By Charles Kirkland Jr.
Hank, Janet, Scott, and Hope, Ant-Men and Wasps, present and past, journey into the Quantum Realm and encounter a new threat to the universe named Kang in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.
During the Blip, while Scott (Paul Rudd) was away, Cassie (Kathryn Newton) has been learning about Pym Particles and taking up the causes of the downtrodden. In one of her experiments, Cassie built a beacon into the Quantum Realm for the purpose of mapping the realm. When the beacon is turned on, a vortex is created that sucks Scott, Hope, Hank, and Janet into the Quantum Realm. Their only hope to get home lies buried within the secrets that Janet has been keeping from her thirty years of experience. Soon enough everyone discovers the reason Janet has not spoken about her time in this undiscovered land.
The screenplay for Ant-Man: Quantumania was written by Jeff Loveness and based upon the comic book characters created by Jack Kirby. It stars Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Michelle Pfeiffer, Michael Douglas, Jonathan Majors, Kathryn Newton, Bill Murray, Corey Stoll, and William Jackson Harper. Peyton Reed returns as the director of the movie. Quantumania is the third Ant-Man film, the first film in the fifth phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and the thirty-first Marvel movie overall.
Quantumania, being the latest in a long line of Marvel movies, sticks to the formula that all Marvel films have followed and has made Marvel so successful. It just doesn’t do it well. There are a surprising number of plot holes and jumps in the story. Some of them may have been created to extend and connect the universe. Some of them are just bad storytelling. While the Ant-Man franchise, led by funnyman Rudd, has always been a little tongue-in-cheek, Jeff Loveness applies a lot of his Ricky and Morty experience to the Marvel universe. There are strange creatures and even stranger interactions that serve as much more than a background to the movie.
It’s no secret that Ant-Man, the newest and probably least qualified of The Avengers, has to take on the next Marvel Big Bad, Kang the Conqueror (Johnathan Majors). The climax is dulled a bit with the knowledge that Kang is the next big villain and will be in much more to come. Loveness creatively navigates the story well enough to achieve a conclusion that is satisfactory and at the same time frustrating enough to advance the universe to its next story.
At the end of the day, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, rated PG-13 for violence/action and language, is just a place-setter for other things Marvel. It looks cool (especially in 3D). The story mostly makes sense and the humor is ok. If you are a Marvel fan it’s required to keep up and if you are a Marvel fan you already know to stay for two important end-credit scene teases.
Grade: C+