Movie Review: 'Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania'

Ant-Man and the Wasp Quantumania

Directed by Peyton Reed

Written by Jeff Loveness

Starring Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Michelle Pfeiffer, Michael Douglas, Jonathan Majors

Release Date February 17th, 2023

Published February 15th, 2023

In the Quantum Realm Janet Van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer) believed she would live out her days alone and lost. Then, a spaceship crashed in front of her. Inside was a man with no name, though she would eventually know him as Kang (Jonathan Majors). For a time, Janet and this nameless man worked together to try and escape from the Quantum Realm. That partnership ended when Janet found out who Kang really was, an entity, a being, a God, known as Kang The Conqueror.

Kang once held a mastery over time. His God-like powers allowed him to travel the multiverse where he destroyed entire branch universes in order to consolidate his own power. Trapped in the Quantum Realm after Janet betrayed him, Kang built an empire and kept searching for a means to escape. That chance to escape comes after Janet has managed to escape, with the help of Scott Lang (Paul Rudd), aka Ant-Man. It takes a little time but when Cassie Lang builds a machine that is capable of mapping the Quantum Realm, it opens a portal that sucks in Cassie, her dad Scott, Janet, her husband, Hank Pym (Michael Douglas), and Janet's daughter, Hope Van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly), aka The Wasp.

Now trapped in the Quantum Realm and separated from each other, the family must find a way to reunite. All while being pursued by Kang who hopes to steal whatever means allowed Janet to escape from the Quantum Realm. That means being, Pym Particles, the creation that allows Ant-Man and The Wasp to shrink or grow in size and take advantage of the strength of ants. Kang believes that this technology could be used to restore the MacGuffin that gave power to the ship that stranded him in the Quantum Realm and allow him to travel to and conquer universes as he had done before he was exiled.

And that's the plot of Ant-Man and the Wasp Quantumania. Can Scott Lang overcome the God-Like powers of Kang the Conqueror and keep him from destroying countless universes. It's a solid and relatively simple plot but one that lacks much in terms of depth. Scott Lang's character arc isn't much. He wishes he could go back to before The Snap and be with Cassie as she grows up. Kang, with his ability to manipulate time, might be able to give him that wish. However, though the trailer seems to indicate that Scott would be open to working with Kang, that doesn't happen in the movie.

At no point is Scott not the Ant-Man we've always known, a slightly gawky devoted dad and practical screw-up. The movie doesn't change him much nor, does it appear that his experiences saving the world alongside the Avengers seem to have changed him much. He's perhaps become overly cautious when it comes to Cassie and her safety, urging her not to take risks or do anything that might risk her safety, even if said thing is the right thing to do. That's not really much of an arc but that's about all that we get in Ant-Man and the Wasp Quantumania.

In terms of arcs, none of these characters seem to have much growth or change. Janet Van Dyne does open up to her family for the first time since she has been back from the Quautum Realm and in her own universe but that's only because of the dangerous circumstances at play and not due to any emotional growth on her part. As for Hank and Hope, they're mostly sidelined here. Hope especially, seems to have less dialogue and screen time than in the previous Ant-Man movies. Michael Douglas has a few moments where he looks cool but he's mostly superfluous to the plot.

In the end, Ant-Man and the Wasp Quantumania probably should have been called Kang the Conqueror Quantumania. Jonathan Majors' baddie is the real star of Quantumania. The film appears determined to demonstrate the danger Kang represents in the past, present and future of the Marvel Universe. We get a strong sketch of Kang from his banishment to the Quantum Realm through the rise of his Quantum Empire and on through his plans to escape and get back to conquering the Multiverse. Most intriguingly, this version of Kang claims to be the only being that can stop what is coming in the future of the Marvel Universe where other Multiverse versions of Kang will be planning their own attempts to conquer and destroy timelines.

That's a cool idea and it exists among several cool ideas in Ant-Man and the Wasp Quantumania. The only thing that holds me back from a full and complete recommendation of Quantumania is the portrayal of the heroes. As much as I enjoy Paul Rudd's Scott Lang, the character hasn't changed much. He's still somewhat flawless. His criminal career was only so he could support his daughter. His time as a brave Avenger came on the backs of Hank and Hope, and, again, was almost solely about protecting his daughter. In the end, over three solo movies, we really still don't know Scott Lang. He's a nebulous good guy, a bit of a doofus but a devoted family man. He's brave when he needs to be and loyal. All good traits, and he's funny, but it's all rather surface level.

The sidelining of The Wasp is another choice that limits my appreciation of Ant-Man and the Wasp Quantumania. Janet Van Dyne is just like about a dozen other characters in the MCU, a benevolent genius who saves the world one day and looks to fix its problems with her brain and finances on any other day. She's basically a flawless goodie with little to no shades of nuance. She lost her mother for several years and struggled with that hurt, but beyond that, she's just like Scott, a rather generic hero who always seems to know and do the right thing. Again, positive traits but not that interesting.

I don't dislike Ant-Man and The Was Quantumania, it's a solid comic book action film. The movie mostly works in delivering thrills and in establishing a post-Thanos big bad that will culminate in perhaps another Avengers movie or a Doctor Strange or Loki movie. Battling Ant-Man and the Wasp seems like a pit stop for the Kang character. And considering that director Peyton Reed had stated that he was tired of his movies being the table setter, and wanting this Ant-Man movie to be more of a main course in the MCU, it's a little disappointing how Ant-Man and the Wasp Quantumania plays like just a set up for a far bigger and more important movie.

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