After watching ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’, I’m even more convinced that Marvel is using AI to make movies. This article contains some spoilers for the ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’ movie, and although I don’t think many people will actually go see it, I’ll give you a heads up
In the same MCU worldview of the American drama ‘She-Hulk’, there is a very interesting episode.
In the final episode, She-Hulk: Attorney at Law Jennifer breaks through the fourth wall to the headquarters of Marvel Studios, where she meets Marvel Studios boss Kevin — in reality the president of Marvel Studios is named Kevin Feige — and finds out that the other side is actually an AI robot. -In reality, the president of Marvel Studios is named Kevin Feige – and it turns out that the other party is actually an AI robot.
She-Hulk: Attorney at Law then approached Kevin with the idea of making ‘She-Hulk’ a proper legal comedy, rather than a traditional superhero type story that necessarily ends with a showdown between the villains.
And, she also mentioned that the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been following almost the same storytelling formula for so many years of development and needs to usher in some changes.
But Kevin remained stubborn, believing that he could create “something close to perfection,” rejecting Kevin’s proposal for a sequel and accusing her of ruining the heart-wrenching finale.
The interesting thing about this episode is that if you are a viewer who usually does not watch many Marvel movies and episodes, you may find this setting of breaking the fourth wall and the courage to dare to hack yourself, very interesting.
But if you’re like me, a long-time viewer of Marvel movies and TV shows, then this seemingly tongue-in-cheek treatment is, in our opinion, the best proof of Marvel’s current pendulum swing.
Especially after you watch all the works of the fourth phase of Marvel movies, and the recently released ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’, the joke of “AI writing the script” in this episode, you will also become more and more sure that Marvel is not actually joking, they are now They may really be using similar ChatGPT such artificial intelligence to write scripts, and even guide actors to make movies.
Let’s talk about this Marvel movie just released, and the Marvel Cinematic Universe Phase 5 opener, how it has become a model of AI filmmaking for the audience, and how it reflects the many problems Marvel has exposed in developing the cinematic universe at the moment.
From my personal experience, I think ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’ will give viewers the illusion that it is similar to a script written by AI and a movie, the core of which lies in its extremely bland and monotonous narrative rhythm and flat, ripple-free characterization.
These two problems throughout the film, and is the fundamental reason why I still can not understand the director’s intention after watching.
Honestly, before watching ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’, I was really curious about ‘Quantumania’, a whole new dimension in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
After all, as early as the two previous “Ant-Man” series of films, Marvel has repeatedly mentioned Quantumania’s confusion, and also in the ‘Avengers: Endgame’, let the heroes themselves through the quantum channel, back in time to save the world.
With these front stories to do the groundwork, I would have thought that Marvel could play some science fiction spectacle on the concept of Quantumania.
For example, similar to ‘The Matrix’ in the digital world, or like ‘Star Wars’ has similar to the Force, lightsabers and other unique series of iconic elements appear.
But it turns out that I’m still too high on Marvel – Marvel has never made anything but superhero movies, not science fiction. Expect them to come up with any hard-core science fiction scenes, that obviously or I think too much.
Marvel has created this Quantumania, although conceptually it is a “free from the laws of time and space” independent dimension, but the film does not actually respond to these characteristics from too many details.
At best, it is a replica of the alien worlds depicted in movies like ‘Star Wars’ and ‘Star Trek’.
You could even say that ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’ pays frequent homage to these classic science fiction films and television works in some scenes, plots and characterization, but only fails to make its own special features.
You can see some strange-looking creatures here, and you can also see the magnificent empire and replicant army built by Kang the Conqueror, but they are almost nothing fundamentally different from the outer space civilizations you see in ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ ‘Thor’ and other works in the same Marvel universe.
Compared to the interesting microscopic worlds that the audience could see in the first two “Ant-Man” movies and the funny jokes created by Pym Particles after zooming in and out on various objects, this time ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’ takes a step backward in terms of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’ is a step backward in terms of the presentation of Ant-Man’s personal abilities.
