Tasked with bringing a close to the Antman trilogy and setting up the next big bad Avengers villain, Antman and the Wasp: Quantumania is an uneven ride that I had a great deal of fun with. Paul Rudd is as charming as ever, and Scott Lang really grew on me in this film. Finally in a standalone Antman film we see Scott in a high stakes situation and get put to the test by an actual formidable threat. Kathryn Newton as a teenage Cassie Lang was hit or miss for me, with some of her dialogue coming off like a fifth grader wrote it, but the father/daughter bond between Scott and Cassie still works as the heart of the Antman films. Michael Douglas as Hank Pym (AKA the OG Antman in the comics) has some awesome moments but it’s Michelle Pfeiffer as Janet Van Dyne who really adds some gravitas to the story. I won’t go into it, but I seriously dug how the narratives of Janet and Kang were particularly intertwined, which is all I’ll say about that. Speaking of the time traveling villain, Kang the Conqueror is one of the greatest threats to the Avengers in the comics and I was worried with how this film would handle such an integral character to the Marvel Universe. I am ecstatic to say that Jonathan Majors is cold, calculating, menacing, intimidating, and a force to be reckoned with as Kang, doing some real justice to his 41st century comic book counterpart.
It takes a bit to get going, with some hit or miss jokes for the first 30 minutes or so, but once Kang enters the movie, it’s full speed ahead, for the most part. The bulk of this movie takes place in the Quantum realm, and I will just say right now that if you’re a person who can’t stand watching 70% CGI backgrounds and weird alien creatures for two hours, I suggest avoiding this movie at all costs. For me though, I appreciate the ambition that director Peyton Reed had with exploring this bizarre Star Wars-like sci-fi psychedelic space world and forming Kang’s story around it. What they did with MODOK in this was interesting and it was something bonkers I kind of just went along with, even if I can understand why some of the character’s hardcore fans may be dissatisfied with his treatment. The tone is fairly uneven, as very dramatic and tension filled scenes like the chilling first conversation between Scott and Kang come right after a jokey comedic beat or vice versa.
If you haven’t been watching the MCU movies or shows up until this point, you will most definitely be completely lost. The big final battle was the theme park ride you want from an MCU third act and I’ll just say that Kang gets some seriously badass sequences. Look, I’m no bougie film critic, and I may lose legitimacy for saying I enjoyed this silly movie. I totally understand why some fans will be left with a sour taste in their mouths, and as a fan myself, there are many things that didn’t work for me. There are two after credits scenes and I can assure you that they are highly important, for they are almost guaranteed to excite comic book and MCU fans alike. Overall, while Antman and the Wasp: Quantumania takes some time to gain its footing and often finds itself making sharp tonal shifts, it still manages to be a wildly entertaining if uneven entry into the sprawling Marvel Cinematic Universe that sports one of the baddest supervillains to date in Jonathan Majors’s Kang the Conqueror, who I cannot wait to see more of. A fun mess that sets up a promising future for the MCU.
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