A Problem With Ant-Man

Overall, Tananarive’s reaction was “a sad, sad mess.” I agree. But there are deeper problems than just an over-reliance on CGI, narrative bloat, bad editing and simply put, a movie too large with stakes too small.

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When you walk into a movie with a mild curiosity about not “if” but “how” they will render a character (or all characters of a particular type) asexual, it is bleak satisfaction to see that they have, once again, found an approach they probably thought clever.

SPOILERS FOR “ANT MAN” AND OTHERS

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So…we know Michelle Pfeiffer was stuck in the Quantum Universe for 30 years. She had “needs” which she satisfied with Bill Murray — they made a point of it.

But she also spent years marooned alone with Jonathan Majors. Intimate years. “It was good to have a friend” she said, as they sat together platonically.

Later, we see that Kang/Majors is apparently of a species that reproduces asexually — a vast crowd of males, no females at all.

And of course, viewed as an individual choice, there is nothing wrong with that. Viewed as part of a pattern where no black man in any of the THIRTY MCU movies or the Disney+ shows has so much as kissed a woman, it is just another part of an obvious pattern.