Disclaimer: This review contains spoilers for “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” (2023).
Undoubtedly, one of the biggest struggles for Marvel Studios falls in trying to please audiences after the massive and climatic event that was “Avengers: Endgame” (2019). With all our favorite heroes, a big, bad, purple villain and the stakes higher than ever, we all couldn’t help but sit at the edge of our seats. Let’s be real — it was a moment of cinematic history.
The unfortunate outcome of all this, however, is trying to match the “Endgame” energy with every new Marvel project. Although the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been backpedaling into once again telling origin stories and setting up new big villains, fans still have the urge to jump right into the next “Endgame”-level event. And so, with our next big, bad, not-purple villain making his movie debut in “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,” disappointment is to be had at the lack of high stakes.
And that’s okay.
At the end of the day, “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” is a movie with a central theme of family and what you do for family. The importance of family and having enough time with them has always been a core aspect of all the “Ant-Man” films (2015–23), but “Quantumania” also follows how one has to make the hard choice in deciding between family and everyone else in the multiverse.
This, of course, is a very “Ant-Man” theme. One of the strongest elements of the film is seeing how they build the idea of family with Scott (Paul Rudd), Cassie (Kathryn Newton), Hope (Evangeline Lilly), Hank (Michael Douglas) and Janet (Michelle Pfeiffer) — it only takes 15 minutes for viewers to really understand their relationship. The audience sees how Cassie has been learning about the Quantum Realm and building advanced technology with the help of Hank, how Janet and Hope still have a bit of tension from Janet’s years in the Quantum Realm, and perhaps most interestingly, the connection Scott and Cassie have with one another.
With Cassie having lived the five years of “the Blip” without Scott and the others, she grew to “look out for the little guy” — just not in ways her dad agrees with. While Scott has his own ideas on how to help others and how to pick a cause to join, Cassie clearly believes that anyone can always do more — even an Avenger who’s already saved the world from a purple dude.
The contrasts between father and daughter come to light in watching how they choose to physically fight their enemies — while Scott always goes small and hits them with his perfected ‘jump and tap,’ Cassie tends to go big and cause some giant damage. And yet even with the differences between the two, it is still clear that they will continue fighting for their families and everyone else — even if they choose to do so in different ways.
Some of the other most enjoyable aspects of this movie were also the most ridiculous ones. Although he did not do much, our favorite blob, Veb (David Dastmalchian), and his love of holes were an extreme comedic highlight throughout the movie’s entire runtime.
And no one can deny just how special M.O.D.O.K. — who we soon find out is actually Darren Cross (Corey Stoll) from “Ant-Man” (2015) — is in this entire movie. Making M.O.D.O.K. as completely cringey as they did, with the beautiful face reveal and butt cheek display from this character, easily made him one of the most enjoyable MCU roles in a long time.
However, “Quantumania” still manages to do very little.
One of the major drawbacks of this film is how high the stakes seemed to be set with no real payoff. The film is supposed to open the door to who Kang (Jonathan Majors) really is and why he is a major threat. The character is set up to be extremely dangerous, someone who has killed multiple Avengers in his life and plans to conquer and destroy every universe. And yet, he gets defeated by Ant-Man. This Kang, who is supposedly so bad that he was banished by all the other bloodthirsty Kangs and has the power to blink someone out of existence by pointing his hand, was taken down by ants. Technologically advanced ants, sure, but ants nonetheless.
When you set Kang to be so overwhelmingly powerful that he can build an entire empire and so incredibly intelligent that every single possible version of himself managed to figure out multiversal travel, you almost expect that even if he was defeated, he’d take someone like Scott down with him. Or at the very least, keep them trapped with him in the Quantum Realm.
At the end of the film, everything — the ants, Hope coming back for Scott, Cassie figuring out how to reopen the multiversal portal — felt like a giant deus ex machina. It felt as if Kang was never a threat and our heroes will continue to get away easily.
This film truly suffered because of the shoehorned ending that took away from its powerful setup. And that is why this film is, in the grander scheme of Marvel, very little. Then again, Marvel movies always sow the seeds of a greater story, and audiences often miss the full picture until it’s all laid out in front of them.
The most important thing to remember when watching this movie is simple: this is not and should not be an “Avengers: Endgame”-level movie. This wasa good “Ant-Man” film. At the heart of it all, it does so much more when treated as such. There could have most definitely been more world-building and deeper dives into the Quantum Realm, if we will ever revisit it in future MCU projects, and the film would have definitely benefited greatly if the stakes had been raised a bit. But still, as an “Ant-Man” movie, it hits all the marks — corny, self-aware, lots of ants, family and overall a fun viewing experience.
