“Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania:” Loved by audiences, hated by critics

4 out of 5 stars

Spoilers Ahead

Marvel’s “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,” released on Feb. 17, is the first entry of Phase Five of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

The film throws the Ant-Man family into the Quantum Realm, where they encounter a micro-versal universe under the tyrannic authority of the infamous Kang the Conqueror; a time-traveling, dimension-hopping madman with aspirations on the same, if not greater levels as Thanos.

The film obtained mixed reviews after its release, with Rotten Tomatoes currently giving it a 47% while Audience polls from CinemaScore gave it a “B.”

This leads to the question of what worked and what didn’t with this initial Phase Five entry.

To start off, the film’s setting was reminiscent of a Star Wars film, with a side plot of a rebel group trying to take down a high mighty empire that ruled with an iron fist. The Quantum Realm itself is a micro-universe filled with strange aliens and technology heavily inspired by George Lucas’s priced saga.

The soundtrack also helps in kicking in with that atmosphere, especially during the battle scenes. The costume and set design also went deep with this film, with the special effects and CGI immersing the audience into the world itself.

The plot, however, does split and deviate in terms of timing. The central antagonist of the film is Kang the Conqueror, played by Jonathan Majors. This character first appeared in the Disney Plus series Loki, who was an alternate version of the character.

That version of the character was passive, with little to explain in terms of plot and connection to the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU); this Kang the Conqueror was violent and tyrannic in appearance, an appearance that’s literally the start of the second half of the film.

His timing is slowed down by the introduction of the quantum realm, the cast got introduced into the world, but didn’t establish the villain soon enough.

The one that leads us to the villain is Bill Murray’s character and MODOK: yes, the giant bobblehead makes an appearance in the film. Therefore, the plot went from escaping the quantum realm to stopping Kang.

Aside from the villain, the character’s screen time was also an issue, as it was divided between Scott Lang (Paul Rudd), Cassie Lang (Kathryn Newton), Hope Van Dyne (Evangeline Lily), Janet Van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer), and Hank Pym (Michael Douglas).

There’s Scott and Cassie’s father-daughter character arc, as well as Janet’s trauma and past, that went alongside the Quantum Realm arc. The focus is split into two, where we as the audience don’t really see much growth.

Scott has grown through the past Ant-Man films, but this film was supposed to focus on his relationship with his daughter now that she’s grown up and he missed half of her life. Janet’s past takes time away from that, which does seem unnecessary and a waste of time in terms of development.

On top of that, Hope doesn’t even get much character development either. She’s one of the title characters and her screen time and character development aren’t even properly developed as it was in the previous “Ant-Man and the Wasp.”

These factors plus some of the dialogue given to Cassie in the later half of the film decay the importance of Kang and his role in the MCU. 

This film was supposed to introduce us to the potential supervillain of this “Multiverse Saga” that’s being developed, but the plot itself mixes that up here.

One sad spoiler I must write is that Michael Pena’s rambling character, Luis, does not make an appearance in this film, and neither are the other ex-cons in the film. It’s a sad elimination of characters that made the previous films fun to enjoy.

Nonetheless, “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” is still an enjoyable and fun film to watch. Is it the greatest? No. But, it fares better than most of what was released in Phase Four and it does try to connect all the multiverse elements introduced in the previous phase.

Marvel Studios is taking its time with building up Kang and his role in the future of the MCU, and this film was good enough to set up the potential danger he may cause to the Marvel superheroes.

Give this film a watch while it is in theaters, and anticipate more to come with the rest of the Fifth Phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.