Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania

Ant-Man and the Wasp ride again in the latest MCU installment which follows up on Scott Lang / Antman (Paul Rudd) after he saved the world in Avengers: Endgame. Scott is living his best life back in San Francisco with girlfriend Hope (Evangeline Lilly) and daughter Cassie (Kathryn Newton) along with Hope’s parents, Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) and Janet Van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer).  But everything goes topsy turvy when the five of them are sucked into the Quantum Realm, a universe below our own that you can reach by shrinking down smaller than subatomic particles. Janet had been trapped there for thirty years, and having returned must now tell her family the truth she had been hiding about what she experienced during that time.  In their efforts to get back home, they meet some new friends and fight a new “big bad”, Kang, The Conqueror (Jonathan Majors) who needs their “Pym Particles” to help him escape the Quantum Realm.  Kang has created an empire enforced by an army of faceless soldiers and M.O.D.O.K, Mental Organism Designed Only For Killing (Corey Stoll).  Can Scott and the team defeat their powerful new foe? Can the five of them get back home alive? Watch and find out!

I have a dilemma.  I liked this movie, but there was quite a bit wrong with it and even though I enjoyed it, there was not real emotional connection as there was in the previous Ant-Man films.  So, to not make this review all negative, I will split it into the Good and the Bad, starting with what I found good about it.  A reminder that these points are purely subjective, so other people may find my good points to be negative and vice versa.  My reviews are never intended as judgement towards anyone on their likes or dislikes, as I truly believe that every movie has a fan somewhere out there!

The Good: This was a fun movie with some beautiful visuals, some lighthearted funny characters and some daring adventures.  The story is interesting and moved at a good pace with a steady rhythm, and Paul Rudd is still charming and humorous as ever.  Jonathan Majors is chilling as Kang with a type of dynamic calm that instills uneasiness, like a cobra waiting to strike.  Michelle Pfeiffer is also wonderful as Janet Van Dyne, she is both caring and a bad ass who holds many secrets she never wanted her family to know about what happen to her while she was trapped.  I liked the look of the Quantum Realm and the unique characters that reside there.  I didn’t mind and actually enjoyed that the majority of the film does not take place on Earth.

The Bad:  Where I enjoyed the basic storyline and plot of the film, the script was lacking specifically in character development and it is hard to tell if this is the reason that a few of the characters seem specifically unattached for the majority of the film.  The movie can’t decide if it is a comedy with some dark elements or a dark moody drama with some comedy.  This leads to the major issue I had with the film, it was very hard to connect with anyone or with the movie in general.  There is usually some point in an MCU film where I feel some kind of “tug on the heart strings”, but that just never happened in this film. So, where this could have been an amazing film, without that emotional attachment it was just a “So So” film.  Not the worse thing Marvel has put out, but not even close to the best either.

Overall, I enjoyed the film, I guffawed a couple times and was thoroughly entertained and there were some great performances, but along with lack luster writing not giving some characters enough to do, it was missing that special element that makes it special.