a couple scenes and moments where this being Ant-Man factors in moments like Scott's daughter shrinking down into a vent to escape the floating head moments like Hank pimps and showing up to save the day those moments are good but maybe they should have lasted a bit longer than one second and been used for more than just one ant's ex machina twist apparently they pass through some sort of time dilation they live thousands of years in a single day the biggest exception though is the quote-unquote stealing scene where Scott dives into the villain's blown up engine to shrink it down now yes there are some nonsensical derogatory aspects here as well why does God have to shrink down to an engine that's been made massive and what's with the arbitrary cloning stuff fair enough but that is all right this scene is still if not the best then at least the most deserving scene in the movie simply because it's an Ant-Man scene that can happen only in an Ant-Man movie basically once Scott gets a grip on Insanity he and his clones start to pile up and work together to get up to the engine to save Scott's daughter as in Scott and his clones are functionally like exactly now maybe I'm hyping this up a bit too much but the point is that this is a scene you want to look for in your movie instead of building whatever generic scenes that any movie could do use the specialty of your movie to do things that no one other than you can do the only way an Ant-Man movie isn't a cash grab is if it's actually built with the fact that it's an Ant-Man movie thirdly the reason quantumania is a cash grab is because it shamelessly uses ant-man's value to generate value for something that isn't Ant-Man like I already mentioned Scott Lang has no purpose or agency here he gets shrunk down by someone else and take him prisoner by someone else and brought to the villain by someone else and then used by the villain he's a plastic bag in the wind he's not in the driver's seat doing stuff so much as he gets driven along to react to weird stuff I am pep you just drank me I did what without any real sense of where he is or even what's going on mostly this whole movie seems to be about something or someone else there is constant ominous references to someone with the mom freaking out about the quantum realm there's something I should have told and with multiple characters talking about quote unquote him he will burn the world to find you you didn't tell them about him and now all he yeah so quickly it becomes clear that Ant-Man is playing second fiddle to the new Big Bad of the MCU we learn about Kang's backstory of being exiled and trapped Kang's motivations of dimensional domination hangs actions of pushing the plot by pushing others pretty much everything here revolves around Kang which you know itself isn't a bad idea you want to build up your new villain yeah but the problem is that it's done via someone else's movie which just ends up ruining both sides Ant-Man is ruined because in his own movie he's reduced to being a passive vessel existing mostly for someone else like why do you call it Ant-Man quandomania and put him in the center if he's not the center if this is what you actually want it to be oh yeah because you're using this property to advance something totally else and on the other hand Kang is ruined because the movie doesn't go all the way and actually put him in the center either aside from short backstory moments we don't even meet him in person until much later on and even then always from outside in we get a sense of his history and intention sure but never through his eyes apparently he was exiled for being a bad guy but we don't really get to see why apparently he wants to destroy timelines to stop something bad but we don't really get to see what he never grows beyond the shallow ominous references surrounding [Music] you have no idea what I have we don't care the original the witch is this lacking metal Road where the hero isn't allowed to be the hero and where the villain is too shallow to carry the load either to the point of becoming yet another mandatory blue Marvel CGI power villain trying to end the universe which may make him cool but at this point not much more and to explain this further I'll give you a successful example on both sides even though the Joker in The Dark Knight steals the show the movie is always Batman's movie Batman is doing things which prompts a situation leading to the Joker's rise with words out we hire the clown Batman and his actions are always at the center it's always Anchored In what he thinks and chooses worse in Infinity War even though it's an Avengers movie Thanos is the central character the movie begins and ends with him it shows scenes from his perspective in addition to him speaking about his perspective it goes all in on the choices and sacrifices he has to make to get what he's after the audience may not agree with Thanos but they are brought into his head to view the world from the angle he views it from and in this manner you have to decide which way to go and go all the way if you want this to be an Ant-Man movie then keep Ant-Man at the center by making him cause things to happen and by making it be about him instead of reducing him into a spectating role in his own movie or if you want this to be Kang's movie then actually go into his perspective and make the audience see him from inside out instead of reducing him to a set of references spouted out verbally because otherwise it's quite clear that you're using this thing with inherent value to generate artificial value for something that may or may not have True Value later on it's quite clear that what you're making is a cash grab existing so that your machine can keep running and your bank account can keep filling oh and yeah I promise to expose that DC double agent pulling the strings at Marvel right then again simply by using the topic I got you watching this far so maybe I'll talk about it more in some other video later on if ever for now though to make sure you don't get exposed don't forget to check out private internet access [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Channel: Filmento

Views: 371,579

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Id: ipBJ7TFAmcc

Length: 19min 46sec (1186 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 30 2023