By Tyler Onna
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania kicked off phase 5 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe with a bizarre movie that, while delivering an incredible villain, doesn’t do much else to stand out amongst the now 30-plus projects in this franchise.
Director Peyton Reed, who previously directed the first two entries in this trilogy, was tasked with taking his small-scale adventures in the MCU and bringing them to a much larger scale and he mostly succeeded.
This movie essentially exists to serve one purpose only: to introduce audiences to the new “big bad” of this universe that the heroes will fight. In that aspect, this movie is a success. Jonathan Majors delivered a standout performance as Kang the Conqueror. His portrayal of Kang is similar to Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man or Michael B. Jordan’s Killmonger in the MCU in that it would be hard to see anyone else in the role. He has a very menacing presence in the movie and when he shows up on the screen, he demands your attention.
Paul Rudd, as usual, is a gem. His comedic timing is perfect and most of the humor that lands do come from him.
After briefly touching on the Quantum Realm in the previous movies, it was important for Reed to go in-depth and explore this unique world fully. The characters in the Quantum Realm all looked weird and wacky. It was almost as if they were from an Ozzy and Drix movie. It was something fresh for the MCU. The action in the film is also very well shot, with the last 40 minutes being a visual spectacle.
Unfortunately, the movie isn’t doing much when things aren’t blowing up and looking weird. There is a lot of dialogue that is not engaging unless it is from Kang. While it’s not boring, veteran Marvel fans will have a sense of “been there, done that.”
Quantumania, like the newer movies in the previous phase, tried to pass the torch onto the newer generation. However, it failed to pay off character arcs that would establish why characters in the MCU would trust the newer generation.
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania delivers some fun and silliness moments. And it still felt like an MCU movie. But maybe because there are 40 movies and superhero fatigue, but this one feels like all the others and doesn’t stand out. While this isn’t a bad MCU movie by any means, this doesn’t seem like an entry in this franchise that will have much impact outside the main villain.
