It's a new year with a new slate of Marvel projects waiting to be released. Kicking things off is Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, which both completes the Ant-Man trilogy and begins phase five of the MCU. However, for all of the fanfare about Ant-Man's return and the introduction of Kang the Conqueror, Quantumania ends up feeling like the average, mid-tier Marvel movie.
There may be something to be said about Marvel returning to form and having more focus in its projects, but Scott Lang's adventure in the Quantum Realm never rises above what fans and general audiences have come to expect from these movies. That's unfortunate, and maybe a sign that viewers aren't the only ones suffering from superhero fatigue.
Following a minor tease of what's to come, Quantumania jumps right back into the real world, with Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) enjoying his newfound fame as an Avenger. Things have gone well for him and Hope (Evangeline Lilly), with the latter now running her own research company. However, Scott's daughter Cassie (Kathryn Newton), appears to have taken on a bit of a rebellious streak. She's also been researching the Quantum Realm with the help of Hope and Hank Pym (Michael Douglas), much to the dismay of Janet van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer) who knows that something bad is down there.
Cassie's exploration into the Quantum Realm results in the entire Ant-family being pulled into it and left to figure out how they will get home. Of course, while they interact with all manner of strange creatures and environments in the previously-unexplored space, they must also deal with the much bigger threats of MODOK (a returning Corey Stoll) and Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors).
Quantumania doesn't waste much time getting its characters into all of the subatomic weirdness. The production design here falls somewhere between ambitious and run-of-the-mill. there are plenty of strange beings living down in the Quantum Realm, and the environments are lovingly rendered, but in many ways, there's not that much that's very special about how everything looks. There are some fun touches like living, walking buildings, but for every broccoli-headed stranger, there's a regular human wearing a nondescript outfit. Topping off the middling visuals is the continued inability of Marvel movies to believably composite their live-action actors into the CGI environments.
It's not always about the special effects with the MCU, though. Most fans just want to know what adventure their heroes are getting into next. While the performances are mostly solid, Quantumania unfortunately falls short on some major beats that should have been focused on much more. The most obvious one is Scott and Cassie's relationship. There's supposed to be some tension between the two, as suggested by the fact that Scott has been so absent for so long and now seems more focused on his newfound fame (thanks mostly to the book he wrote, soon to be available in the real world). Yet the fractious nature of the Langs' father-daughter dynamic is never explored in a meaningful way.
Similarly, Hope really falls into the background here, acting as more of a passive character than one whose superhero moniker is right there in the title of the movie. The characters driving the movie for the most part are Scott and Janet (so it could be fairly argued that this is the Wasp the title is referring to, but it's very unlikely). Hank Pym is largely relegated to introducing a plot device early in the film and then bringing it back in the big final fight (detractors of Marvel's third-act CGI chaos will have plenty to pick away at here).
The one character who really shines is the aforementioned Kang, with Jonathan Majors delivering a varied, simmering, threatening performance. It's clear that Majors understood how much of a threat this villain is supposed to be, and how important it was to sell him as the next big bad of the MCU. The only complaint one might have about Kang is how little screen time he is given. He is not introduced until fairly late into the movie, with characters only making vague mentions of him (which plays weird since everyone watching likely knows who the character is and that he's going to show up later). Even still, Majors is clearly relishing the opportunity to play such a big character, but he never chews too much scenery, allowing Kang's threatening nature to sit just below the surface for the most part.
While Quantumania avoids the old Marvel problem of non-compelling or forgettable villains (MODOK is fairly silly, but he always has been in other media), it does, unfortunately, fall into the same old patterns the MCU has come to be so criticized for. There's a lot of messy CGI in the final act as the heroes fight the literally faceless bad guys. Oddly enough, the end of the film is very similar to Thor: Ragnarok, which certainly doesn't help the movie's problem with standing out or being memorable on its own merits. While it might not be packed with distracting easter eggs and fan service like Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Quantumania does indulge in almost every other Marvel cliché, including having two post-credits scenes that are more interesting than the actual movie.
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania had a big job in kicking off the next phase of the MCU, but unfortunately it's already starting to look just like more of phase 4. This stumbling out of the gate does not bode well for future plans of the massive franchise, and it might be indicative of a major force starting to really slow down under its own immense weight. There might still be hope for the big upcoming projects to shake off the dust and reinvigorate the public's taste for Marvel, but this movie is unlikely to move the needle even for the most die-hard fan.
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania opens in theaters on February 17th.
