Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania Review: An Undercooked Adventure With A Great Jonathan Majors Performance
The MCU's Phase 5, the second phase of its Multiverse Saga, is finally here with "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania." Phase 4 ably broached Marvel's multiverse in projects like "Loki," "Spider-Man: No Way Home," and "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness." It also sought to grow Marvel's IP playground via heavy lore expansion, expanding the MCU's array of gods ("Moon Knight," "Thor: Love and Thunder"), Eternals, and Celestials ("Eternals"). With all these factors in play, it's a key time to introduce the central villain of the MCU's Multiverse Saga, Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors). In "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania," he's finally here in proper form.
Kang is one of the most interesting villains in Marvel's comic canon. A time-traveling conqueror, Kang spans the future and the past with ease. With the existence of a multiverse, Kang is nigh unstoppable for the simple reason that Kang is many. There have been many Kangs, just as Kang's evolution has produced wildly different iterations with differing goals. A time-altering, constantly multiplying, often self-conflicting villain, dealing with Kang is going to require the Avengers' very best ... or in this case, the very best of a size-altering family of heroes whose biggest collective accomplishment in the Quantum Realm (Kang's prison-turned-empire) is getting lost multiple times. They have their work cut out for them.
"Quantumania," Kang's shot-across-the-bow in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), is variably successful towards the character's introduction. It broaches an interesting terrain in the Quantum Realm, evolves a great set of heroes, and introduces one of the most complex Marvel antagonists yet. For all its imagination, unfortunately, "Quantumania" also partially botches those introductions and the logic of said villain and universe. Jonathan Majors' Kang is fantastic, but we're given little new insight into him beyond "he conquers stuff because Kang reasons." There's some groundwork for the greatest Marvel villain yet, but it's sorely lacking in motive and development. Altogether the film is an engaging and fun start for the real meat of the Multiverse Saga, it's also one that needs more care and detail to flourish. This film is a fun missed opportunity.
If Kang could save time in a bottle...
"Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania" follows a new and improved Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) who's on top of the world and ready to dad. He's riding his post-Thanos-defeat fame, in a great relationship with Hope van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly), and trying to spend as much time as with his daughter Cassie (Kathryn Newton). As it turns out, Cassie's been working on a little Quantum Realm-mapping project along with Hope and Hank Pym (Michael Douglas), one that sends a signal that then releases a black hole-like portal into the Quantum realm. The family gets separated, with Hank, Hope, and Janet van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer) having to uncover secrets from Janet's past in the Quantum Realm, while Scott and Cassie encounter a group of rebels who face an existential threat from a time-exiled tyrant, Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors). Kang found himself stranded in the Quantum Realm, first via the sabotage of his ship's power source by his enemies and later by Janet van Dyne after her discovery of Kang's past murderous misdeeds. The Ant-crew needs to reunite and find a way to exit the Quantum Realm without letting Kang escape his vast, tiny subatomic prison.
Paul Rudd is as charming as ever as Scott Lang, now occupied with few thoughts of heroics beyond catching up on missed years of fatherhood and riding the wave of his post-Thanos fame. He lands the earnestness of the fish-out-of-water hero, here at least nominally outmatched by a massive threat. Michael Douglas's Pym is a rather laid-back source of humor that works (he just loves ants, y'all), while Pfeiffer ably showcases Janet's trauma and complexity (though her extreme lack of communication gets a bit tired as a plot device). Janet van Dyne is wonderfully performed, but too much of her story is merely avoiding truths and interesting choices. Kathryn Newton may be the third performer to portray Scott Lang's daughter Cassie, but she retains the joys and openness of her predecessors with a strong, if poorly planned, moral compass. It's a little difficult to see what role she'll play in a future team, given how here she's bumbling beyond her scientific skill, but it's a fun take on the character and her dynamic with Rudd's Scott Lang really works.
The big show, of course, is the introduction of another variant of Jonathan Majors' conqueror Kang, our first true introduction to the Big Bad of the MCU's Multiverse Saga who truly does feel distinct from He Who Remains of "Loki" finale fame. Here, Kang has a measured gravitas that's intelligent and menacing in equal measure, at best when he's is losing control. Still, Kang is underdeveloped in catastrophic ways. Majors is great, but his character is introduced late and we get little insight into his motivations beyond reminders that Kangs seek to conquer the Multiverse because that's what Kangs do. We don't know or understand his character. Moreover, we're told he can create timelines and rewrite existence, and that he boasts technology hundreds of years beyond anything we've seen, but mainly we see Kang have beams and light telekinesis, and boast armies with ships and blasters ... all things we've seen, and he barely uses them in his brief shared runtime.
I See London, I See France, I see Hank Pym's Army Ants
"Quantumania" boasts some interesting worldbuilding, offering our most expansive look into the Quantum Realm thus far and all its unusual attributes. It's a colorful, topsy-turvy world with novel characters. There are beautifully rendered space-scapes, suggesting the vastness of this novel universe beneath or within our own. While it is an exciting new playground full of unique characters, the CGI-heavy landscape does have the awkward side-effect of feeling like the sets are shallow — it always seems like the human characters are playing within a tight rectangle while the background is distant and digital, and some CGI is distractingly cartoonish at times (M.O.D.O.K., anyone?). Additionally, the actual logic of the Quantum Realm is still undercooked within the MCU thus far. If the rules are so different, why are its evolutionary pathways sometimes wildly different (sentient buildings?) and otherwise indistinguishable (e.g. a whole lot of human-looking entities)?
Altogether, "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania" is a fun MCU entry that finally starts to feel like the new Saga is pointing somewhere interesting. Majors' Kang may be woefully underutilized with power that's explained but never truly shown, but his charisma and gravitas win the day for a strong performance that bodes well for the MCU's future. The rest of the film's talented performers deliver their roles well, and the world seems evidently well-designed and novel compared to what's come before. Still, most characters are underutilized, underdeveloped, or set into contrived circumstances. Major plot moments and character developments feel undercooked, and there are relevant moments where the story logic is lacking. The film boasts one of the MCU's most expansive visages but it somehow still feels blatantly shallow, like actors are recording in a glorified booth against a massive green screen. Nonetheless, there's a lot of fun, love for the world and its characters, and a tonal consistency that sets "Quantumania" easily above at least a couple Phase 4 outings. In the end, we're left with a strong Kang debut inside a film that's a mostly satisfying mine for future MCU success.
/Film Rating: 6 out of 10