When Iron Man and Hulk started the MCU and what became the most successful cinematic franchise in movie history, none of us could have imagined the series would reach 30 movies (>40 movies+TV series). And, sadly, having seen phase 4, more and more fans are wondering if Disney/Marvel should have stopped after Avengers:Endgame. And so, in an atmosphere ranging from apathy to general disappointment, Ant-man and the Wasp: Quantumania entered the scene to kick off MCU Phase 5.
This movie had important jobs to do for the MCU. It exists to introduce a second variant of the big bad of phases 4-6 (Kang, the time-traveling, multiversal-war-starting villian), give a send-off to the main cast of Ant-man and the Wasp, introduce Cassie Lang as a new superhero, and excite fans about the next phase. And it did all of these, with varying degrees of success.
I won’t provide a scene-by-scene review here and there won’t be any significant spoilers (nothing you couldn’t get from the trailers). But I will give you my opinion of how it all came together.
The Second Coming of Kang
In what was the high point of the movie for many fans, a second variant of multiversal villain Kang the Conqueror was introduced. Trapped in the quantum realm, Kang seeks to fix his power source that Janet van Dyne destroyed when she discovered who he was.
Each time I see Jonathan Majors as Kang (here and in Loki), I enjoy his performances. Nevertheless, there was some inconsistancy in the writing, which led to a few weaker scenes with Kang. Regardless, there were far worse in the movie than these few bits and I am hoping he gets some good writing in future movies to really show off his talent.
Plots and Charters and Stuff, Oh My!
My main criticism of Quantumania was that it was far too busy. There was a main plot, but because someone in production felt that each and every character had to have some arc or subplot, the movie lost any meaningful narrative direction. There was (1) Kang’s need of Scott to restore a crucial power source, (2) Scott and Cassie’s missing time and reconnection, (3) Janet’s life in the quantum realm, (4) Hank’s ants, (5) Cassie’s desire to save the rebels, (6) Hope’s… well… Hope didn’t seem to have much of a part in the movie, (7) Darren’s humiliation and redemption(?), (8) the character’s need to stop Kang and escape the quantum realm.
Some of these plots, such as the rebels and the ants, seemed thrown in only so they could feature in the big battle at the end. Otherwise, these plots made very little sense and had completely undeveloped characters. This was especially true of Janet’s old flame, Lord Krylar, played by Bill Murray, who seemed meaningless in the story.
In my opinion, the movie would have been much better served using far fewer characters, or dividing them up differently. A possibility that comes to mind would have been to have Janet, Scott, and Cassie taken to the quantum realm, with Hope and Hank trying to find and save them from above. This division would have simplified the quantum realm plots as well as allowing the movie to once again explore the two father-daughter relationships as they evolved throughout the Ant-man series.
MODOK
The less said about the Mechanized Organism Designed Only for Killing, the better. Darren Cross returns from Ant-man1 only to be mocked and humiliated in what was yet another massive wasted opportunity for the MCU. The only thing I can think at this point is that someone saw how bad the CGI looked and realized there was no chance of making him a serious character moving forward.
The Ants
I can’t help but put a piece in her about the evolution of Hank’s ants.
*insignificant spoiler here*
There’s a brief throw-away scene where Hank rediscovers a colony of ants that were also sucked into the quantum realm. He states they were caught in a temporal vortex and evolved to a ‘class two civilization’ in a day.
For the record, ‘Class 2’ refers to a Kardeshev classification of civilizations that specifically references the technological capabilities of a society in respect to the amount of energy it can harness. A class 1 civilization can harness the equivalent of all the energy of a planet. A class 2 civilization can harness all the energy of a star. Humans currently are about 0.7.
My main issue, then, is that a class 2 civilization should have some amazing technology at its disposal that it could bring to bear in the final conflict. They could be close to Kang’s equal in technology…
Instead, we just see ants with technological head-pieces rush in and physically stomp everything.
Overall
There were many strong actors in the cast of Quantumania and, with the write script and production direction, I believe this could have been a highlight of the new MCU. It clearly wasn’t, and a great many of the audience were disappointed in what they ended up watching. Given the depth of onscreen talent, the overly busy story, and the lack of any effective emotional arc, it appears to me that either the writers were too ambitious, or the studio interfered to destroy the original vision.
Whatever the case, Ant-man and the Wasp: Quantumania comes it at a solid, and disappointing, ‘meh’ on the viewability scale. It wasn’t ‘walk out of the cinema’ bad, but I’m not better, or even happier, for having seen it.
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