The post-Blip world I'm of two minds on. There is a definite point in how making the world similar to ours after all this stuff doesn't really work. But I also think if your story isn't about the Blip, it doesn't have to be? Take world shattering/influencing events like World War II, the Cold War, climate change. If you have a story taking place in a time and place where these things, while happening, are a secondary concerns to the characters involved, they don't
have to make it all about it. If there a highschool romantic comedy taking place in 60s London, I don't need the characters to stop and turn the camera to tell us about what living under the threat of nuclear annihilation is like, unless it's specifically story relevant.
Anyway, I watched the movie and it was good! Like, it's not the best MCU movie, but the reviews giving it close to 50% are bonkers, I was entertained and had a good time. It may be a question of CGI but I have never been the best at seeing bad ones unless it's really obvious.
Jonathan Majors basically stole every scene he was in. Kang acts like he forces himself to be calm and polite, but his veneer is thin and he is always two seconds away from just beating someone to death.
Scott wondering if Kang truly died and if he didn't doom the universe before forcefully convincing himself that everything is fine in the ending was extremely funny, and I also didn't expect Loki and Mobius of all people in the post-credit scene, watching (the original?) Kang/Victor Timely in Victorian England.
Besides him, the movie also served as an introduction of Cassie as a character.
You get a sense of what she's like and I found it endearing, especially wanting to help the little guy on the regular instead of only saving the world in big crises (and being ACAB). I found it cute how she refers to Hank and Janet as her grandparents and it's clear it's natural and the people involved do see each other as family. Surprised they didn't outright call her Stature but I guess that's for another movie.
MODOK was...I can see what they were going for and it worked somewhat in the movie, but his design kinda oscillated between deliberately uncanny and immersion breaking uncanny depending on the scenes he was in. The close-ups didn't help.
I think my main criticism for now (there may be more once I've let a few days pass to reflect on the film)
is Hope. The movie being Ant-Man and the Wasp, not just Anrt-Man, means she should be just as focused on as Scott, but I feel like, unlike the second movie, this film struggles on giving her something to do. She contributes to the plot, don't get me wrong (she saves Scott twice), but other than action setpieces she doesn't have much to go on. She has an arc about her mom keeping secrets from her, and their strained relationship paralleling Cass and Scott, but that arc ends way too fast by the midway point of the movie. It's kind of a shame. At least I like that the movie didn't give the duo relationship troubles and let them be a couple together without forced drama.
Edit : IIRC does Schang-chi even mention the blip at all?
There is a mention of how they live in a world where "half the population can suddenly vanish", and a bulletin board has an ad for post-Blip depression.
