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Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania Movie Review

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is a 2023 superhero film directed by Peyton Reed and starring Paul Rudd, Michelle Pfeiffer, Michael Douglas and Jonathan Majors. It’s one of the weaker MCU flicks.

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“You always were a brother to me.

And at least I died… an Avenger“

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Ant-Man and the Wasp find themselves exploring the Quantum Realm, interacting with strange new creatures and having to find the ways to escape from this place while also battling with the dangerous Kang. This is one of the least-grossing and worst-reviewed Marvel movies, and although I did not find it to be that terrible, I was still quite disappointed with the final results.

This particular franchise saw diminishing returns. The first ‘Ant-Man’ movie was one of the better MCU flicks. The second one was solid, though quite inferior. This one was the worst so far as it lacked the charm, humor and low stakes of its predecessors. It traded all of that in favor of epic spectacle and an introduction of the new big baddie for this cinematic universe.

Let’s talk about Kang the Conqueror. I actually quite liked the guy, though I did find Jonathan Majors’ performance grating on me. He enunciated his sentences in such an odd, robotic manner, constantly separating them into two parts. That made him sound annoying and ridiculous. Still, he was suitably menacing and his backstory was quite intriguing. He is too similar in his quest and backstory to Thanos, but at least he is quite powerful. I just wished that he wasn’t made a fool by Ant-Man and the gang as that made him significantly less cool.

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Speaking of Paul Rudd’s hero, he got very little to do in what was supposed to be his movie. This is due to the film having way too many characters and too little time to give proper care to any one of them. The character was just not as funny or as likable as he was before. Hope also got shortchanged as her role is reduced significantly here. Michael Douglas is memorable as always, but also somewhat underutilized. Cassie is fine, but her activist background made her quite annoying.

Bill Murray was also in this film and he only got a scene or two, which was ludicrous wasting him like that. Michelle Pfeiffer is pretty solid in the role of Janet and I did really like her backstory with Kang, but it did seem that all these older actors were lost and clueless playing these superhero roles. M.O.D.O.K. is actually quite funny at times and pleasingly campy, but the VFX on him were truly atrocious.

With that being said, I did not find the film as visually horrendous as most of the others did. Yes, some of these creatures looked rough and unfinished, but at least the colorful and detailed backgrounds are cool and the quantum realm was very well realized and populated by memorable creatures and designs.

Watching Quantumania I was continuously reminded of Star Wars, in particular of Jabba and the gang from ‘Empire Strikes Back’. The humorous creatures, lightweight tone and SF fantasy mayhem were all staples of that franchise and it was odd seeing Marvel rip it off so transparently. I appreciated this sudden emphasis on world building, but the unoriginality on display here was truly maddening.

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The action in the third act is as overwhelming as ever and that final fight, though it had its moments, was overall tiresome. The exposition throughout was incredible, and not in a good way. This is a visual medium, yet they had the need to spell everything to audiences. The score is solid, but the editing, directing and writing are all lackluster. It’s a film that is good to watch lazily and on the background. This doesn’t bode well for the future of the struggling MCU.