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A Review of “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023)”

 

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Who would’ve thought that a hero called “Ant-Man” would succeed in a trilogy? I massively enjoyed the first one but found the second one to be quite forgettable. I loved the idea of smaller stake stories for Ant-Man films. It was a little surprising to hear that Ant-Man 3 would have bigger stakes as I didn’t find this to suit the character. Is this a good entry for the little guy or quantum garbage?

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The greatest highlight of this film is the antagonist, Kang the Conqueror, played by Jonathan Majors. Kang is fearsome and menacing with a terrific performance by Jonathan that reminds me of Darth Vader. He steals the show in every scene, to the point that I was actually rooting for him. I am also glad that his performance is vastly different to the variant we saw in the Loki (2021) show. I can’t wait to see more of Kang in the future! In terms of performance, I also enjoyed seeing more of Michelle Pfeiffer as Janet van Dyne. She was barely in the second Ant-Man film but here she is front and centre. She shines in her performance and perfectly illustrates the guilt and fear her character is experiencing. Paul Rudd is still charming and charismatic as Scott Lang. His relationship with his daughter Cassie (Kathryn Newton) is still the main core of his character. We get to see ‘some’ serious moments with his character which was nice to see.

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Another thing I liked was the overall design of the Quantum Realm. The world and the living beings in the Quantum Realm were interesting. It had a very Star Wars/Mad Max feel to it with the blend of sci-fi, deserts and alien-like creatures. The 3rd act of the movie is also quite entertaining. For the most part, it’s a giant CGI battle with lots of things happening on screen but it is fun to watch. I especially loved seeing Kang in action because we get to see how much of a beast he is compared to previous villains.

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However, the writing is very weak. There are a lot of silly dialogues that just made me roll my eyes. It doesn’t help that for some reason Marvel is still doing forced unnecessary humour. If this story is meant to be higher stakes then make it serious! The quips get overly repetitive. The first half is a little dull too with minimal interesting things happening. It doesn’t take until over halfway through the movie to actually see Kang. Additionally, the ending was disappointing. It is very bland and safe which is a shame as this film could’ve delivered a shocking and memorable ending. This movie is also meant to build up hype for the next Avengers film but that ending fails to do even that.

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MODOK is also in this film and it is a pointless addition. Not only do they change the character completely from their comic counterpart, but their role in the story is also absolutely irrelevant. Could take them out of the story and nothing will change. Despite the film being called Ant-Man and the Wasp, both Scott Lang and Hope feel like side characters in their own film. They have no character development and are just kind of there for the ride. Janet is more of a main character than them. I also don’t like this trend in these recent Marvel films of Marvel characters looking out for these young characters. Cassie is the next in this trend and is also an annoying character like many of them before. I think Kathryn Newton is fine in her role but her character just isn’t written well to be likeable enough for me to care. This is also a very CGI-heavy film and for the most part, it is okay but there are definitely times when it looks rough. The editing, especially during action sequences, can be really bad. They tend to do too many quick cuts during action sequences and for some reason use the shaky cam in 2023!

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Overall, Ant-Man 3 is a bit disappointing. There was a lot of potential for this to be something great but the execution is quite poor. This isn’t a great start to Phase 5 and I am getting worried about the future of the MCU. They need to do a better job at making people hyped for the next Avengers-level threat as this film isn’t making me think this is a threat equal to or better than Thanos. I’m hoping future Marvel films start building up this new threat because they need to show us that this new threat is worthy of our attention.


 

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