With the third film in the saga, Marvel Studios does everything possible to turn what has so far been their lightest franchise into a true blockbuster of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with high stakes, intense drama and significant lore tied to the Multiverse Saga. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania credits this adventure with super-dimensions without losing the goofy, deadpan humor that makes Paul Rudd’s portrayal of Scott Lang so endearing. However, in its rush to do so much, some of Quantumania’s characters, ideas, and plots seem underdeveloped, and it’s not the first time that’s been said of a recent MCU movie. The saving grace is Jonathan Majors’ spectacular performance as the chilling new villain Kang, but even he can’t beat the MCU’s tendency to get in its own way.
No time is wasted setting up the drama between the various members of the Pym/Lang family unit, which is a good thing because there isn’t much to go before they are pulled into the wondrous but dangerous Quantum Realm and must figure it all out in the middle of a puzzle-filled adventure. action. Scott’s relationship with his well-meaning delinquent daughter Cassie is the emotional crux, and while his reason for being angry with his beloved father may not seem justified at first, Rudd and Kathryn Newton work well together to peel away the layers of abandonment and disappointment until they reach to the most sincere moments of Quantumania. That the film achieves an emotional landing is one of its greatest strengths..
Unfortunately, Michael Douglas’ Hank Pym doesn’t have much going for it this time around, and there’s even less for Evangaline Lilly’s Hope, which is strange for a character mentioned in the title. The most pleasant surprise is the important role of Michelle Pfeiffer’s Janet van Dyne, who finally deals with the trauma of what happened to her during those 30 years in the Quantum Realm with a reserved and powerful performance. After her brief appearance in the last installment, it is appreciated that Janet has a leading role this time.
Majors perfectly captures Kang’s multifaceted nature.
Majors’ Kang offers a very different interpretationbut no less amazing for that. We’ve already met a variant of this infamous Marvel Comics villain in the Disney+ series Loki, but where He Who Remains was flamboyant and wild-eyed, Kang is steely and sinister. Majors perfectly captures the multifaceted nature of Kang, a man weighed down by his dominance over time, but with a burning will to use it to achieve unthinkable ends. He tries so hard to show how powerful and dangerous Kang is that the irony is even more delicious when he has to face off against the goofball who talks to ants.
To say that the power levels between Ant-Man and Kang are unequal is an understatement. In the comics, Kang is a Thanos-level threat to the Avengers, the kind that even an entire team of Avengers would be lucky to emerge victorious in a head-to-head fight. So it’s to the credit of writer Jeff Loveness and director Peyton Reed that they find ways to give Ant-Man a real chance, and those ideas lead to some creative action scenes. That said, they often pull their hair out when it comes to establishing the stakes of those battles, making the stacking dangers feel ultimately uninspired.
Apparently, the Quantum Realm has neither head nor tail.
Most of the story takes place in the Quantum Realm., a strange place where beings have broccoli for a head and use flying mitochondria as a means of transportation. While there’s plenty of new sci-fi stuff to enjoy, nothing seems to be making head or tails of it, so it all seems like CG window dressing that has nothing to do with the events taking place. Contrast this with Disney’s recent animated film, Strange World, in which a family is lost in a strange sci-fi landscape, but with an explanation that unites all the oddities. Similarly, we meet a group of characters in the Quantum Realm, but like their home, they don’t add much to Quantumania beyond a few jokes and a way to move the plot along. No one embodies this problem better than the character of Bill Murray, whose one scene is completely inconsequential.
The same issue of underdevelopment can be perceived in the issue of the fight against oppression. Cassie is driven by a desire to take on those in power, and she just so happens that Kang is a power-mad dictator that everyone must resist, but Quantumania doesn’t stop to explore any of those ideas. Another recent offering from Disney, the Star Wars Andor series, showed in full detail how rebellion can emerge from beneath the evils of fascism, but Quantumania settles without further examination. It’s frustratingly shallow in that regard.
We need to talk about MODOK.
We also have to talk about MODOK. The fan-favorite killer giant floating head has finally found its way into the live-action MCU, and while his oversized, stretched-out face never looks quite right and his body looks like a Decepticon design rejected for making people too uncomfortable, the character really works. I could never have predicted that MODOK, of all “people,” would have one of the most effective story arcs, but here we are.
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania has enough funny moments and a heartwarming family storyplus impressive performances in Michelle Pfeiffer’s Janet van Dyne and Jonathan Majors’ Kang the Conqueror, to compensate for its less developed aspects. The exploration of the central themes, the new characters and the quantum realm itself is superficial, making for a film with a lot of spectacle but little substance. Still, Quantumania functions as a culmination of the Ant-Man saga, a way to jump-start Phase 5, and a promising roadmap for where the Multiverse saga is headed.