REVIEW: Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania
Rated PG-13 • 2 hours, 5 minutes • The bottom line: While convoluted and chaotic at times, at its heart, Quantumania delivers an interesting story of action and consequence.
Synopsis
“Ant-Man and the Wasp find themselves exploring the Quantum Realm, interacting with strange new creatures and embarking on an adventure that pushes them beyond the limits of what they thought was possible.”
Director: Peyton Reed
Writers: Jeff Loveness
Key Cast: Paul Rudd, Jonathan Majors, Evangeline Lilly, Kathryn Newton, Michael Douglas and Michelle Pfeiffer
Producer: Kevin Feige and Stephen Broussard
Music: Christophe Beck
What worked
Jonathan Majors as Kang. Absolutely incredible.
The CGI is immersive and engaging.
The chemistry between Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) and Cassie Lang (Kathryn Newton) is terrific and that father-daughter dynamic really adds to the story
What didn’t work
Its grandiose (and, at times, overblown) scale made it difficult to keep focus on the main characters.
Too much emphasis on world building and laying out the future of the MCU, rather than living in the moment.
Set two years after the events of Avengers: Endgame, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania finds Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) embracing his newfound celebrity status as an Avenger. He’s started a podcast and wrote a book, titled “Look Out For the Little Guy,” about his adventures in saving the universe. His daughter, Cassie (Kathryn Newton) has become an activist, trying to help those who were affected by the Blip (the disappearance and subsequent return of half of the universe’s population). She’s also begun working with Hope van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly) and Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) to map out the Quantum Realm. Then, as one would expect, things go horribly wrong and the entire crew, along with Janet van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer), gets trapped in the Quantum Realm. There, they face a growing and horrifying threat in Kang (Jonathan Majors), a multiversal being they must defeat before he destroys … well, everything.
Let’s get this out of the way: Quantumania, despite its title, is far from being your typical Ant-Man film, at least the kind to which moviegoers have become accustomed during the first two movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe sub-franchise. In fact, Quantumania is a huge swing, with its focus almost entirely on establishing a villain that will be the cornerstone of Marvel films for the next several years, in Kang the Conquerer. And while that swing mostly worked well for me, there’s no question it won’t work for everyone—particularly those who don’t necessarily keep regular tabs on the MCU.
At its core, Quantumania is about dealing with unintended consequences, and whether it’s those faced by Janet van Dyne in her early dealings with Kang, Cassie in her efforts to establish communications with the Quantum Realm, Kang’s efforts to rule the Realm or any number of smaller side stories, there are plenty of consequences that rear their ugly head.
There’s a heck of a lot going on in this movie, at times overwhelming with new information, not to mention lots of questions about the consequences of what’s to come in the greater MCU. This sci-fi adventure film film really doesn’t shy away from leaving many of those questions unanswered, either—a strong departure from the typical mode of operation for Marvel films that tend to tie their self-contained stories neatly into a bow, with small hints as to what’s to come. That’s equal parts frustrating and intriguing for a viewer like me, who loves the interconnected nature of the films, but it’s sure to rub some people the wrong way.
That’s all to say nothing of the performances, which were extraordinary. In particular, Jonathan Majors is spectacular as Kang, with a vicious and powerful delivery of every line and body language that exudes the inherent confidence and menace of a conquerer. While more cut from the cloth of Black Panther’s Killmonger than a Thanos, Kang has the potential to be one of the best villains the MCU has ever had, as his story (or, perhaps more appropriately, stories) unfolds over the next few years. That’s thanks in large part to Majors’ commanding and cruel performance that only serves to elevate the iteration we saw of Majors’ character(s) in the first season of Loki.
In addition to Majors, Kathryn Newton does an excellent job as an older Cassie Lang, replacing Abby Ryder Forston who was terrific in the role during the first two Ant-Man films. Newton is a pleasant surprise, particularly given the bar set by Forston, with great delivery and tremendous chemistry with Paul Rudd, which felt like a genuine continuation of the father-daughter dynamic between Forston and Rudd years earlier.
Michael Douglas has a great turn once more as Hank Pym (albeit in a slightly campier way than perhaps was expected), and Pfeiffer as Janet van Dyne is strong, driving audiences up a wall a bit by tiptoeing around her previous time in the Quantum Realm seemingly at every turn—it was annoying, but intentionally so. Evangeline Lilly (Wasp) is in the film some, but she neither plays an outsized role in the story, nor is her character’s individual story particularly captivating.
While the writing isn’t the strongest of any Marvel film (Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Avengers: Infinity War are among my favorites), it is effective enough—albeit a bit overstuffed, at times, leaving me wanting more from the primary story of the main characters (Scott and Cassie, in particular). Paired with breathtaking visuals (specifically those that show the grand scope and unique environments of the Quantum Realm), Quantumania is still enamoring throughout and made me more excited for what’s to come in the MCU than most of what was in the movie itself.
Bottom line: While convoluted and chaotic at times, at its heart, Quantumania delivers an interesting story of action and consequence that left me eager to see what happens next in the MCU. Score: 7.5/10