With great expectations come great disappointment so for Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania I would ask you to lower your expectations. It is not by any means a terrible movie, it is just not an event movie like it was marketed. Heck, it doesn't even necessarily build the next phase of the MCU or presents the next big bad in a meaningful way. It is a small self-contained movie with some great moments in it.
Peyton Reed has returned to direct his third Ant-Man movie and it is baffling why he is the only Marvel director that got to direct his own trilogy. He didn't make a big impression with the first two movie, and he tries to go bigger here, but fails to do so. The movie works best when it is on a smaller scale. It is has heart and family ties and real world issues. Even the initial presentation of Kang works well. And then somewhere along the middle it all stops working.
The movie starts off great, Paul Rudd returns as Ant-Man. Now he is famous after writing a book about his time with the Avengers and defeating Thanos. He goes to premiers with his gorgeous partner and book readings and gets free stuff. However, other than being famous he seems to lack purpose. Something that his daughter, Cassie Lang, now played by Kathryn Newton, totally has. More than he likes. And more than their entire family bargains for. In a "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids" twist the entire three generations of the family get sucked into the quantum realm. A realm that is now ruled by Kang the Conqueror, played by Jonathan Majors. Now they need to find a way to survive this strange realm and get back home. And you know, defeat Kang. It is all a standard by the book kind of a movie. No shocking twists and turns. You can guess it all.
The best thing about this movie are the actors in it. Paul Rudd is a great Ant-Man. He is super likable. He never knows how he got into trouble, but somehow always manages to get out of them with luck and the people around him. He is still a quirky hero. Evangeline Lilly literally has nothing to do in the movie other them worry. She barley has any cool scenes. I have no idea why Marvel fired Emma Fuhrmann and hired Kathryn Newton instead. She does nothing special in this role, not that she too has too much to work with. Surprisingly it is Michelle Pfeiffer who stands out the most in the movie. Her charisma and acting chops just leap off the screen and scream give her a bigger role or her own movie. She is still an amazing action star even after all these years. Also, obviously, Jonathan Majors kills it in this role. He can do serious, honest, cruel and just plain old crazy. He has amazing range and I think we will get to see it unfold in the MCU going forward. Unfortunately, this movie doesn't do him justice. The script and the director, they just don't create the Kang that Majors and we deserve. He gets zero character development and motives in this movie. This is not the next big bad that we were promised. This is just a shadow of him. Everyone except Corey Stoll does at least a decent job in this movie, but he got such a terrible role that nothing can make it work. That was just ridicules.
The real promise comes at the end of the movie with the post credit scenes that build the MCU going forward. Although I am not sure that I like the direction that this is all going in. The finale post credit scene was a brilliant wink at the comic book lovers out there who follow Marvel comics history. You might not recognize the reference if you don't know it, but there is plenty in there to make you excited about at least some future MCU projects.
I guess that's the best thing. This movie leaves you feeling somewhat excited about what is coming next. It promises a few things that could have potential. It just doesn't deliver anything big on its own. It is a fun movie, it has heart, it has comedy, and it has some action, though nothing super big and fun. But, it just leaves you waiting for the things to come. Not excited about what just happened. You can skip this movie and probably not miss anything in the MCU overall plot. That's how small scale this movie actually is. I still enjoyed it, but it was a mild sort of fun. Nothing that will stick with you in the long run.
Have you seen Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania? What did you think about the movie?
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