Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania forgets that it's an Ant-Man movie
Even though Ant-Man saved the world in Avengers: Endgame (or maybe it was the rat who was the true hero), he's never really had that much importance in the MCU – until now.
Ant-Man and Ant-Man and The Wasp were mere palate cleansers after an Avengers movie, with little to do with the wider universe. Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania, though, is the first outing of Phase 5 of the MCU and a proper introduction to the new Big Bad: Kang the Conqueror.
We've met a variant of Kang before in Loki, but He Who Remains was an appetiser (sorry for all the food metaphors, we must be hungry). Quantumania's Kang is the one who truly launches us into the Multiverse Saga, starting a non-stop journey to Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and Avengers: Secret Wars.
Ant-Man appears to finally be getting his due, being the first Avenger to battle the new Thanos-level baddie. And yet despite the worthy accolade, it ends up being a double-edged sword as Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania never really feels like it's about Ant-Man.
Quantumania starts with Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) effectively retired from the superhero life, unless it gets him a free coffee. As well as becoming a bestselling author, Scott's main aim is to improve his relationship with his daughter Cassie (Kathryn Newton) after too much time away.
Unfortunately for Scott, Cassie has been exploring the Quantum Realm with her grandad Hank Pym (Michael Douglas), and it soon has dire consequences for the entire family. Scott, Cassie, Hank, Janet Van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer) and Hope Van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly) find themselves sucked back into the place they really don't want to be.
In place of family bonding, Scott, Cassie and co find themselves facing a powerful new foe with links to Janet's Quantum Realm past: Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors). Because who needs character development when you've got the future of the MCU to set up and trippy set pieces to deliver?
The movie pays lip service to Scott trying to repair bonds with Cassie and make up for lost time, but this ends up playing second fiddle to the arrival of Kang. Kang is pivotal to the MCU in a way that Ant-Man still isn't, so Quantumania first spends a lot of time ominously teasing his arrival rather than focusing on the characters already established.
It doesn't help that once we head into the Quantum Realm, Scott and Cassie are separated from the rest of their family. So we have dual missions, each with multiple new characters to meet for one scene or two, and Quantumania is overstuffed as a result with no element fully satisfying.
Once Kang finally arrives, the movie improves significantly almost singlehandedly thanks to Jonathan Majors. We've seen a version of Kang before, but this Kang feels different instantly with Majors softly spoken, terrifying and utterly compelling with a charisma that convincingly sells why people would follow him.
Unfortunately, the plot is thin and if you've seen the trailers, you've got the entire thing. In place of a deeper story, you get exposition dumps and foreboding teasers for the future which leaves Quantumania feeling like a Kang origin movie and not an Ant-Man trilogy closer.
For some Marvel fans, that might be acceptable as the previous Ant-Man movies weren't universally beloved. However, they did at least feel different to other Marvel outings as they were ground-level romps, more concerned with making small things ridiculously big than world-ending stakes.
Quantumania still holds some of that Ant-Man charm in flashes. One set piece in a probability storm takes full advantage of the trippy setting, while hilarious supporting characters Veb (David Dastmalchian) and Quaz (William Jackson Harper) are likely to be instant fan favourites.
MODOK feels like a perfect fit as an Ant-Man villain too, quirky and a little bit pathetic. If you haven't had the reveal spoiled for you, we won't do so here, but it does lead to some pretty ropey VFX work in parts. The characters themselves respond to the look when MODOK is unmasked, but it doesn't negate that it looks bad.
Talking of VFX, Quantumania is a very VFX-heavy movie, even by Marvel standards, as a result of it taking place almost entirely in the Quantum Realm. It gives the scope for a wide range of species with settings that are like the Marvel version of Mos Eisley Cantina.
However, the landscapes blur into one and are often murky, especially during the big set pieces. It's a common Marvel criticism, but feels more like a missed opportunity here when the visual scope is literally endless as we're talking about a "secret universe beneath our own" with multiple worlds within worlds.
Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania ends up as a movie with great elements, rather than completely satisfying whole. It has several fun gags, the requisite surprises for long-term MCU fans and in Jonathan Majors, an excellent new villain who you want to see more of.
If you wanted Ant-Man to finally be the star of the MCU though, you won't find that here as his trilogy closer is all about Kang. Hopefully Quantumania is just the means to an end to establish Phase 5, rather than a sign of messy things still to come in this phase.
Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania is out now in cinemas.
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