And this kind of spread very large but can not do the content details and innovation of the problem, at this stage of the comic book movie, is also quite common.
Take the recent ‘Black Panther : Wakanda Forever’ for example, Wakanda as the most technologically advanced country on Earth, should have a variety of high-tech weapons and technology.
But when it really clashes with other civilizations, the duel only sent a big ship and a few small planes, the battle part is made of two primitive African tribes between the village armageddon, resulting in the view instantly down a lot.
The real problem is that Marvel, at this stage, is obviously trying to change the problem of comic book movies being criticized as “uniform” by using directors and writers who are good at different types of styles, based on the traditional superhero movie shooting model, so that each superhero’s The story of each superhero can reflect a certain degree of difference.
Thus, as the opening chapter of the fourth stage of ‘Black Widow’, intentionally made into a spy film.
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness’ was directed by Sam Raimi, the writer of the American series ‘The Evil Dead’, and the film incorporates thriller elements in many segments of the narrative.
Thor: Love and Thunder’ continues the critically acclaimed comedy style of its predecessor ‘Thor: Ragnarok’ and packs in more unexplained and hilarious moments, in stark contrast to the original two “Thor “series of films formed a sharp contrast.
But this stylized treatment actually doesn’t really shake the core of Marvel superhero movies.
They are still the kind of mindless popcorn movies, whether you are a spy film, horror or sci-fi or comedy, these stylized elements are ultimately reduced to side dishes in the finished film.
The core of the story is still the set of superheroes to save the world theory, the audience even if they can accept a different style of film, but still the bones of their set of superhero story system, a strong aesthetic fatigue.
However, ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’ has a little merit compared to the previous failed Phase IV productions: it at least piles up the special effects in the film, and the process of watching it in the cinema without thinking is worth the price of admission.
Whether it’s the strange landscapes and creatures the protagonists see when they first enter the quantum realm, or the melee scenes that follow in the big showdown comparable to ‘Ready Player One’ ‘Star Wars’, although it’s all a potpourri, the special effects this time are indeed much better than many previous Phase IV Marvel movies, almost returning to the ‘ Avengers: Infinity War’ before the average special effects level of comic book movies.
I was impressed by a scene, is Ant-ManScott in order to retrieve Kang’s ship’s power core, into the “possibility of the storm” episode.
The appearance of a large number of Ant-Man doppelgangers, together with their ultimate unity to help Scott get to the core of the human stacking tactics, not only presents the audience with a scene of the most important visual spectacle of the whole film, but also aptly points to the common theme of the three “Ant-Man” series of films.
Even the smallest ants, after unity can explode with great power. But unfortunately, the only plot highlights of the film, but also just to this point.
When you put aside all these special effects scenes and the few plot highlights, ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’ overall story framework seems unusually thin and cheesy, perfunctory as if the script was written by AI.
Imagine that you, the writer of ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’, are sitting in front of your computer, open ChatGPT and order it to write you a 500-word synopsis of ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’.
The story mainly uses the adventures of the Ant-Man family, leading to the villain Kang the Conqueror, which must take place in the quantum realm, with 30% of the content to have family member conflicts, 30% of the love scenes and 30% of the aboriginal resistance to the rule of the powerful.
Then, the final answer given by the AI in this regard may be similar to the current ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’ finished script.
Of course, these are just jokes. I actually just want to express that ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’ is another standard Marvel-style superhero movie that seems to be produced on the assembly line.
The protagonists in these movies, no matter what kind of superpowers they have, are bound to tell the audience a few paragraphs in an adventure for no reason, to liven up the atmosphere.
The positive and negative factions do not need to have a complex growth story, but always meet after the first fight. And the main character must be in this battle to fall in the wind, so that after a few paragraphs from the family or lover’s encouragement scene.
When the protagonist has completed the growth and transformation, the story will almost come to an end. Finally, the protagonist just rely on ‘Mouth Cannon’ or strength to win the villain, the film can usher in a happy ending.
