“Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” is another disappointing and forgettable Marvel film that fails to size up.
“Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,” the latest from director Peyton Reed, is the third Ant-Man film and the 31st film entry into the beloved Marvel Cinematic Universe. “Quantumania” is the first installment in Marvel’s fifth phase of films and the beginning to the second part of Marvel’s “Multiverse Saga.”
The film follows Ant-Man Scott Lang (Paul Rudd), his girlfriend The Wasp Hope van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly), his daughter Cassie Lang (Kathryn Newton), Hope’s father Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) and Hope’s mother Janet van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer).
Set two years after the events of “Avengers: Endgame,” the latest “Ant-Man” film takes place almost entirely in the Quantum Realm after a quantum mapping device created by Cassie Lang and Hank Pym explodes, sending the focal characters flying into the alternate dimension.
The film introduces several hundred alien characters and environments in rapid succession, immersing the viewer in a bizarre wasteland that is very different from any past Marvel experience. Strange sciences and exciting futuristic technologies are shown, each with no attempted explanation past “things are just different here.”
The Quantum Realm is an entirely CGI-generated dimension with little cohesion between the environments shown. The film presents several terrains, from mushroom fields to large scale cities, creating a mismatched and disjointed world with infinite areas that, somehow, always seem to fit the intended mood of the scene.
Some scenes within the Quantum Realm are way too dark visually. This choice may have been made with the intent to mask some shoddy CGI, a criticism that has plagued recent Marvel productions like “She-Hulk” and “Thor: Love and Thunder.”
While in the Quantum Realm, Janet van Dyne encounters another seemingly lost human looking to return home. The individual is Nathaniel Richards (Jonathan Majors), known to countless other universes as Kang the Conqueror.
The film depicts Kang the Conqueror’s power and prowess to Janet van Dyne and the audience through a few quick flashbacks of his previous genocides. This does well to establish that Kang the Conqueror is no joke, but I wanted to see a little more of the villain in his ultimate element.
A large disappointment in the film is the introduction and demise of Kang the Conqueror’s Mechanized Organism Designed Only for Killing, or M.O.D.O.K. for short.
M.O.D.O.K. is essentially a large floating head, complete with tiny limbs and an insane number of weapons, buzzsaws and unfunny one-liners.
The story of M.O.D.O.K. was completely rewritten for “Quantumania”, introducing him as the new-and-improved physical form of Scott Lang’s first super-powered nemesis, Yellowjacket Darren Cross (Corey Stoll), a character presumed dead after the events of Marvel’s “Ant-Man.”
The reintroduction of Darren Cross as M.O.D.O.K. is a completely unnecessary choice that lends nothing but a few fits of uncontrollable laughter each time the film shows his ridiculous figure.
Aside from a redemption arc and funeral scene that drags on for, admittedly, way too long, M.O.D.O.K. could be missing from “Quantumania” entirely, and it would not negatively impact the film.
Majors’ performance as Kang the Conqueror is hands-down the highlight of the film. Marvel’s “Loki” introduced the character, and the antagonist’s presence in “Quantumania” delivers an epic and unhinged performance that excited audiences.
Majors was able to expand upon his character in Quantumania, showing brilliant flashes of uncontrolled anger and little remorse for those that stand in the way of his ultimate control over the entire multiverse.
For fans familiar with Marvel but not entirely well-versed with Kang the Conqueror, his character is as if Thanos was able to remain powerful across every single universe and time period.
Marvel is all-in on Kang the Conqueror becoming the antagonist focus of the MCU, and audiences should be, too. Kang the Conqueror’s story will culminate in 2025 in the recently announced film “Avengers: The Kang Dynasty.”
For the lapsed Marvel fan worried about missing key details of the MCU’s next crossover Avengers film, this movie can be skipped entirely.
While Marvel introduces its next big villain to the silver screen through this film, very little information about his motives or the source of his power is revealed, so understanding the story without watching “Avenger: The Kang Dynasty” is accomplishable.
As the film was wrapping up in the theater, nearly every section of the audience could be heard frantically describing entirely different explanations as to who Kang the Conqueror is and where the overall story of Marvel’s next big-bad is going. I can only imagine this exact scenario is what happened while Disney executives were making plans for the beginning of Marvel’s fifth phase.