Search

Search only in certain items:

Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania (2023)
Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania (2023)
2023 | Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Sci-Fi
Maybe I'm just starting to get a bit burned out on the relentless release pace of the MCU, but - for me- I feel like it's been on a bit of a downward trend since the end of the Infinity Stones Saga (with Avengers: Endgame)

I also miss the somewhat-heightened reality of the earlier Marvel movies: like the original Iron Man, say, or even The Winter Soldier.

The reason I say that?

Because this takes place, almost exclusively, in the quantum realm first mentioned in the original Ant-Man, really only being book-ended by the 'real' world.

This is also - or so I've read - the first in what is termed as Marvel Phase 5, introducing (for any who didn't make it to the end of the Loki TV show!) the next big bad, in the form of Jonathan Major's Kang the Conqueror (who steals pretty much every scene he is in here)
  
Reminiscence (2021)
Reminiscence (2021)
2021 | Mystery, Romance, Sci-Fi
5
5.7 (7 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Needed a better Director - like one of the Nolan boys
Christopher Nolan is one of the greatest Directors of our time usually making films that have an attribute of time in them. His brother, Jonathan Nolan, has had a hand in most of his brother’s terrific works as well as the creative force behind such “trippy” TV series as PERSON OF INTEREST and the recent revival of WESTWORLD. In both of these TV Series, Jonathan Nolan was assisted by his wife, Lisa Joy.

Lisa Joy has written and directed her own “trippy, play with time” film, REMINISCENCE that has quite a few of the hallmarks of a Christopher (or Jonathan) Nolan film - but it also has one very unsettling aspect to it - it plays like a twice over copy of something else.

REMINISCENCE is a classic neo-noir with our hero being smitten by the femme fatale which draws him into her world, where murder, criminal activities and low-lifes run rampant all with a downbeat tone.

This sounds like a terrific premise for a Christopher Nolan film, unfortunately, in the hands of Lisa Joy, it is like watching a local community theater production of a Broadway musical.

The first 1/3 of this film is one long, laborious setup for the tragedy that will unfold and it is told at an uninteresting snail’s pace. Reminiscence picks up a bit in the middle with a pretty good action scene - and plot twist - before squandering this momentum with mediocrity at the end.

Joy’s script - which was on Hollywood’s infamous “blacklist’ of scripts for many, many years (a list of screenplays that are generally praised, but for some reason or another have not been produced), is at the core of the problem. The dialogue is not very interesting and dripping with heavy film noire clichés. She does not follow the Hollywood doctrine of “show, don’t tell”. She TELLS the audience much, much more than is needed and never really gives the audience any credit for figuring things out for themselves.

For example, there is a “dirty cop” that is central to the plot (there always is in this type of film). So, how do the other characters in the film address him? “You’re the dirty cop…”

I’d laugh if I wasn’t so bored.

What DOES work in this film is the acting of Hugh Jackman (as our hero), Rebecca Ferguson (as the femme fatale) and - especially - Thandie Newton as the “Gal Friday” of Jackman’s. Someone needs to give this talented actress a true showcase of her talents.

Someone also needs to give good ol’ Cliff Curtis a vehicle for his talents - he is one of the most misused good performers in Hollywood and he is misused in this film as well.

And…don’t get me started on the special effects. If you are going to make a trippy, sci-fi, futuristic neo-noire thriller, you probably shouldn’t cut the corner on the special effects, but this film does that, amazingly.

But…with a good Director at the helm there is enough “good enough” here (especially in the acting) that you should be able to pull something decent out of it.

But…Joy is making her theatrical film directing debut - exactly the type of director that this film does not need. What this film needed wasn’t a rookie director like Joy, it needed a Nolan - either Jonathan or (preferably) Christopher to make this work. But, one will have to be contented with a copy of a copy.

And that’s just not good enough.

Letter Grade: C+ (the performances of the leads almost salvage things.

5 stars (out of 10) - and you can take that to the Bank(ofMarquis)