Review: Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023)

The ever expanding Marvel Cinematic Universe is now at 31 films, with nearly a dozen more at various stages of development to be released over the next few years. The first two Ant-Man films, somewhat appropriately, were an outlier given their smaller scale, both in terms of the heroes’ powers and the stories’ less earth-shattering stakes. Centred on comedic actor Paul Rudd’s performance as Scott Lang, a former professional thief-turned-Avenger, the series is grounded by Rudd’s self-deprecating humour and easy-going charm. With supporting turns by veteran Hollywood stars Michael Douglas as the inventor of the Ant-Man suit and “Pym Particle,” Hank Pym, and joined in the second film by Michelle Pfeiffer as Janet Van Dyne, Hank’s wife and the original Wasp, the cast carried the vestiges of real star power, married to a comic dynamic that understood the light-hearted and more-relatable stakes of the material.

In other words, the adventures of Scott Lang and his partner in crime-fighting, the next-generation Wasp, Hope Van Dyne (Evangeline Lily), can be held up as the answer to the what many critics, myself included, have decried as the increasing narrative deferment and bland aesthetics of the series. It’s about a crime-fighting family, limited in scale and fairly self-contained. The actors at least seemed like they’re having fun. Peyton Reed’s direction and screenplays (working off an initial, abandoned treatment by Edgar Wright) half-heartedly gesture at non-superhero genre trappings (the heist film, the family comedy). The Ant-Man films are the smaller scale superhero films for those exhausted by the whole MCU endeavour.

Enter the third film in the series, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, which eschews much of the style and narrative humility of the first two films. Building off of Janet’s revelations about the Quantum Realm, a subatomic universe underlying our own, first revealed in Ant-Man and the Wasp, the film dives full-on into exploring this strange new realm of the Marvel Universe, bringing the new supervillain, Kang (Jonathan Majors) to the big screen (his character was apparently first seen in the television series LOKI, who it is teased will become the main antagonist of Phase Five of the MCU.

Stylistically, Quantumania has a much larger scale in terms of being focused on strange worlds and creatures, and linking into the larger multiverse plotting of Phase Five. It’s everything that the Ant-Man films weren’t supposed to be at this point in the series. So, it might be surprising to hear that I thought the newest Ant-Man film is perfectly fine.

Talk about damning with faint praise. It’s fine! I guess that could be said about most of the films in this series. Few are outright bad; mostly it’s the need to keep the momentum of the series going, getting bogged down in trivial minutiae, and a tonal preference for sub-Whedonesque quips and distancing irony that keeps them from achieving either narrative elegance or appealing to my aesthetic preferences for pop cinema.

But what about Quantumania specifically? Is it any good? Well, it really depends on what you’re looking for in these things. While I’ve mostly avoided seeing these new films the last few years, when I do it’s either been for the 3 Brothers Filmcast or, increasingly, parental indulgence of my two adolescent boys, as was the case in seeing this newest one. Perhaps it was out of that lens of seeing the film through my sons’ eyes that Quantumania hit a sort of sweet spot for me in breaking down my cynicism, even if many of the criticisms of the film ring true from the scattered pacing, occasionally awkward line deliveries, and plain goofy-looking character designs.

Quantumania takes place after Avengers: Endgame (confession time: I’ve still never seen that film, but despite its seeming essential nature I don’t feel like I was really missing anything in this film), as Scott Lang is now living the charmed life of a superhero who has successfully saved the world, gotten his personal life in order, and written a best selling autobiography. His daughter Cassie (here played by Kathryn Newton) is now a teenager, and the Pym-Van Dyne and Lang families are all cozy and happy. Cassie, however, with the help of “Grandpa Hank,” decides to dig into the mysteries of the Quantum Realm where Janet was stranded for decades. When her experiment goes wrong, the whole family—Hank, Janet, Scott, Hope, and Cassie—are sucked down to the quantum level of reality, where much more is going on than Janet ever revealed.

The Quantum Realm, far from being an empty wasteland as presumed, is home to a full micro-universe, with multiple worlds and cultures, all layered underneath our own and accessible via the quantum level of reality. During her time there, it is revealed that Janet explored new worlds, found new friends, and made some enemies too. Since she left, the Quantum Realm has now fallen under the control of the brilliant scientist, Kang, whose quest for power across the multiverse Janet had thwarted during her stay. Of course Kang wants his revenge, and to expand his reach throughout the Quantum Realm and larger multiverse.

On a narrative level, Quantumania is pretty rote. As you can see from my description, the plot sets up a now familiar series of reversals and extensions of danger. There aren’t a lot of surprises here. It follows the classic gambit of separating its heroes upon their arrival in the new world, and follows their quest to reunite and defeat Kang. Along the way they meet bizarre creatures, like a jelly man whose goo-like body grants the ability to understand any language when ingested, and Janet’s former lover, an arrogant and mendacious space lord played by Bill Murray. Oh, and a guy with broccoli for a head. It’s goofy and the special effects don’t always work; the amount of green screen and CGI, despite the money thrown at it, certainly feels fake a good amount of the time. Marvel has not yet solved some of the issues of digital backdrops feeling fake. Corey Stoll returns as Darren Cross, who after being sucked into the Quantum Realm in the first film has transformed into the ludicrous looking M.O.D.O.K., a giant floating bald head in a mechanical suit, who looked goofy enough on the comic book page, but here borders on grotesque and uncanny! Truly one of the most ridiculous moments in the Marvel series, and potentially pushes the film into the realm of outright bad instead of just goofy.

The plotting and character development is also mostly by-the-book, with important life lessons like “Don’t be a dick!”. I have seen complaints online that the mix of after school special and cheesy special effects simply makes Quantumania a more fancy version of the family adventure films Robert Rodrigeuz made in the 2000s, like Spy Kids or Sharkboy and Lavagirl. 

But, that’s the key to why the film works! It understands it is a children’s film, first and foremost. Its willingness to entertain weirdness and wonder recalls the grandeur of the Star Wars Prequels in moments, though it does lack those films’ sense of a real universe and VFX quality. I applaud Quantumania for making a superhero film that kids can actually engage with. If that means that the audience of aging millennials think the film is cheesy and stupid, so be it. There are enough other superhero films that aim to adult-level profundity, even if very few actually achieve it in my mind.

As for understanding the assignment, the film’s other secret weapon is Jonathan Majors as Kang. Majors chews the scenery, but never condescends to the material. His Kang is genuinely a good superhero villain. His muscular stature and gravitas combined with his character’s grandiose plans mean I’m hopeful that he’ll be a decent Marvel villain in a series where the villains have often been a weak spot.

Is Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania a great film? No. And don’t get me started on those trying to argue it’s on the level of Star Wars or even the most recent Avatar film. But does it deliver as a Saturday afternoon matinee for older kids, with funny characters, imagination, and a compelling villain? Yes, it does. And maybe that’s good enough, as long as we don’t pretend otherwise.

6 out of 10

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023, USA)

Directed by Peyton Reed; Written by Jeff Loveness, based on the characters from Marvel Comics; starring Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lily, Michael Douglas, Michelle Pfeiffer, Kathryn Newton, Cory Stoll, Bill Murray, Jonathan Majors.

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