Movie Breakdown: Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania

Pre-Screening Stance:

Phase 5 of the MCU has begun with the arrival of Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania. The trailers for it have been fine, I suppose, but I also have to admit that the last phase was so unwieldy that it’s become difficult to really know what to expect from these movies.

Post-Screening Ramble:

Let’s just say that if this is Marvel’s first step into a new phase, it’s not a strong one. The film begins with a sweeping update – Scott/Ant-Man (Paul Rudd) is as comfortable and content as he can be, Hope/Wasp (Evangeline Lilly) is running her father’s company, Cassie (Kathryn Newton) is very smart and eager to help the unfortunate, and then there’s Hank (Michael Douglas) and Janet (Michelle Pfeiffer), who are seemingly just happy to be around. One night, Cassie debuts an impressive device that can map the Quantum Realm (without anyone actually having to go there), and everyone is impressed … except for Janet, who has just enough time to note her concerns before the group gets pulled in and transported to the QR. Surprised to be alive, they then discover that there’s quite a lot Janet didn’t tell them about the QR and all the years she spent there.

Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania is what I would describe as a flat film. Like pretty much every Marvel entry, there’s a lot of humor flying around, but the timing here is often off just enough to where most of the jokes land with a thud (this goes doubly so for anything related to Corey Stoll’s M.O.D.O.K.). There’s some great character design and world building at play, but outside of a handful of moments, not much of note is done with any of it. Jonathan Majors does nice work as Kang, but the character’s goal is vague and you don’t really get the impression he’s a Thanos-esque adversary. Ultimately, it’s like for every interesting thing that was baked into this movie, someone slid in an equally lame item right alongside it – so, again, it’s a flat film.

Clearly, I didn’t hate Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania – it’s passable entertainment – but it definitely feels like a missed opportunity to do something bigger and better. When the film hits theaters this weekend, be sure to keep your expectations in check.

One Last Thought:

Evangeline Lilly’s hair is so poorly styled in this movie that it made me agitated with her character every single time she appeared on the screen.