A family adventure for the books.
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Marvel Studios’ Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania takes on a colossal mission where no Ant-Man film has gone before–transporting the Pym/van Dyne/Lang clan to the Quantum Realm. It’s conceptually fascinating but the execution is underwhelming to say the least.
It’s hard to miss the influence the Star Wars franchise has on this film. Much of the Quantum Realm feels like a planet once inhabited by Jabba the Hutt, making Quantumania easily mistaken for an extremely ambitious crossover. There's also uncanny resemblances to the animated film Strange World too but the one that stands out most is the slime-like creature Veb who is most definitely a distant cousin of Splat's.
Thought to be addressing the questions on the multiverse from Phase 4, the Ant-Man sequel does little to no difference on this important narrative. Instead, Quantumania makes the mistake of putting too much focus on its style and suffers from the lack of substance. It's clear the weight of the film proves too much to handle as they fall short on delivering on the former as well. While there is heart within its story, the film’s emotional beats fall flat against the jarring visuals and chaotic setting. It's unfortunate for the franchise to have come this far, only to deliver on unimpressive CGI when the direction they're headed calls for more of it.
Paul Rudd and Evangeline Lilly returning as the titular characters are joined by Michelle Pfeiffer (Janet van Dyne), Michael Douglas (Hank Pym) and Kathryn Newton (Cassie Lang) on this wild family adventure. Newton – who took over the role from Emma Furhmann (featured in Avengers: Endgame) – will no doubt fit in with the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s growing roster of young female superheroes but still has much work to do as her time in Quantumania does nothing to add excitement to the thought.
The true highlight of Quantumania is easily Jonathan Majors’ superhero film debut as Kang the Conqueror. The film was setup to introduce the villain into the cinematic fold and achieved just that, albeit barely scratching at the surface of Majors’ full potential. His presence is electric – from his quiet scenes with Pfeiffer to his nefarious unleashing in the third act – but this version of Kang is inferior to the variant we first saw in the Loki series. Hopefully he’ll be redeemed with more to come if the mid- and end-credits are anything to go by with.
Marvel Studios’ Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania kicks off Phase 5 with a messy start but it’s still an intriguing film worth experienced on the biggest screen you can find.
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