“Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,” the third installment of the “Ant-Man” series and the latest in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, hit theatres on Friday, ushering in the return of fan-favorite Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) and his girlfriend, Hope van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly) in the titular roles. Other returning characters include Dr. Hank Pym (Michael Douglas), Janet Van Dyne (Michelle Pfieffer) and Cassie Lang (played for the first time by Kathryn Newton). Unfortunately for fans of “Ant-Man,” this film lacks the charm and wit of its two predecessors and replaces their goofy tone with the basic feel of most standard MCU films.
The first two “Ant-Man” films were unique in their commitment to comedy and lack of care for the overall MCU story, mostly existing in a cute little bubble of fun superhero movies. However, it appears that the filmmakers of “Quantumania” wanted Ant-Man’s stories to be more relevant to the MCU than they had been in the past, and in this effort, dropped everything that made Ant-Man films so unique (including Luis (Michael Pena) and his memorable comedy monologues).
The villain in this film is Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors), who appears to be the new Thanos of this stage of the MCU. Presumably, whoever is planning how this new phase will go wanted Kang to be introduced to the non-”Loki”-watching audience before the next crop of Avengers movies and must have picked “Ant-Man” at random. Despite Majors’ performance being the standout of this film, his inclusion only brings the quality of this film down. His very reason for being in the movie is one of the worst contrivances in MCU history, and it only gets worse from there.
Janet, who was rescued from the Quantum Realm in “Ant-Man and the Wasp,” has apparently forgotten that she actively helped Scott travel there at the end of the last film, and hasn’t told the characters any useful information about it, saying that she wants everyone to stay far away from it. Of course, this backfires, and Janet’s refusal to mention anything about the Quantum Realm leads our heroes to find themselves trapped there after Cassie, now a teenager, builds a microscope that can send a signal to the subatomic universe. Despite the very purpose of the machine being that it helps them study the realm without having to shrink to explore it, the machine malfunctions and shrinks the characters, who now have to explore it.
While the characters attempt to find their way home, they discover that civilizations of intelligent life have existed in the Quantum Realm this entire time, which is another detail that Janet left out, despite it apparently confirming she and Hank’s scientific theories they had spent a great deal of time on. She also failed to tell them that these civilizations are now ruled by Kang, a villain so powerful, he could destroy entire timelines if freed from the Quantum Realm. Janet’s refusal to tell her family anything about her discoveries while trapped in the Quantum Realm not only makes no sense, but it is also a blatant retcon of her behavior and what we know of the last films.
Moving on from the plot contrivance, the rest of the film severely lulls from then on, making the sickly-looking CGI hard not to notice. The film takes place in a universe unlike our own, and because of this, heavily relies on CGI to make the setting more otherworldly, which is fine, but the overuse of purple and orange in the scenery made me feel like I was watching “The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl.” It quite possibly could be the ugliest-looking MCU film to date.
Also in “Sharkboy and Lavagirl” fashion, we are introduced to a big-headed villain about halfway through the film (mild spoiler warning soon if you care about cameos), a particularly well-known comic book villain with a giant head and skinny limbs. Yes, MODOK is in this movie. I do have to give them credit for making the cameo so unexpected, but fans probably didn’t expect an MCU MODOK because they didn’t think the studio would actually try to make this character design look realistic in live-action. Well, they did, and it looks about as dumb as you’d think it would.
Not only does MODOK look terrible (I can’t understate how uncanny-valley the whole thing is), his reason for being in this movie is even more contrived and nonsensical than Kang’s. This version of MODOK is, wait for it, Darren Cross (Corey Stoll). In the very likely case you don’t remember who that is, Darren was the villain of the first “Ant-Man” film, who apparently didn’t die and became deformed while going subatomic. Why the filmmakers decided to resurrect one of the least memorable villains of the MCU, I don’t understand.
As stated earlier, Majors’ performance as Kang was incredibly well done. I look forward to seeing more of him in the MCU, and he was far and away the best part of the film. The performances from Rudd and Newton were strong as well, and it was a delight to see William Jackson Harper, who played the telepathic comic-relief character Quaz.
Despite the first half of the title of this film is “Ant-Man and the Wasp,” the Wasp sure didn’t have much to do in this movie. She and her father, Hank, were severely under-utilized, not becoming relevant to the plot until the climax of the film. At one point, after Hope saves Scott from Kang, the two have a moment and share “I love you,” which was incredibly off-putting since it was one of the only interactions the characters had with each other throughout the film.
Overall, “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” is a major disappointment to fans of this franchise. The film felt like a mashup of every MCU movie’s worst tendencies, from overused CGI to meaningless cameos. Gone are the comic tone and unique playfulness of the first two “Ant-Man” films, and instead, we are given a bland story, unmemorable dialogue, and a two-hour movie that feels like a lifetime.
