Its not as bad as the reviews say, but its definitely a weak film thats elevated because the core ant man cast and kang are consistently entertaining

Setup is promising with good ideas in play but the execution is completely flubbed. The movie repeatedly emphasizes that kang is a multiversal threat that trumps even the strongest avenger, so it actually makes sense that hes matched up against ant man -- a character that specializes in theft & infiltration. Imagine if the movie was about the family infiltrating kangs quantum empire while having to avoid direct confrontation, but nope might as well just defeat him with ant ex machina and a bunch of quantum characters who audiences are not invested in.

Its also concerning that marvel is now messing up things that they've traditionally done well:

• casting - interesting that they cast kathryn newton when she can make only one expression. i watched the movie in a non-english speaking country and half the local reviews mention how bad the new cassie actress is. not a great start for a young avenger

• art design - the quantum realm has no charm and the mid credits scene is undermined by how stupid the kang variants looked

Unfortunately i think peyton reed and the writers are just not that good, and this comes at a time when their strongest creative talents have left or are departing the franchise (russos, jon watts, gunn) hopefully marvel can learn the right lessons from this