Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania

"Oh, Daddy - It's all my fault!". Well no "Cassie" (Kathryn Newton), not quite. You certainly developed the piece of communications kit that lands everyone in the quantum soup, but the blame really must go to Peyton Reed and Jeff Loveness for directing and writing this latest emanation from Marvel's increasingly un-special film factory. It starts off with a great little device that could quickly put Papa John's out of business before we are sucked into the cantina from "Star Wars" (1977) where our recently arrived travellers find themselves pursued by the ridiculously un-menacing "M.O.D.O.K" - a sort of robotic killing version of the golden statue from the top of "Raiders of the Lost Ark" (1981) after it had had a good time with "V.I.N.C.E.N.T" from "The Black Hole" (1979) - before Michelle Pfeiffer "Janet" explains to her family (and to us) just what has led them to a predicament where they must avoid the evil clutches of "Kang the Conqueror" (Jonathan Majors). Now this gift that keeps on giving for this studio never struggles to impress visually, and the imagination of those who create these magical effects and alien shapes and sizes must be commended. However, this latest offering featuring, in my view, the weakest of their arsenal of characters is just entirely derivative and unremarkable. Aside from a very few bon-mots from Paul Rudd the dialogue is dry and the action scenes are all concentrated in one or two sequences whilst the rest of this serves as little better than colourful padding for the thinnest of storylines. Rudd is quite an unassuming kind of actor. Engaging, yes - but somehow just too lightweight for the grandness of the surrounding imagery. Michael Douglas ("Pym") features sparingly and the cameo from Bill Murray might have worked better in "Guardians of the Galaxy" - here it is almost laughable. If these are to keep coming off the production line as thickly and quickly as seems likely, then somebody somewhere is going to have to spend much more effort on developing stronger and more compelling stories because the audiences are surely immune to the vibrancy of the special effects by now. This is really forgettable fayre.