10 shocking things I learned rewatching the MCU movies

7. The Ant-Man films should have stuck to what they were good at

Ahead of the release of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania there was quite a lot of buzz surrounding the fact that it had a "main event" feel to it. What I mean by that is that the Ant-Man movies typically had a reputation for being a bit of a palette-cleanser, offering up silly, light-hearted fun after some of the MCU's more serious outings. The third one, however, introduced Kang the Conqueror and set the stage for a more serious outing. The response was incredibly mixed.

Here's the thing about the Ant-Man movies (and you really do see this when watching them back), they may be palette-cleansers that make you laugh, but they are also well-storylined heist movies. They don't rely on the strength of their villains or the seriousness of the story, they rely on the chemistry between the ensemble cast and their respective characters' commitment to pulling off the seemingly impossible job they set out for themselves. They don't really feel like superhero movies, or even MCU movies for that matter.

Quantumania, on the other hand, felt too MCU for its own good. There was no heist, no low-stakes mission that grew out of proportion by the end of the movie; but there was bland CGI visuals aplenty, stakes far too high for the Ant-Man franchise, and a very Avengers feel to it. It robbed the Ant-Man saga of its own identity, cast away what made it work, and produced a very typical, and very dull, MCU movie in its place.

I enjoyed the film for what it was, and Michelle Pfeiffer's performance was a show-stealer, but a third Ant-Man movie in the vein of the first two would have been so much better.