Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania - Review
After the Avengers saved the universe and defeated Thanos, the dead were buried and people went on with their lives and much like phase 4 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, some were without direction. Now that Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania has arrived, a new direction has been set, but does this new path lead somewhere good?
Having the movie open up with Scott enjoying life, getting free coffee – which in San Francisco is likely a real treat and generally living up the fact that he saved the world, was a fun way of opening things. It also helps that he is narrating everything, explaining what people are up to and how life is perfect right now, so of course we cut to the cause of the problem, Cassie. In the first two movies Cassie was a child and provided a sense of heart for Scott, even when he himself didn’t believe, here though she has put her heart elsewhere. Cassie is deciding to use her access to Pym tech as a means to help the less fortunate, but also working with Hank and Hope on learning more about the Quantum Realm. Of course, things go wrong and what was meant to be a safe and easy way of learning about the realm draws the heroes into the world. I don’t want to spoil anything more about the story or the characters they meet along the journey, because to do so would undercut some intriguing moments, but I do want to talk about Kang.
Anyone who has seen Loki season 1 will have already met a version of Kang, even if he is never named in the show and while he had charm, he wasn’t dangerous. In this movie, Kang is very dangerous, but not because of the character, but rather the tech that he has, kind of like Iron Man in a suit vs out of one. When we first meet Kang, its in a flashback at the start of the movie and he just looks lost and confused, when we learn more about him, it seems that he just wants to return home. The problem is that even though Jonathan Majors does an outstanding job in portraying the man, he still never comes across as a real threat. Leaving the theatre, I had the feeling that Kang ended up with the same level of threat as Thanos, but not from Infinity War but rather the first Avengers movie. They are setting him up to be the big bad for the next few movies and shows, and while I can appreciate it, it just feels a bit to forced for me. I would have rather seen the character be a danger, because he was dangerous and not because someone said he would be.
That gives me a good segue into the cast of the movie, with Paul Rudd once again providing a central point to focus on. Rudd has taken a character that could have easily been a one note being, a thief with a heart of gold and made them someone who you want to cheer on. Ant-Man and his acts of saving the world have given Scott Lang some perspective on things and maybe a small dose of fear and its interesting to see how Rudd brings those feelings across. His counterpart is once again played by Evangeline Lilly, who this time along with sporting a pixie style cut, is slightly more important in the real world. Outside of her leading a powerful tech firm, in the Quantumrealm, Hope’s role seems to be more akin to asking questions the audience needs to have answers for and rescuing Scott. With three full movies under her belt, I would have loved to have seen Lilly get more meat to chew on here, but she still does well with what she was given. The other major playing in the ant-fam is Kathryn Newton, who picks up the role of Cassie and there is good and bad here. The good is that she fills in with little effort, as if she was always Cassie, the downside though is that she acts like she is important, even going so far as to use the Blip as a reason why. Newton did do a great job of slotting into the daughter role and the dynamic that she has with Rudd’s Lang shows when the pair are on screen together.
The other members of the ant-fam are Hank and Janet and while Michael Douglass had plenty of growth in the previous two movies, here he shines as more of an eccentric grandpa. He has moments of course, but they are usually played up for a laugh more than anything dramatic and even when he attempts to make Janet jealous, it ends with a laugh. Janet on the other hand has some of the most growth across the movie, the opening flashback is interesting, but it is finally when she opens up that we learn more. Michelle Pfeiffer shows a lot of smarts in Janet, but also amplifies the scared when she explains about Kang and because of her position in the Quantumrealm, she has lots to share. The remaining cast are all pretty standard character types, from the telepathic guy, to the small and yet dangerous creature and even Bill Murray’s Lord Krylar fits into a pretty specific character archtype.
Where things fall apart story wise though is with the Quantumrealm itself, because things don’t make sense and I am not talking about the visuals. The entire first movie explained that the realm was so dangerous that the human mind couldn’t comprehend it, the second showed that it was possible to live there and come back without any issues and the Avengers Endgame, advised that time doesn’t work the same down there. The problem is that all three of those points don’t match up with anything that happens here, though Scott does question the time aspect. There are inconsistencies to the realm that do make it hard to take anything being shown at face value, more so when there are entire civilizations shown to exist. It could be a case of just visiting a different part of the realm, but that is not how the frame it. Basically, if you are going in to see how it connects to the larger, pun not intended, MCU – then don’t. It seems they don’t care about those details right now and trying to understand won’t help you out.
The visuals are of course a major part of this movie, while the first two were set in San Francisco and made use of CGI in the growing and shrinking of the characters, here almost everything is CGI. The film is another Marvel production to make use of ILM’s Stagecraft, following Thor: Love and Thunder, which is funny as both Ant-man director Payton Reed and Thor director Taika Waititi both used the set when directing episodes of The Mandalorian. Because of the nature of so much virtual assets, from sets to characters, there were some times when I spotted less than wonderful interaction on some elements, but I go looking for that stuff, so the average viewer may not care. The soundtrack is wonderful, the music has an otherworldly feeling to it, which fits within the Quantumrealm and in a strange twist, there are only two licenced songs in the entire film.
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is a solid start to Phase 5 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. If you ignore the movies attempts to make Kang dangerous, then you get a solid movie about protecting what you love, while also doing right for those you may not even know. The films many virtual locations all look incredible, to the point where it must have been fun designing them. The returning cast all fit back into their roles with ease and while the newcomers add a lot to the roles, the reliance on Jonathon Majors Kang may not help it in the long run. Kang in this movie is dangerous, but doesn’t feel like a multi-movie threat and that is something I am hoping will change, the teasers in the credits do give me hope. If you were burnt by the weird state of Phase 4 of the MCU, know that the kick off to Phase 5 is strong and delightfully fun.
The Score
8.5
Review access provided by Disney
The Pros
+The returning characters all add depth to them, in interesting ways and it makes for some fun moments on screen
+The Quantumrealm is visually incredible, far beyond anything we have seen of it before
The Cons
-Kang is dangerous in the film, but it doesn’t make him multi-movie dangerous
-There is no cohesion to the parts of the Quantumrealm that we have been shown before
