Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania: A Precursor Of What’s To Come

Throughout the beginning of the post-Avengers: Endgame
era, there was a common complaint that the path forward for the Marvel Cinematic Universe was unclear. The problem was, the Infinity Saga had just wrapped up and the trajectory of the story was cycling back to more of an “act one” style of storytelling (introducing characters and laying out the world as it stands in the aftermath of a cataclysm) with a bunch of loosely connected narratives. As the story moves forward, the path towards the next major event is starting to take shape with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, even if at times this is to the detriment of the narrative of this standalone movie.

Following the events of Avengers: Endgame, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania picks up with Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) dealing with his newfound fame after helping the Avengers defeat Thanos. When his daughter Cassie (here played by Kathryn Newton, previously played by Abby Ryder Fortson in Ant-Man and Ant-Man and the Wasp and Emma Fuhrmann in Avengers: Endgame) shows Hank Pym (Michael Douglas), Janet Van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer), and Hope Van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly) a new beacon into the Quantum Realm, they are all sucked in and brought face to face with the villainous Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors) and MODOK. Bill Murray, William Jackson Harper, and David Dastmalchian also star.

By and large, what the movie does well outweighs its shortcomings. The production design for the Quantum Realm takes full advantage of the advances in CGI over the last few years. There are times when the seams show and the effects are not entirely perfect, however, when it looks good it is among some of the best out of Marvel Studios. That said, the movie does spend a good amount of the time on the volume (the soundstage that was created by Lucasfilm for shows like The Mandalorian but eventually major movies like Thor: Love and Thunder were shot there) and it is very obvious when it is used to create the backgrounds when watched in 3D. Other movies that utilize 3D technology tend to have depth to the background while it is very obvious that there is a wall behind the actors in this movie.

Jonathan Majors is a standout star in this film and carries Kang with a gravitas that will make him a fearsome villain going forward over the course of the next few years. That said, Kang the Conqueror is a questionable choice for a villain in an Ant-Man solo movie considering the sizable chasm between the abilities of the two characters so it is obvious that the decision to introduce him here was more for the overarching narrative than it was for the best possible outcome in this movie. This is made more obvious about halfway through the movie when MODOK is revealed and his storyline would make for a better Ant-Man solo villain than Kang.

Within this movie itself, there are a series of decisions made that aren’t the best for the sake of the internal narrative. The arc with MODOK has the potential to be the emotional core of the movie but, because the movie is serving the larger master of introducing Kang, this is short-changed. There is a similar issue with the conflict between Janet and Hope which oscillates wildly from contentious to as if nothing is going on from scene to scene. Janet hiding the information about what happened to her in the Quantum Realm has the potential to be an interesting character arc, however, it is also short-changed. The only relationship that feels like it is properly handled is Scott and Cassie, and even that does not have enough time before it devolves into a climactic fight against Kang.

At the end of the day, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania
is definitely a movie designed to move the overall narrative of the MCU forward over tell a cohesive story for Scott Lang and the rest of his supporting cast, making the movie more similar to Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
instead of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever which is what it should have been. The Ant-Man movies have a smaller niche audience because the characters are scaled (no pun intended) to deal with smaller threats which result in movies that are basically heist films. Moving Ant-Man into these world-ending stakes is a disservice to the character, even if the result is still worth watching and has plenty of entertaining moments. If one is going to see it in theaters, one should strive to see it in 2D because the 3D effects do not mesh well with the technology, but on the largest screen possible.

Final Rating: 7.5/10