I have watched every MCU movie since “Iron Man” in 2008 in the movie theatre except one.
The original Ant-Man.
I remember months after it was released, coming across on cable on a random Saturday afternoon and thinking to myself.
“This is a really good movie.”
Since then, I have been an Ant-Man and, specifically, a Paul Rudd fan. One of the things that worked with the first two Ant-Man movies was the stakes seemed smaller than other Avengers and more lighthearted.
From the moment that people found out the villain of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania would be Kang The Conquerer, you knew the states would be raised, but how would that work in an Ant-Man movie?
Would it work?
The answer is yes and no.
Jonathan Majors is perfect casting as Kang, and he certainly has the screen presence of a big bad. You feel like he is a threat to the Avengers and the universe itself.
The main issue with Quantumania is that there isn’t enough Kang in it.
Unfortunately, the movie’s first half is world-building to make the Quantum Realm look like a bootleg Stars Wars. While it isn’t bad, it feels like more time should have been spent on Kang than making Brocolli-looking aliens.
Also, some of the jokes fall a little flat in a movie that is presented as potentially breaking the entire universe. It isn’t that the jokes or funny moments are bad, the timing of these moments are very hit or miss. Some stall the story’s momentum and seem out of place with what is happening at the time.
Kathryn Newton was excellent as the new Cassie Lang, she was a welcome addition to the cast, and beyond Majors was a highlight of the movie.
One thing I did not like is MODAK. I am sure there will be varying opinions on how the character was portrayed, and don’t get me wrong, it is a complex character to portray on screen, but it just didn’t work, and some of his decision-making didn’t make any sense. After making the same joke about him five times in the movie,e it just felt off.
You know the movie’s plot you could discern from most of the trailers.
Janet Van Dyne has beefed with Kang and others from way back,k and when Cassie sends a beacon to the Quantum Realm, it sucks them all in.
This movie’s strongest act is seeing the relationship between Van Dyne and Kang and how their friendship was fractured by also explaining how and why Kang is in the Quantum Realm. Kang also explains how he sees time in a loop and already knows the outcome.
They could have done a bit better in making Kang’s reasoning for his actions more understandable to the audience, but to fully understand, you need to watch the end of season 1 of Loki.
The final big battle was enjoyable beyond the MODOK scenes and showed Kang as a badass and capable of handling some Avengers.
One of the critiques of Marvel Phase 4 is it didn’t lead up to anything, and people were hoping that Quantumania would change that.
The answer to that is YES and NO.
There are two post-credit scenes, and they both show where the MCU is going with Kang, but the movie has a definite ending where it is likely there won’t be any more Ant-Man movies, but you will see Ant-Man again.
Overall I enjoyed the movie. If the 2nd half of the movie had been expanded into an entire movie, it would have been a classic. The movie is about Janet Van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer, along with Jonathan Majors, save the movie) and Kang. Those were the best parts of the movie, and frankly, Scott Lang felt like a side character in his movie.
The stuff about Scott’s book and Cassie going to jail just seemed unnecessary. That Kang doesn’t even show up until 45 minutes into the movie was a misstep. The best part of the movie shouldn’t be first be seen almost halfway through it.
This is a shaky first step in Marvel Phase 5, but if the goal was to get people to believe Kang could be as big of a threat as Thanos, it did accomplish that goal, but only enough to get us to buy into the next movie or series he will be in.
BSO Rating is 6.5 out of 10 stars.