'Ant-Man: Quantumania' Proves That Marvel Is Doubling Down on Its Mistakes for Phase Five

(Disney/Marvel Studios via AP)

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Disney/Marvel went from being one of the greatest achievements in cinematic history to one of the most divisive and despised franchises in the modern era, and it was all thanks to the forced injection of modern politics and social justice messaging.

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After the events of “Avengers: Endgame,” there was hope that Marvel would continue its competency as “Spider-Man: No Way Home” was a breakout success, but it was soon made very clear that while Sony-owned Spider-Man might be safe from the machinations of Disney, nothing else would be.

Marvel’s phase four (aptly named “phase bore” by honest critics) was an absolute mess of hyper-feminization, lazy writing, social justice messaging, and incompetent showrunners who were more interested in self-insertion and preaching from their soap boxes than actually respecting the source material.

All of this came to a head when Disney+ released the show “She-Hulk: Attorney at Law” which embodied everything wrong with what came to be called the “M-She-U.” It was filled to the brim with feminist messaging from clearly embittered leftists who spend most of their day complaining about men over copious amounts of alcohol.

(READ: The New ‘She-Hulk’ Show Embarrasses Itself, Marvel, and Disney With Dumb Feminist Rant)

The emasculation of the men within Marvel’s grasp was unforgiving and total. Doctor Strange, Moon Knight, Loki, and Thor took backseats in their own movies to their female co-stars who always managed to be more clever, more powerful, or at least more courageous than the main title character. The women could do no wrong, even when they committed great evil, such as how Wanda Maximoff enslaved an entire town and then proceeded to go on a murderous rampage, all while getting a hero’s sendoff at the end.

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The final straw for many was the super feminized “Wakanda Forever” which uses the real-life death of Chadwick Boseman as a chance to push more feminist narratives by wholly replacing the character he helped create with a woman. The movie was so blatant in its propaganda that YouTuber Courtney Michelle called it “Woman King on steroids.”

(READ: Marvel Went from a ‘Take It or Leave It’ Brand to ‘Leave It’ With ‘Wakanda Forever’)

This socio-political infection into the MCU has cost it dearly. While it likes to pretend crowds are more excited than ever to see these movies, audience scores and box office numbers that fall short of expectations tell the real story. The pattern is that a Marvel movie will open to somewhat impressive numbers only to see these numbers sharply decline in the following weeks, resulting in box office disappointments.

“Wakanda Forever” was projected to make $1 billion but hit a slowdown in theaters after its breakout release putting it as the 6th highest-grossing film of 2022. While not a bomb by any measure, it was a signal that the MCU was running low on steam. “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” also had the same story of releasing to big numbers only to watch audiences suddenly disappear in subsequent weeks. Meanwhile, Disney+ can’t seem to please viewers enough to keep them as millions are canceling their subscriptions. This after reports of a disappointing outing for phase four shows.

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This brings us to the beginning of phase five with “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumanium.”

This movie is so bad that professional critics are giving it a bad rating. Moreover, movie reviewers on YouTube are all reporting that the movie makes all the same mistakes Marvel made in phase four, but on steroids.

Lazy CGI is coupled with nonsensical writing and in-your-face messaging including one scene where one of the characters flatly advocates for socialism. The women are, once again, the more powerful and capable characters while the men are consistently sidelined or saved.

As I wrote previously, this movie almost seems like it was more geared towards appeasing the Chinese government than American movie-goers.

(READ: Disney Fully Caves to China for Upcoming Ant-Man Movie with Pro-Socialism Message)

While I won’t write spoilers here, YouTuber ComixDivision gave a great rundown of the movie that you can watch below.

“Ant-Man 3” is proof that Disney is not only failing to learn from its mistakes in phase four, it’s doubling down on them.

I expect this film to do what Marvel films typically do. It’ll have some success at the opening but will experience a steep drop-off in viewership, failing to meet expectations and ultimately disappointing Disney’s bean counters. More importantly, it will continue to disappoint movie-goers. The question is, how much longer will this continue before Disney gets the point?

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At this time, it absolutely deserves to fail. It insults the viewers, it insults the actors, and it insults the source material. Disney/Marvel is more interested in using something built by better people as a tool for modern social justice messaging than it is in incredible storytelling and fantastic productions.

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