Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023)
Theoretically speaking, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania works both as a trilogy capper for the Ant-Man series and as a launching pad for more Kang The Conqueror movies.
In reality Phase 5 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is off to a somewhat underwhelming start.
It starts off well enough, though. Scott Lang a.k.a. Ant-Man (Paul Rudd) is on a book tour, talking about his days as an avenger. But when he has to bail their daughter Cassie (Kathryn Newton) out of jail after standing up for the homeless - a point that is never explored after this - she confronts him that he’s not doing much for the world anymore. When he looks to the familiar faces around him - Hope van Dyne a.k.a. The Wasp (Evangeline Lilly), Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) and Janet van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer) are all present - they seem to agree.
Suffice to say that within a few minutes the five of them are sent into the Quantum Realm for a new set of sf-adventures.
The creatures they encounter in the first half hour were most likely inspired by Star Wars - I was half and half expecting Jabba the Hut to show up - as if the MCU and the SWU can now merge safely under the protection of the Disney Realm.
Also, there is an amusing (though short-lived) supporting role by Bill Murray that kept me entertained.
After that the movie gets more serious, with the arrival of Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors), who shares a past with Janet van Dyne, which she never told anyone about.
Janet plays a major part in this movie and Pfeiffer gets the chance to remind us what a great actress she is.
Jonathan Majors is good too as Kang, who is stuck in the Quantum Realm and he needs help to get out and travel back and forth in time while also rewriting it, as well as continue his wicked ways of ruling and/or destroying universes (I sometimes get confused what these mega-super villains really want or need).
Anyway, after the part where Kang gets to speech a lot we get to the part where the action increases, Ant-Man and the Wasp get their chance to shine again, but the movie gets a little dull instead of more exciting.
Which is a shame, because the first two Ant-Man movies had a lot of charm and they - like the Guardians of the Galaxy movies - represented the quirky, eccentric side of the MCU.
The last half hour of Quantumania is just action bluster, and I’m always have trouble understanding that people spent 200 million dollars on blockbusters like this and they still can’t get the special effects to look as good as they should. I’m not saying die-hard MCU-fans won’t still get a kick out of this stuff though, but I think it’s time the bar was raised.
On the other hand, I always have to laugh when people say that Marvel is in a commercial rut, or that audiences suffer from Superhero fatigue.
2022 may not have been their best year, but Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness had the Sam Raimi touch and Thor: Love and Thunder, even though completely derivative, still carried Taika Waikiki’s signature. While both being rock solid hits. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever was, despite some minor quibbles, a triumph that is also nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars.
But even though Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is bound to do well at the box office, it is not an auspicious start of the next Phase, even though it is setting up Kang for movies like Avengers: The Kang Universe. It feels like a, largely forgettable episode of the week movie.
With the early May release of James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 and the late July release of The Marvels coming up, I think Marvel’s immediate future still looks bright enough. But at some point they will have to prove their artistic worth again.