Ant Man and the Wasp: Quadrophenia (whatever)
Ant Man is the blandest of the the Marvel lineup. It's not absurd and tangled like the almost unwatchable Dr. Strange entries. It's not outrageous and campy like the last two Thor entries. But it also doesn't rise to the level of Ironman or Captain America.
Part of that is the general genial blandness of Paul Rudd. That's not a condemnation, it's just what he is. It fits the part. He doesn't have the same charisma as Downey, Hemsworth, Evans, or even Johannsen. That everyman blandness helps make the character work, though. Rudd as Scott actually leans into it, accepting that Antman is fourth or fifth banana on the Avengers tree, at best.
The rest of the ensemble is reasonably strong. The girl from Freaky (who I like) stepping into the daughter role, Michelle Pfieffer and Michael Douglas sliding back into the Pym family slots. And Evangeline Lily (with an atrocious hairdo, gross) returning as the love interest/sidekick.
Two problems:
1 - the story. All that "big, little, big, tiny, other universe, crazy alien" stuff is too much. It gets muddled after a while. I will say that Star Wars could have used some of the alien creation here, rather than the raggedy ass muppets it relies on. The creatures were well rendered.
2 - Kang. That guy, whoever he is, was pretty awful.
The film teased way more of him/it to come but if I had to guess, I'd say that will be one of those threads that will be dropped and forgotten as Marvel moves forward. They're already scrapping their entire planned M-She-U due to audience fatigue and indifference - although I feel confident they'll blame Trump and DeSantis for their failures.
That brings me to a point I made years ago when the media declared that the entire nation was "in love" with a racehorse as they bombarded us with stories about it. In reality, few cared. They WANTED us to care. It's the same thing with this whole female/LGBRQ549+-% agenda Disney/Marvel decided to pursue. It wasn't what people actually wanted or would support. It was what a very small number of people decided that we wanted. And when it failed (spectacularly), those same people chose not to accept the reality, but affixed a series of "ism" and "phobe" tags to anyone who dared to think differently.
I don't think Antman Quadrophonic was a bad movie. It just didn't move the needle. And it had to throw in one little "socialism is a great idea, just look at the ants" line. I know it performed poorly at the box office (not as poorly as crap like SheHulk and Eternals), and I expect it will probably just fade into anonymity over time. It definitely didn't advance the Marvel story and if I had to guess, it will be the last time we see Antman in a lead role. (Rudd is looking a little old, to be honest). I think their plan was to prop up the daughter as the next Ant hero - as part of that entire SheIron, SheHulk, LadyThor, ChickHawk, lineup they were trying to build -- but that will never work. It just won't. So pick an "ism" or "phobe" to tar me with and let's move on.