Physical sets begone! Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania represents the third instalment for the tiny titular tyke as the least appreciated Avenger.
Whereas the other characters seem beamed in from the hero sphere (God, Billionaire, Genius Scientist, etc.), Scott Lang’s ‘thief’ has been more grounded in reality.
This time around he’s so grounded that he’s inside the gosh darn floor.
What Is Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania About?
You have to feel sorry for the actors in Quantumania who must have spent months staring at green cloth and tennis balls on sticks.
Due to an experiment ran by the newly scientific teenage Cassie Lang, our cast are pulled inside the sub-atomic Quantum Realm faster than you can say ‘Tron laser’.
This place now isn’t just where the 60s patterned rugs roam free – it’s a whole other universe down there with creatures, societies, cities, and threats.
Our actual cast remain appealing. Paul Rudd is gifted two bookend scenes to reorient us as to where his Scott Lang is now (well known and well liked after releasing a best selling book, ‘Look Out for the Little Guy’) and otherwise still exudes everyman charm.
Evangeline Lilly (Hope / the Wasp) has another angle as she re-establishes a relationship with her newly found mother. And in an unexpected move Michelle Pfeiffer (Janet van Dyne) bolsters her roster with terrorist / freedom fighter.
There is no denying though that the big draw is Jonathan Majors as new MCU villain, Kang (the Conqueror). Anyone who watched Loki will have the backstory which Quantumania only lightly touches on.
Need to know: can travel the multiverse and isn’t too keen on preserving it. Initially alone in the Quantum Realm, Majors delivers a subtle performance that amplifies a relatable loneliness to his character, yet with an ever present threat bubbling just under the surface.
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania Official Trailer
Is Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania Worth Watching?
Everything else about Quantumania smacks of getting ducks in a row for later MCU instalments. The Quantum Realm and its inhabitants – while visually replete with all sorts of wibbly wobbly creativity – is so far tonally removed from the small-big-small-again-now-ants of the preceding movies that Ant-Man struggles to retain its own identity.
Unlike Scott Lang’s previous outings, this could almost be any MCU movie.
With fairly standard whizz bang pop action scenes and a maguffin-centric plot that kills time, Quantumania lacks much rewatch value.
What it does have is an engaging core cast (Michael Douglas’s Hank Pym is enjoyably more chill this time around) and a great comedy foil character in the cybernetic M.O.D.O.K who fills the screen in more ways than one.
When you shrink it down to the smallest nuts and bolts, Quantumania hangs together on the basis of good dialogue scenes, entertaining characters, and curiosity of a setting not before explored.
That the macro level is otherwise very familiar and created on a Marvel server somewhere means that the movie will likely be a one and done for all but the most ardent fan.
“What’re quantum mechanics?” “I don’t know. People who repair quantums, I suppose,” wrote author Terry Pratchett once. Quantumania has been built by creative universe mechanics and does what it is designed to do.
Perhaps the next time we meet Scott we will be treated to something more to scale.
Words by Mike Record
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