Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania Review

*No Cameos or Twists spoiled…

IMDB Synopsis

Ant-Man and the Wasp find themselves exploring the Quantum Realm, interacting with strange new creatures and embarking on an adventure that pushes them beyond the limits of what they thought was possible.

“You still can’t see it, it’s never over”

For so long the MCU has been this unstoppable force that took over the movie industry and left millions of small budget movies in its wake. The endless humor, the movie stars, and the inter connectivity have always been the strength and culminated in the incredible ENDGAME. Since then the results have been middling to say the least and this latest Ant Man film really shows the cracks that have been forming in the MCU foundation.

The first two Ant Man movies were such a surprise and a delight because no one expected anything from them. We never knew anything really about the character so they could pretty much do whatever they wanted with them. Peyton Reed turned them into these fun heist movies and had an eclectic cast of characters to go along with it. People like Michael Pena, T.I., David Dastmalchian, Randall Park, and others contributed to that quirky tone and really made those movies memorable. Unfortunately, none of them are really in this movie and it strips the story of anything that made those first two movies fun. What we are left with is a drab, Star Wars wannabe that feels like every other generic super hero movie. Which is weird considering this was marketed as the next massive movie in the Multi Verse Saga.

What is frustrating is the movie starts in a way that makes you feel like you are in Ant Man world again, yet 10 minutes in you are ripped to the Quantum Realm. In the Quantum Realm they almost tried to set up like a Seven Samurai type story where these heroes drop in and help the locals in their battle. To me though it just did not work because of the simple fact, I did not care about any of these people. And pushing our stars to the side to try and give us the lore of the Quantum realm to me just felt tired and lost me. The only characters who really interested me were Kang (Jonathan Majors) obviously, and Cassie (Kathryn Newton) and neither were given a ton do.

On the technical side this movie was a perfect example of overuse of The Volume, which is the new moving green screen that the Mandalorian and numerous other things use now. In this movie everything just looked like a sound stage and felt extremely inauthentic. To the point that the actors looked weirdly out of place to me because it just felt cheap. Christophe Beck did the music, and it was absolutely solid. He has done studio movies forever and did not disappoint with another fun composition.

Stock Watch

Stock Neutral – Paul Rudd

He is the title character of this movie but I almost felt like he was a side character in this. We spent so much time on Janet and Hank’s stories that we did not get as much Ant Man as I wanted. He was great though in all the scenes with Kathryn Newton, they definitely felt like family on screen. If you have Paul Rudd though you should probably use him.

Stock Up – Jonathan Majors

We knew this was coming. He showed up in LOKI last year and announced himself as the major villain of the MCU moving forward. He delivers in this movie for sure even if his character is not the final form yet to what it will be in the future. Like everything else that was good in this movie I just wanted more of him. Hopefully, next week in CREED III he will continue his ascent up superstar mountain.

Stock Up – Kathryn Newton

She has been in a ton of good stuff in recent years including: BLOCKERS, A MAP OF TINY PERFECT THINGS, FREAKY, and much more. This is her moment though and she definitely seized it. It is not always easy to play the young person who messes everything up and has to help fix it. She acquitted herself well and seems to be a nice addition to the MCU moving forward.

*A couple other tidbits

This really was Michelle Pfeiffer’s movie, and she brought energy we had not seen from her in years.
Evangeline Lilly was done dirty here as well.
Again, I want to reiterate I did not care one bit for any of the quantum people, and seeing them try to remake the ENDGAME, RISE OF SKYWALKER battle moment was sad.
Corey Stoll as MODOK was humorous but ultimately absurd and unnecessary.
Baskin Robbins guy being here was very funny.

What made the MCU great in its prime was allowing filmmakers to be completely creative with their storytelling. This meant tone as well, which those early Ant Man movies had in abundance. Stripping that in this third one and trying to make it more of an Avengers style movie just does not feel authentic at all. I definitely wanted more from this, and if this is the new norm for the MCU, we are in trouble moving forward.

Juice Rating: