Rating of
2.5/4
A Small Step for the MCU
Chris Kavan - wrote on 03/10/23
The MCU has had its ups and downs but I have to admit that Ant-Man and Wasp: Quantumania is truly the first time I've felt the long-running superhero franchise has felt like it's just spinning its wheels. Underneath the flashy CGI, crazy characters and the introduction of the next biggest bad (Jonathan Majors does kill it as Kang), Quantumania largely feels a bit empty.
The two previous Ant-Man films have been some of the most fun (along with the Spider-Man series) thanks in large part to every-man Paul Rudd just being himself - affable, a bit of a goofball and overall a just likable guy. Heavy hitters like Michael Douglas and Michelle Pfeifer bring a bit of class to the whole affair and Evangeline Lilly is the strong female counterpart. Quantumania does have some lighter moments but, overall, it feels much darker - and while Pfeiffer gets to shine in a kick-ass kind of way, Rudd is muted (one scene featuring a time paradox with hundreds of Ant-Men is pretty good, however), Lilly is mostly MIA and Douglas is likewise a bit wasted. Kathryn Newton gets a decent amount of story as Cassie Lang - including some heroics of her own, but I wanted more. And Bill Murray's cameo is mostly filler and kind of pointless. However, the biggest WTF role has to go to Corey Stoll, reprising his role as Darren Cross but also a new version of M.O.D.O.K. - and, I'm sorry, but it is utterly ridiculous.
If there is a saving grace to the cast it is by far Majors as his Kang is part chess-playing genius, part Ghengis Khan and part Napoleon. And he delivers on every facet whether coldly calculating or unforgiving evil or stoically mad - and given the ending teaser, we're going to be getting a lot more Kangs to deal with and I think that's a good thing.
Many have knocked the CGI of Quantumania of being too much like Star Wars - that is overdone to death. I mean, we are dealing with the Quantum Realm here - fantastical is pretty much the rule of thumb. A lot of creatures do look like they could have stepped straight out of Mos Eisley Cantina, however, so I see where you could see a similarity. I don't think the effects hindered the film that much (aside from, again, M.O.D.O.K.) but it is a lot to take in.
If Quantumania was supposed to be the big film to usher in the next Phase, I don't think it did a very good job. Yes, we have Kang but beside the bad guy nothing feels like it moved the needle. After introducing so many new characters this last go-round, I'm still not sure how they're all going to fit together as the movies and TV shows still feel highly disjointed. We need something to bring everyone together because, for now, things still seem all over the place and Quantumania didn't fix any of the issues.
