IN a departure from the last two adventures fronted by Scott Lang, ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’ ups its stakes while going subatomic, while succumbing to the same pitfalls affecting the most recent wave of MCU projects.
When the movie starts, Lang (Paul Rudd) is doing just fine, having cashed in on his Avengers fame by writing a congratulatory memoir. He gets a superhero discount at restaurants and coffee shops too.
The only issue is his slightly distant relationship with his daughter Cassie (Kathryn Newton) – though this is a Marvel movie, so don’t expect some deep family drama. Along with his partner Hope/Wasp (Evangeline Lilly), and her parents Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) and Janet (Michelle Pfeiffer), they’re all one big happy family.
Unfortunately, a scientific mishap has them all sucked into the Quantum Realm, a place beyond time and space. On top of that, Janet – who previously spent 30 years trapped in the Quantum Realm – has been withholding some information about a threat from her past.
That threat is none other than Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors), a dimension-hopping supervillain who has been hyped up since the first season of Loki (2021) as the MCU’s next Thanos.
He’s easily one of the most compelling villains (at least in terms of the actor’s performance) that Marvel has had, though he’s obviously held back by plot contrivances – they can’t kill him off because he needs to be a recurring baddie. But by putting Ant-Man on an equal footing, it kind of neuters his power.
That’s not even mentioning the kind of laughably bad first post-credits scene. Majors is a gifted actor, but he can indulge in overacting if given the opportunity.
All the actors do a solid job, though no one really stands out. Rudd is always charming, and Newton – who is obviously being positioned as the future of the franchise – is fine, but is really held back by some cliched character development (which is true for a few characters).
The writing in general is a weak point of the movie, with a lot of ideas (if not the possibility of ideas) thrown out, but the plotting is typical Marvel – overly complicated exposition. The last half hour is also a seemingly never-ending action sequence with cool shots and beats that just blur together after a while. There really can be too much of a good thing.
Mostly taking place in the alien-looking and metaphysically unsound Quantum Realm, ‘Quantumania’ might be the most visually outlandish MCU movie since ‘Thor: Ragnarok’ or ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’. Unfortunately, as the movie goes on, the effects lose their power as the overuse of obvious greenscreen detracts from any sense of wonder.
Really, after the awesome special effects in ‘Avatar: The Way of Water’, it’s hard to be that impressed by computer-generated worlds that are not as well thought out as Cameron’s Pandora.
There’s also a character who’s long been a fixture of comics and cartoons making his live-action premiere, and while his design is true to his original look, it’s just a little too goofy looking. Maybe the effects can be improved, maybe it’s just the inherent weirdness of bringing comics to life.
The MCU in the post ‘Avengers: Endgame’ era – which roughly coincides with the pandemic – have received a bit of a mixed reception (notwithstanding the resounding success of ‘No Way Home’), with the deluge of shows and movies in the last two years diluting the appeal of the mega-franchise.
Despite some cool effects and visually interesting sequences, as well as a charismatic (if nerfed) villain, ‘Quantumania’ doesn’t really change that trend. – The Vibes, February 17, 2023
