The MCU has been *ahem* a marvel to witness (I’m sorry). Watching it grow from Iron Man into the incredible culmination a decade later with Avengers: Endgame was truly something special. One of the bigger, nagging issues, though, was the constant tie-ins to future projects, teasing new heroes and villains, hints of storylines to come later on at some unknown point down the road. And because most of the on-screen product was so good, most fans were able to look past that; it never bothered me. I could deal with some clunky character introductions and Easter eggs if Marvel still produced quality movies. But at times it felt too good to be true, that eventually a tipping point would come. And that tipping point might be here with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.
The latest MCU entry mostly feels like one big advertisement for “The Next Big Thing.” In this case, that would be Kang (Jonathan Majors). It’s a full-on family affair in Quantumania, including Scott Lang’s (Paul Rudd) now adult daughter Cassie (Kathryn Newton). She’s been studying the Quantum Realm, along with Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) and Hope van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly). They’ve been doing their work without Janet van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer), the one among them who spent three decades stuck in the Quantum Realm. She never wants to talk about her time down there, so they leave her out of it. If only they had pushed harder for her insight, the entire events of the movie could have been avoided. But, alas.
Cassie has created a sort of two-way radio to make contact with the Quantum Realm. She envisions using it as a way to map it without having to actually travel there. But Janet realizes the risk this poses (though she doesn’t say why), but it’s too late. Something from the other side reaches through and pulls the family into the Quantum Realm. Once there Janet is still hesitant to come clean to Hank and Hope (Scott and Cassie are on their own to start, separated from the other three) about what she really experienced during her time in the Quantum Realm. We get lots of vague references to “Him.” If you’ve been paying attention or have seen any of the trailers, you know the “Him” everyone is referring to is none other than Kang.
This is another problem Marvel has run into lately. How much do the Disney+ MCU shows “matter” in the grand scheme of things? So far, the answer has been “not much.” There have been a few smaller bits here and there, but nothing major. And that’s the way it should be. But that takes a turn with Kang’s introduction into the movies. For anyone that watched the first season of Loki, you know what you’re getting with Kang. You already have some familiarity with his backstory and who he is – and who his variants are. But for those who haven’t watched Loki, you’re left a little bit in the dark, and Quantumania forces those fans to (unfairly) play catchup.
Kang and Janet have a history in the Quantum Realm, and it’s not a pleasant one. Stuck there against his will, Kang has spent his time living up to the moniker of Kang the Conqueror. But with Scott and the gang appearing in the Quantum Realm, Kang may finally have a way out. And that’s the main crux of the story. Kang wants to get out. Janet knows how much of a danger he is, and rallies the troops to try and stop him.
As far as MCU stories go, Quantumania represents a lower point. In a setup that should feel like the stakes are massive, they end up feeling small and undefined. The Ant-Man crew are characters that we know well, and have come to care about. But the story doesn’t really feel like it’s about them. It’s about Kang and the inhabitants of the Quantum Realm that he rules over. We have *zero* connection to any of the Quantum citizens. Sure, we know what Kang is doing is wrong, and that we should be against him. But those fighting against him get no development, they have no depth. We’re not given any real reason to care about their fate. It’s their world that is immediately at stake, but it’s Scott and the gang that we spend all our time with.
But even that is overshadowed by how Quantumania handles Kang. As menacing as he is, there’s never any real tension. Regardless of what happens with this particular Kang variant, we know we’re seeing more of him – lots more. The next Avengers movie has already been announced as Avengers: The Kang Dynasty. Just announce it as Avengers 5! I get that Marvel wants to increase the hype, but it’s a mammoth franchise. The hype is already there. At least wait until after Quantumania has been out for a while to announce the official title. With so many villains being one-and-done characters, you could make the case that this could be Kang’s only appearance (unlikely, given his massive presence in comics history, but still). But once Kang Dynasty was confirmed, that possibility went out the window.
And that’s to the detriment of Quantumania. This story ends up feeling like nothing more than one long prologue for Kang Dynasty. Obviously it remains to be seen how much of this movie will directly lead into that one, but Marvel was able to get some of the exposition behind Kang’s story out of the way. It might make for a better, tighter story for Kang Dynasty. But that’s unfair to this movie. Marvel has mostly found effective ways to let their movies stand on their own while also giving their audience just a taste of what’s to come.
But they flipped the script with Quantumania. It leans too heavily into what’s to come, while giving us just a taste of this story. And that’s a shame, because there’s still good stuff here. The Ant-Man series has assembled as strong a cast as any of the other MCU series. Paul Rudd is his usual self here, still managing to be believably goofy even under dire circumstances. Michael Douglas, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Evangeline Lilly are great, as we all know. And Kathryn Newton is a great addition. I’ve long been a huge fan of hers, so I was thrilled to see her added to the cast. Cassie is unfortunately a pretty poorly written character, but Newton is able to – at times – act above the script. And she has terrific chemistry with Rudd.
The entire cast has terrific chemistry. And that’s much needed here, as it’s one of the weaker, more exposition-heavy MCU scripts in a while. The cast’s great talents are able to elevate the writing and somewhat minimize what could have been a glaring weakness.
Jonathan Majors as Kang is fantastic, as expected. He’s fast become one of the best, most interesting actors working today. Giving him a character like Kang is a perfect casting choice, allowing him the chance (assumed, at least, with what could be coming) to play several different variations of the same character. The dialogue is uneven throughout the entire movie, but Majors is talented enough to rise above it most of the time.
The script also doesn’t give the known characters (Scott, Hope, etc) any chance to grow. That’s not necessarily automatically a bad thing, but we also don’t learn anything new about them. We learn some more about some of their experiences, but not about them as human beings. With a third entry in a series, you have to have at least one of those two.
The world building of the Quantum Realm has some moments, but it doesn’t really feel any different from, say, one of the planets visited in a Guardians of the Galaxy movie. For a universe that is supposed to be unlike anything else, that transcends space and time, it sure felt familiar a lot of the time. All Marvel films are CGI-heavy, but it’s especially the case here. Almost 100% of the movie takes place in the Quantum Realm, so the VFX team was working overtime, to mixed results. There are some shots that a truly awesome. But then you’ll have some glaringly obvious green screen moments that take you out of the movie. It’s not egregiously bad, but it’s not all that great, especially considering how heavily the movie relies on the CGI work.
The weak story and minimal character development prove too much for the talented cast to fully overcome. But they give their all, and manage to keep it afloat. And with a good amount of the humor we’ve come to expect from the Ant-Man series, along with the introduction of what could be a top-tier MCU villain in Kang, I suppose Quantumania is fun enough, if lower down the list of being a “good” movie. But we’re now 31 movies into the MCU. I’m not sure “fun enough” is a good enough reason to justify a movie being made at this point. This isn’t the ideal start to Phase Five, but I’m still bullish on the MCU as a whole. Fingers crossed that my optimism will be rewarded.
Score: 64/100