It can be said that the template for this set of superhero stories, Marvel almost from the first ‘Iron Man’ in 2008, it is used all the way to the present.
The reason why only in recent years has been criticized more and more frequently, in addition to one hand is the old audience to the same routine story aesthetic fatigue, on the other hand is the comic book itself after the beginning of the fourth phase, increasingly do not pay attention to the story logic, character lines and behavior motivation of reasonable polish, resulting in these problems further exposed the mediocrity of the film script.
Although the number of films produced by Marvel is increasing, but the quality has declined significantly.
In this regard, ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’ is a very good example. Its story is fundamentally designed to draw out the villain of the fifth stage – Kang the Conqueror.
But the film’s biggest failure is precisely the misrepresentation of Kang.
First of all, it is not an exaggeration to say that in order to be able to introduce the final villain of the fifth stage, the film spent nearly an hour after the beginning of the screening, through the mouth of many characters to emphasize the horror of Kang, in order to set the stage for his official appearance.
As a result, when he really appeared, the plot is almost not arranged for him to have any decent ability and enough opportunities to appear, resulting in Kang from the beginning to the end is actually a rather stifling and lack of sufficient sense of oppression of the villain role.
The film only explains that the purpose of everything he did was to escape from the quantum realm, but the reason why he was exiled to the quantum realm and what happened to him much earlier before that is basically just a passing comment.
In addition, Kang’s ability is also designed to be quite random, in addition to a similar “Force” of the mind control, the rest is a superhero movie is common in the “hand cannon” skills.
As the final villain of the entire fifth stage, Kang in this film does not bring the audience a strong sense of oppression.
And, even when the skills are already pretty crap, Kang barely gets a few serious fights in most of the film.
The task of catching Ant-Man’s father and daughter was given to his men M.O.D.O.K.; when he first fought with Ant-Man, he didn’t show any powerful killing moves and easily defeated Ant-Man and Wasp by relying on two skills alone.
To the final showdown, he even directly in the base “hang” swing, watching their own army a little by Ant-Man and the resistance to destroy.
Finally, it was not easy to decide to fight in person, not only did not show similar to when Thanos used Infinity Gauntlet to one against many strength, but also by a group of mutant ants on the ground crazy friction, lost all the face as the final villain of the fifth stage of Marvel.
Just such a villain, the plot also repeatedly put harsh words that they have seen the end of everything, do not know how many avengers have killed.
As a result, the audience saw the end, there is still only a capital question mark in the mind, Kang’s real strength is this?
Some may say that the biggest villain of the fifth phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is not this Kang, but the ‘The Kang Dynasty’ composed of countless Kang.
Then the problem comes again, the film in the egg also specifically mentioned that the Kang killed by the Ant-Man family, is the most headache of all Kang inside the one.
Does this mean that after even more Kang , for the Earth’s superheroes, the actual can not cause much threat.
The Kang Dynasty’ in the manga, composed of Kang from different time and space
Of course, in addition to the villain Kang, the film’s portrayal of other characters, but also completely without showing any highlights, we are, in the end, pure tool people. Don’t ask, ask is in the next comic book movie plot to do padding.
Thus, Ant-ManScott has no growth in ability or state of mind in this film of his own. All he does is to protect his daughter and guide her to grow into the next generation of Ant-Man.
The plot design of “guiding the ‘Avengers II’ to grow up” makes the character of Cassie extremely unlikable in this film, not to mention that the actor who plays her – Kathryn Newton – is almost always acting with the same expression from the beginning to the end. Kathryn Newton, the actress who plays her – Kathryn Newton, almost from the beginning to the end of the play with the same expression.
It is perhaps no exaggeration to say that she is the biggest casting mistake made in this film.
In addition, the original in the ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp’ as the female lead in the second generation of Wasp, this time in order to “support” daughter, also had to be marginalized by the plot, reduced to a hand cannon to fight around the odd soldier, there is no sense of existence.
