I’ve always been a huge fan of Marvel’s so-called smallest franchise, and so I already knew without question that I would love Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.
The first film of Marvel’s Phase 5 is a romp and takes the Ant-Man franchise to another level. In this one, Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) and his family are sucked into the quantum realm, where they discover a hidden world lorded over by the villainous Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors). And it just so happens that Janet van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer) has a connection to Kang, stemming back to her 30 years lost in the quantum realm.
I’ve seen a lot of comparisons of this film to Star Wars and I have to agree with them. This film is very colorful, very otherworldly, and shares a lot of story beats and traits with George Lucas’ beloved franchise.
That said, I still enjoyed Quantumania for what it is. For the most part, the cast is fine — Rudd, Pfeiffer, Michael Douglas, Evangeline Lilly, and Kathryn Newton all shine. But the unquestionable star of the show is Majors as Kang. He brings gravitas to the role and delivers a performance that’s so magnetic, you can’t take your eyes off of him when he’s on screen. And make no mistake: Kang is a very formidable foe for Ant-Man ‘nem. I actually found myself wondering how they were going to defeat Kang, or at least stop his nefarious plans.
Another thing that I liked about Quantumania is that while it is funny, it knows when to dial back the humor and get serious — and most of the time, the film is serious when Kang is on screen.
But there are many moments of levity, and one of my favorite things that had me howling was MODOK. If you’re familiar with MODOK from the comics, you’ll likely be surprised at how they were able to work him into this story. Trust me, it makes sense and it works.
Quantumania does have to do a lot to set up Marvel’s Multiverse Saga, and I think that really becomes apparent with the post-credit scenes. While this film has been getting not-so-good reviews, I cannot understand why. Quantumania is very much a crowd-pleaser in my opinion, and it certainly is the biggest Ant-Man film yet.
Hey, sometimes bigger is better.
Novelist. Editor. Journalist. Screenwriter. Filmmaker. Chaotic neutral.