Movie Review: Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania

For the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it’s all about the heroes. The hero’s name will always be in the title because they are what draw the audience in and they are what the fans want to see. The majority of the time the stories revolve around the hero and their journey, so it makes sense to call a movie a Captain America movie or a Doctor Strange movie because that movie is about them.

But that isn’t the case with all Marvel movies. There have been a few films during this nearly-fifteen-year MCU run in which a hero’s name is slapped onto the title, but the movie isn’t necessarily about that hero or has other things on its mind besides the titular hero. Take for instance Captain America: Civil War. This is a movie that does feature Captain America, and he has a very small arc in the film, but the movie is about the Avengers and their battle of beliefs about their importance as heroes. Or how about Avengers: Infinity War, a movie that really should have been called Thanos because the whole more revolved around him and his journey to getting the Infinity Stones. The Avengers weren’t even a team in the movie, so calling it an Avengers movie is a bit of a stretch.

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, the latest entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, is a prime example of a hero’s name being in the title, but the movie not being about that hero. This isn’t an Ant-Man movie. Sure, Ant-Man is in it, as is Wasp, and Hank Pym, and other characters we have seen in previous Ant-Man films, but this movie isn’t really concerned with Ant-Man or Wasp as characters. This movie is more concerned with the Quantum Realm, its new villain Kang, and pushing the overall MCU story forward into Phase 5.

I bring this up because again, the MCU is about its heroes. When I see Avengers in the title of a movie, I expect an Avengers movie. When I see Doctor Strange in the title, I expect a movie about Doctor Strange. So, with a movie like Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, I am expecting an Ant-Man and Wasp movie. One that expands on their characters. One that puts them in new heroic situations and develops them as a heroes and as Scott and Hope.

This movie just uses Ant-Man, Wasp, other familiar characters as a vessel for the Quantum Realm. There is little to no emotional arc for Scott Lang (Paul Rudd, always charming) and very little for him to do. It had some potential for a good arc for Scott, like him hanging up the Ant-Man suit in pursuit of a more relaxed life or his relationship with his daughter Cassie (Kathryn Newton) and her following in her father’s footsteps despite Scott’s disapproval. But these ideas are basically thrown out the window as soon as everyone enters the Quantum Realm. And Wasp/Hope (Evangeline Lilly) is barely in the movie and has less to do than Cassie. She does have some cool moments during the film’s climactic battle scene, but I expected more, especially when she is one of the titular characters.

I was most interested and invested in the story of Janet Van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer), a woman who had spent decades in the Quantum Realm and knows the dangers everyone is in when they get there while also dealing with the repercussions of her actions from her previous time there, particularly with Kang (Jonathan Majors, a showstopping performance), a Darth Vader-like villain who is going to be a menace in the MCU going forward. Pfeiffer and Majors have the best scenes in the movie together and if the entire movie had focused on them and their relationship, it would have made for a better movie.

All that said, I had a pretty good time overall with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. It’s the weakest of the Ant-Man trilogy, but it is also very different from the first two. Quantumania is far bigger in terms of scale and had the vibe of a Star Trek episode, with some sprinkles of the original Star Wars trilogy. It’s a big, silly sci-fi adventure with weird and goofy-looking characters, bright colors, lasers, ships, and walking buildings. There’s humor scattered throughout and there is a fight between Ant-Man and Kang that is one of the more brutal scenes in the entire MCU. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is a weird, fun, mid-tier MCU movie, it’s just not an Ant-Man movie.

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