Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania

Matthew Patrick Sharkey

Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania is the newest film of the MCU, directed by Peyton Reed, who also directed the first two Ant-Man films. It’s the first MCU project in their Phase 5 and is an action-comedy film starring Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lily & Jonathan Majors as Ant-Man aka Scott Lang, The Wasp aka Hope Van Dyne & Kang The Conqueror respectively.

At the start of the film, Scott Lang, aka Ant-Man, is now a bestselling author, Hope Van Dyne is now the C.E.O. of her father’s company, Scott’s Daughter Cassie Lang (Katherine Newton) is now a superhero with the help of a suit created by Hope. and Janet Van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer) & Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) are enjoying a quiet, peaceful retirement.

Everything is going well for them, until Cassie unveils her invention, a “deep space satellite” for the Quantum Realm. For context, the Quantum Realm is a micro dimension in the MCU that exists outside time and space. It has been used in Ant-Man, Ant-Man and The Wasp & Avengers Endgame. Somehow Scott Lang and the rest of the gang are sucked through this “deep space satellite” and land straight into the Quantum Realm. After this, the gang discovers that there are whole worlds inside the Quantum Realm, how the big bad of this film Kang the Conqueror rose to power and what Janet has been trying to keep secret since she escaped the Quantum Realm.

The film does some things very well and fails to deliver on multiple occasions, and The VFX/CGI is where the film fails the most. There was some weird art direction throughout the entire movie. The CGI failed the most with M.O.D.A.K., who is already a bizarre character and hard to design, but his face was hideous and could have used way more time for the CGI Artists to work on it.

Jonathan Majors & Paul Rudd are some of the best parts of this film. Their acting is top-notch, and they both have so much fun in their roles. On the other hand, the script sometimes led to Cassie Lang’s character being very one-dimensional, a kind-hearted activist who fights for what is right. Still, the script writers could have done a better job giving Katherine Newton more direction for her role and more interesting dialogue. The comedy is well-timed and had me laughing throughout the entire film, and the soundtrack is perfect, as it is for nearly every MCU Project. Even the track names on the album made me laugh.

Overall the plot is extremely straightforward and isn’t that unique compared to other MCU Projects. But sometimes that is exactly the film you want to see. But when I entered the cinema, I didn’t expect much from this film, but two hours later, I was confused, impressed, and excited for the next phase of the MCU.