It’s with a weary competency that the latest entry in Marvel’s difficult second era fuels one more trudge through the studio’s now gluttonous cinematic universe. Apologies: multiverse. This is Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. An exposition dump of a film as visually ugly as it is a waste of its A-list talents, who do, at least, bring fine and dandy performances. In further balance, theree is some very funny material to be found within the drudge. After all, Ant-Man always meant breezier fare than the likes of Doctor Strange and the Cap’ in the pre-Endgame days. Those Halcyon days.
Once upon a time, you knew a sequel was a sequel by the artistically redundant number stuck to the end of its title. Iron Man 2 followed Iron Man and Vol. 2 came after Vol. 1 in the Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy. Marvel have long since abandoned such logical linearity. As such, their latest is not Doctor Strange 2 but Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Eight long years after Benedict Cumberbatch’s Stephen Strange first burst onto the scene, it is a reflection of a cinematic universe in which each new entry succeeds the last. The film is certainly a sequel to Scott Derrickson’s original Doctor Strange but no more so than it is to Jon Watts’ most recent Spider-Man: No Way Home and Disney Plus TV hit WandaVision. Not up to date? We’ve reached the threshold across which you may begin to struggle.
Strange as it may seem to be launching a new era of storytelling with a forgotten episode from the last one, Black Widow is as solidly entertaining as they come in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The direction is as creative as it is assured. The visuals are aptly bombastic and the cast terrific. If the film doesn’t quite overcome the colossal embarrassment that is Marvel’s failure to give Scarlett Johansson a stand-alone feature in over a decade of contractual availability, it does evidence how much she will be missed moving forward.
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