Ant-Man Trilogy Ranked
The third film in the Ant-Man trilogy, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania has dropped in theaters. So naturally I wanted to stop and rank all THREE movies in the Ant-Man trilogy. So let’s get started!
NOTE: As a point of reference, I really enjoy all three of these movies. I think even the weakest is still a good movie, it’s a B for me. So keep that in mind, they all range from good to really good.
3. Ant-Man and the Wasp: The second film in the trilogy is a fun one for sure. It’s just as fun and funny as the original film, it’s never boring and it puts a big smile on my face. The cast here is just as fun and charming as the original. Paul Rudd still has all of the same humor and the charm of the original one. And you get more and better of the banter between him and Evangeline Lilly as The Wasp. Michael Douglas and Michael Pena continue to be just as good as the first movie. And the movie is a nice palate cleanser after Infinity War. That movie had an alien invasion plot line with the world in danger of ending. This movie is a MacGuffin story, if you don’t know what a MacGuffin is. It’s about different factions trying to get one item, but playing keep away with that item. In this case, it’s about Team Ant-Man trying to keep this building from Ghost and Sonny Birch. And it’s just refreshing that these first two Ant-Man movies are very simple, they are just fun smaller stories in the MCU. They aren’t worried about having the rest of the MCU on its shoulders or swinging for the fences. As far as negatives go, I never found Ghost to be all that interesting of a villain. She’s not bad, I like the fact that she’s not a mustache twirling villain. She’s just somebody that wants to keep herself alive and might have to hurt people that get in her way. Also, this is the MCU that is just good enough. It’s a movie that doesn’t do anything to make me love it or hate it. It’s just a good enough, fun enough MCU adventure. There’s nothing magical about the movie, but there’s also not anything that makes me go “this sucks”.
2. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania: The latest and last movie in the trilogy is right there in the middle for me. This movie’s reviews have been all over the place and at the end of the day I thought this movie was good. I liked this movie, I gave it a positive review and I stand by that. I think this is a good MCU movie. Is it great? No. But it’s not as bad as I feel like people want to make it out to be. The most notable thing to talk about here is Jonathan Majors as Kang, and I thought this was great casting. I loved Majors as Kang, he was so villainous. He’s so one note, he’s not a humorous character whatsoever. But through his eyes is really where he communicates so much. And I think in the future once we get Kang Dynasty and Secret Wars, Kang could be a top tier MCU villain and character. It’s also just fun to explore The Quantum Realm and all of the weird wacky creatures in there. While it also has this rebellion group wanting to stop Kang, and it’s just interesting. It’s nice to spend a solid 90 minutes or so in The Quantum Realm and learn more about it. Along those same lines, I liked the visuals for the movie a good bit. MODOK wasn’t the best looking, but The Quantum Realm itself looked really cool. It was believable that they were in these locations, it all looked like this very interesting place to go and visit. Now MODOK really didn’t work for me, I didn’t really like what they did with him. The CGI and the face on him was distracting and kind of bad. MODOK I think is easily a bottom tier MCU villain, and I’m not joking. I think the idea of it being Darren is decent, and they do a good job explaining why. But the execution and look of MODOK wasn’t a good idea. Also I thought the movie lost some of the charm of the franchise. When it’s so far debarted in the scope and tone of the previous two Ant-Man movies. That I don’t think it fully came together in that sense. But in general, I seem to like this movie more than most people. I don’t think it's a top tier MCU, but it’s a solid MCU adventure.
1. Ant-Man: This movie has a VERY interesting backstory to it. Where this movie was being developed going back to 2007 with Edgar Wright directing the movie. And then some footage leaked at comic con several years before the movie came out. And I believe that in July 2013 they finally confirmed this movie is happening, and it came out in July 2015. But this movie is one of the most pleasant surprises of the MCU. Ant-Man was a B-list character with a kind of a stupid name and costume. And you don’t look at Paul Rudd or his career and think “Marvel superhero”. But Paul Rudd as Scott Lang is one of those castings, that’s a lightning in a bottle. It’s so good, but you never would have thought to cast Paul Rudd as the title character in your Marvel movie. And then getting somebody like Michael Douglas just brings this gravatose to the whole thing. It’s also one of the funniest movies in the MCU, no questions asked. The rate per minute that the jokes drop in this movie is insane, it’s so funny. Paul Rudd just has this organic sense of humor about him. Michael Pena just steals every single scene that he is in, I love his chaotic story telling that he uses in this movie. And just that it’s a smaller scale superhero movie, it’s not about trying to save the world. No, it’s a simple heist movie that’s very small scale and very personal. This movie isn’t perfect, it’s not a top tier MCU for me. Yellowjacket isn’t the best or most original of villains. And there are some lapses in the logic with Hank’s plan and how the pieces fit together. But in general, this is still a very very good MCU movie that is both entertaining and funny.
There you have it, my ranking of the Ant-Man trilogy. Which one of these movies is your favorite? Also, where does the Ant-Man trilogy rank amongst the other MCU trilogies? After The Marvels comes out in November, I will be updating my ranking of the MCU franchises, so you can see if this franchise moved up or down since my last ranking. Thanks for reading!
Comments