Quantum of Soul Ice

I guess I can understand why Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023) gets a lot of flack. But I don't care - I kind of liked it.

It starts with Paul Rudd as Scott Lang living the good life. He's recognized as a super-hero all over town, he's living with the Wasp, Evangeline Lilly. His teenaged daughter Cassie, Kathryn Newton, is getting in trouble doing underground action for victims of the Snap, but hey, it's good trouble. At a family dinner, Cassie mentions that she has been sending signals into the quantum realm to map it's structure, which freaks Janet van Dyne, Michelle Pfeiffer, out. She disconnects, but it's too late. A return message sucks them all into the realm.

Rudd and Newton get captured by a civilizations in revolt against their overlords. Here, we get a lot of father/daughter bonding. Lilly, Pfeiffer and Michael Douglas wind up in a futuristic city. Pfeiffer, it turns out, didn't tell her family and friends much about what she ran into down there. In fact, she is still doing a lot of "no time to explain", while there clearly is time. Turns out that she had a whole life in there - including being politcally active. She takes them to a decadent bar, where they meet her old friend and ex-political activist Bill Murray. Long story short: She found a guy named Kang, John Majors, who she thinks is marooned in the QR. She doesn't realize that his last name is "the Conqueror".

And now Majors' henchman is Corey Stall, thought killed in the first Ant-Man. Majors revived him and made him into a Mechanical Organism Designed Only for Killing - yes, he's M.O.D.O.K. We only watched one or two episodes of the TV series, but M.O.D.O.K is always going to be Patton Oswalt for us. The movie does lean into the ridiculousness of a giant head in a robot suit with tiny arms and legs.

Some of the issues with this whole movie: 

1. Pfeiffer not telling anyone about her experiences in the realm. Fine if she's only been out a few days, but I don't think that's the case. Why wasn't she debriefed? 
2. CGI mess: The quantum realm is a fantastic CGI landscape. We want more reality.
3. Tone: The seriousness of the threat clashes with the silliness of the Ant-Man francise.
4. Setting up for other movies: Majors' Kang is going to be the big bad, the Thanos, for the next MCEU "phase". This interrupts the flow of the present movie.

I hope that covers most of the complaints, other than the more basic "Just not a good movie, due to acting, writing, direction, etc". I kind of agree with most of them, especially number 1. But I like the CGI art direction, I like the goofy tone of the Ant-Man series, and I don't think Kang derailed a better movie from taking place. And I especially enjoyed the awkwardness of Pfeiffer and Majors plainly having had a "thing" when she thought she was stuck permanently. I guess that's why she wasn't talking about her time in the realm.

There are some questions about Majors behavior off-screen. I liked him in the role, but I'm sure Kang can be recast if he turns out to be toxic. Of course, if enough people are turned off or just bored of MCEU movies, maybe the franchise will peter out and it won't be a problem. But I'm not ready to give up.