This week I want to start with Ant-Man! Well, kind of. I did watch Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania which is now streaming on Disney+. It's better than I thought it would be, but that's probably because it has been described as the worst Marvel film (It isn't. That still is Thor 2). In the basic plot, Ant-Man (Paul Rudd) and his family get sucked down to the microscopic level (the Quantum Zone) and have to fight the new Avenger's level bad guy Kang the Conqueror in order to get back. Yes, it is a lot of green screen, Evangeline Lilly (the Wasp) needs to discover a second facial expression, the Cassie character is more annoying than anything else, and the MODOK character CGI is pretty rough (to say the least). But on the positive, Paul Rudd gets his character dang near perfect (again!), Michael Douglas' Hank Pym is also pretty good (mainly because he does something older, good actors are not supposed to be able to do, act well with green screens everywhere), Michelle Pfeiffer is still as stunning as ever, and then there is the villain, Kang the Conqueror, played by Jonathan Majors.
In this role, Majors is great. He first appeared in the Loki TV series on Disney+ and was fantastic there too. The Marvel franchise looked to have found their villain horse to hook their wagon to for the next few years worth of Avengers movies, but then the floor dropped out. Jonathan Majors was accused of domestic assault on his girlfriend earlier this year. It sounds bad. If they do find evidence against him and get a guilty conviction, I hope they give him a harsh sentence, but he still will get his day in court to try to prove his side of the story (if it does get to court. Usually these things with celebrities rarely do get that far.) In our instantaneous social media age, the court of public opinion has already turned on him hard.
Not downplaying the seriousness of the allegation of sexual assault (the main focus here) this incident creates a real problem for Marvel. They had planned for Kang the Conqueror to be the main bad guy for numerous films over the next few years. Now there are real questions about where they go from here.
For the record, this week has featured numerous entertainment stories with Majors and the subject of the alleged abuse, his girlfriend Meagan Good, out acting like a committed couple. Eventually, the legal side of this will get sorted out, but for more of a breakdown on the behind-the-scenes stuff at Marvel, New Rockstars Eric Voss does a dive into what the future might hold here.
Warning, spoilers about Quantumania, so see if you want to see that before you watch this, off you go.
For the record, I do think the first two Ant-Man movies are better than this one.
Speaking of Dynasties, is there any one more romanticized as the British monarchy. This week a very good informational video from History Box on all the Kings and Queens of England. You will have a pretty good understanding of the timeline after watching this.
Have a wonderful weekend! Be safe and make sure you stay up to date on all vaccinations!
