Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania could be retitled The Ballad of Janet Van Dyne or The Rise of Kang to more accurately reflect the experience delivered, which is not nearly as cool as the title suggests. The most accurate name would be The Most Disappointing Marvel Movie Yet.

Carrying the enormous weight of setting up the fifth phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (following the introduction of Jonathan Majors’s big bad villain, Kang the Conqueror in the season finale of Loki – the next endgame villain for the Avengers), this feature ultimately amounts to a meaningless cog in the Multiverse machine. The threequel should represent Scott Lang’s (Paul Rudd) most dangerous adventure, as he winds up in the Quantum Realm with his partner, Hope Van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly), and her parents, Hank and Janet (Michael Douglas and Michelle Pfeiffer, respectively). They must face off against the aforementioned deadly foe, who is tied to Janet’s past, but the rules of the MCU prevent anything of permanent consequence happening. It’s particularly bad when Quantumania doesn’t even attempt to consider death or disaster, content with huffing and puffing.

It could be argued that this is how Marvel has been operating with their recent output, but audience standards have become too high to accept stories that are free from genuine surprise or emotional weight, only serving as an advertisement for an event film in the future. The general forms of joy that fans derive from Marvel these days, including consistent humour, exciting action sequences and fun crossovers, are not in abundance here, with some of the dialogue representing a nadir for the franchise’s writing. 

But there is some entertainment courtesy of supporting characters, namely secondary villain Modok, played by a returning Corey Stoll, and a telepath named Quaz, embodied by the delightful William Jackson Harper. These actors, in addition to the terrific Majors, make the most of their screen time and effectively manoeuvre the film’s tonal shifts, guiding the audience through the droll times where their co-stars can’t. The Van Dyne family phone it in here, especially Douglas and Lilly, who look especially bored, unable to hide the fact that they have little to work with, on an entirely CGI canvas. It’s suspected that the crowd will mirror their expressions watching the movie too.

Musanna Ahmed

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is released nationwide on 17^th February 2023.

Watch the trailer for Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania here: