Among the pantheon of Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) superheroes, Ant-Man is arguably a solid B-tier property. Ant-Man always has smaller stakes, smaller threats, and literally the smallest size. But Marvel changed that with this third installment. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania becomes the opening fanfare for MCU’s Phase 5, marking Kang the Conqueror’s introduction to the big screen before his Big Bad turn for Avengers: The Kang Dynasty.
In Quantumania, the Ant Fam – Scott Lang (Paul Rudd), Hope van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly), Scott’s daughter Cassie (Kathryn Newton), Hank Pym (Michael Douglas), and Janet van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer) – is finally together after weathering Quantum accidents, The Blip, and the Great Battle of Earth. Scott is upset he’s lost a lot of time with Cassie, who’s become a rebellious activist so different from the sweet little girl Scott remembered. Meanwhile, Hope is upset with Janet for refusing to open up about the time she went subatomic.
And then, they all get zapped into the Quantum Realm (again!). Forced to survive in the wilder and more densely-populated-than-expected world, the family ends up squaring off against Kang (Jonathan Major), a tyrant hell-bent on escaping the Quantum Realm to conquer Earth.
Wacky, lighthearted, and relatively inconsequential have always been the Ant-Man franchise’s brand. The third installment retains those qualities, though not in the way we hope.
On the wacky front, the film goes overdrive with the introductions of a slew of bizarre creatures inhabiting the Quantum Realm. There’s an alien with a spotlight for a head, a sentient Jell-O who’s weirdly concerned about not having holes, and mumbly cloaked critters that strongly resemble the Jawas from Star Wars. And then there’s the M.O.D.O.K. of it all. Let’s just say there’s never been a CGI character as disturbing as M.O.D.O.K. in the history of cinema. Long gone were the days when the wackiest thing in Ant-Man was Luis’ crazy antics.
As mentioned earlier, Avengers-level threat replaces the lightheartedness of Ant-Man in this movie. It’s fun to see the Lang-Pym-van Dyne clans’ band together to fight evil, but the most appealing thing about Ant-Man is always that he’s just looking out for the little guys. After losing its Earth setting, the movie feels like your run-of-the-mill space battle film with abstract CGI sky and fake landscapes. Nothing feels tactile, and therefore nothing feels authentic.
When we call Ant-Man inconsequential, it used to mean that his stories were always confined to his own world, more concerned with Scott being a better dad for Cassie rather than the fate of the world at large. But Quantumania is marketed as a universe-altering chapter for the MCU, with stakes so high and a villain so mighty. Yet, we ended up getting neither the heartwarming story we’ve come to expect nor the massive threatening force that the trailers promised. Jonathan Majors does his darndest to portray Kang’s menace, but the story lets him down with its achingly dull third act. It does no favor to the other characters either, as all involved have no semblance of character development. By the end, they’re the same people they were at the movie’s beginning. Again, inconsequential. Quantumania feels like a side quest that promises everything and then gives you nothing.
