Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania Review

Ant-Man gets his third solo film with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. This time the character finds himself in a big sci-fi adventure.

Since the events of Avengers: Endgame, Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) has published an autobiography and in a relationship with Hope van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly). Scott’s daughter, Cassie (Kathryn Newton) has become a political activist and fighting for the rights of people who have returned from the Blip. Janet van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer) has returned to the regular work after being trapped in the Quantum Realm for 30 years but refuses to talk about her time there.

When Cassie makes a device to monitor the Quantum Realm, Scott, Cassie, Hope, Janet, and Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) get sucked into this new universe. They need to find a way back to their world, but they find that the Quantum Realm is ruled by the tyrannical Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors).

Since Avengers: Endgame there has been a question lingering over the Marvel Cinematic Universe: where does it go next? Projects after Endgame have been a mixed bag. Spider-man: No Way Home was a smash hit, but the rest of the MCU in Phrase Four was met with a mixed reception. There has been talk about Marvel fatigue starting to set in. Kevin Feige has even announced there’s going to be fewer Marvel shows on Disney+ going forward. Quality control seems to be lacking at this point.

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quntumania has the unfortunate distinction of being the second MCU film to have a negative rating on Rotten Tomatoes and the join lowest ranked film on that website. The score on IMDB has been an underwhelming 6.6 in the early stages of its release. However, it’s far from being the worst film in MCU. It wasn’t a mishmash of ideas like Iron Man 2 or a tonally all over the place like Thor: Love and Thunder. The third Ant-Man film had a sense of story and tonal consistency. But it was competing against the highs of the MCU and needed to set up the new threats for the franchise.

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania saw a change in direction for the series. The first two Ant-Man films were smaller scale films, that came after massive Avengers films. The first Ant-Man film was a heist film and the threats in Ant-Man and the Wasp were a rogue government assassin and gangsters. Quantumania saw the characters in a grander adventure that felt more like Star Wars. They were in a new universe that was filled with strange and colourful characters.

Another comparison could be with the Disney’s adaptation of John Carter. Ant-Man and pals were transported to another world and needed to use their superpowers to lead a rebellion, just like Edgar Rice Burroughs’ creation. There was a theme that Scott had forgotten his roots and his daughter told him that he needed to stand up for the little guy. However, there was a risk that the film could have a white saviour story. Audience members of a certain political persuasion and YouTube reactionary channels will be triggered by some of the comments in the film.

The setting of the Quantum Realm felt more like the Star Wars prequels because it was so CGI heavy. It felt like 95% of the film was made in a computer. It doesn’t help that in recent years Marvel’s effects work and treatment of visual effects artists has come under the spotlight.

The story core was a simple: the heroes were trying to get home and the good guys needed to overthrow a tyrant. It was a standard template that we have seen a million times before. The big hook of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania was its role in setting up the future storyline for the MCU.

After Endgame, the MCU had been setting up the multiverse. Loki, What If…, Spider-Man: No Way Home, and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse have explored the barriers between dimensions breaking down. The season one finale of Loki even had Kang appearing as the main villain and Ant-Man and Wasp: Quantumania acted as a continuation to that episode. The film establishes how much of a threat Kang’s going to be. He had destroyed countless timelines and killed trillions. Kang makes Thanos look like a kitten. Ant-Man needs to make sure Kang doesn’t escape the Quantum Realm. However, a lot of this Kang material felt like a rethread of Loki.

Another way Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania set up the future of the MCU was with the character of Cassie. Cassie was shown to be a teenage scientific genius and she also got to wear an Ant-Man suit. Along with characters like Peter Parker, Shuri, Kamala Khan and Riri Williams, Cassie joins a contingent of young superhumans and MCU seems to be pivoting towards having a younger cast.

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania can be described as fine. It told its story well enough but it was a formulaic film. It will entertain but won’t have a lasting impact.