A family of three stands to decide who is the real protagonist of the film
The most difficult to accept, or the film’s other major villain M.O.D.O.K.. In the setting, he is ‘Ant-Man’ in the villain Darren in the quantum field after being beaten, the transformation of the super robot, is Kang’s most important subordinates, in the film is also he all the way to Ant-Man father and daughter relentless pursuit.
But by the end of the film, he was suddenly forcibly cleared by Cassie with a sentence like “It’s never too late to be good”.
Not only did he go straight up and give Kang his head, but he also said the hilarious “Am I an avenger now?” at the end of his life.
Honestly, I can’t understand Marvel’s handling of the “Avengers” moniker right now.
Even a villain, as long as the final successful whitewash, can become and before in a dozen movies in the same way as the superheroes to save the world of the Avengers? This is a little too illogical and child’s play.
However, comic book movies whitewash the villain, the operation of the strong pull new generation of heroes, for the audience early is also not strange.
Black Widow can have her own independent film, but she must bring her successor along for the ride.
Thor can die after almost all the people he loves, still when a whole day will only tell boring jokes greasy middle-aged, but he finally had to choose to forgive his opponent, and the other side of the daughter to train into the next generation of Thor.
Tom Holland’s ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’, if not to find Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield, the two old Spider-Man selling sentiment, box office results may not be far from the height of today.
The unexpected death of actor Chadwick Boseman does make the ‘Black Panther : Wakanda Forever’ cast a sympathetic experience for the audience, but that doesn’t mean it should end up presenting viewers with a crudely crafted village entrance brawl.
The above problems in these movies are just the tip of the iceberg of the reasons why Marvel Phase IV as a whole went downhill.
Undeniably, the comic book movie is now more and more production funds, invited to the director, screenwriters, actors and actresses are also more and more big names, but these works themselves, is more and more away from the original intention of the fans who first began to like the comic book movie.
As viewers, we can understand the series of remedial measures taken by Marvel after the successive expiration of the contracts of the actors of the older generation of Avengers.
Whether you let the old bring the new or directly launch a new character in the film or drama, but you should at least bring the audience a standard qualified story.
After all, the story is the core motivation that drives the audience to enjoy a movie, followed by the actors, special effects and other incidental content.
But the fourth phase of Marvel may not care about these problems at all, still blindly confident that they can still continue the glory of the first decade of the cinematic universe.
The result is that the old generation of characters are mercilessly used as a stepping stone for new characters to rise to the top, breaking the hearts of old viewers, and they can not properly sink their teeth into polishing the scripts of new characters, resulting in the entire fourth stage of any movie word of mouth, to reach the height of the previous ‘Avengers: Endgame’.
In the end, both new and old characters will only be reduced to instrumentalists driving the Marvel Cinematic Universe to the next stage, but how long can this blind push last?
Previous comic book movies, although essentially just popcorn cooler, but the good thing is that most of the works have taken into account the basic special effects viewing and narrative fluency.
On this basis, the story of the first ten years of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, strung together through more than twenty films, is what makes the superheroes and their actors who appear in the film, leave a deep imprint in the minds of the audience.
We will remember Iron Man for the first time in the cave to build their own battle suit; remember Captain America hand shield confidently said that “I can fight like this all day”; remember the heroes for the first time because of the concept of disagreement and a big fight at the airport; also remember Iron Man at the end with I am Iron Man” before the Infinity Gauntlet snapped his fingers.
These memories are precious to the fans of comic book movies. But now, it is being buried by Marvel’s own hands a little bit.
We can’t know how long this process will continue, but at least for this just-released ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’, Marvel still hasn’t been able to really get up from the hole it fell down.
Related Post: VFX artist: ‘Ant-Man 3’ was short on budget, resources were given to ‘Black Panther 2’.
Related Post: ‘Ant-Man 3’ Kang the Conqueror Actor Walks Out of First Marvel Meeting Because Nobody Is Talking to Him.
