Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania
Marvel StudiosJonathan Majors has already solidified himself as one of the greatest rising actors of our time with stellar performances in The Last Black Man in San Francisco, Da 5 Bloods, and Devotion. After Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Majors’ status as the next big Hollywood star is already written on the walls. His performance as Kang the Conqueror is the stuff of legends: a superbly dramatic, and ultra-theatrical, portrayal of the iconic villain with a brutish stance that makes him immediately terrifying as he enters a room. He’s far more compelling as the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s “big bad” than Josh Brolin’s Thanos will ever be, and he’s been able to make that mark in only two titles so far, though Loki only introduced the concept of Kang and not an evil version of Kang.
Kang is the only reason anyone should bother watching Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, arguably one of the weaker entries of the MCU. Has the franchise lost its magic or appeal? The jury is still out on that one. Some will say yes and that it should’ve stopped at Avengers: Endgame, others will say the opposite. But it doesn’t necessarily matter, for now, because there were a few exceptional titles that Phase Four of the franchise brought to the table. Quantumania aims to “crack open” The Kang Dynasty and set up the rest of The Multiverse Saga. As a Kang origin story, it is stellar. As an Ant-Man movie, it’s pretty terrible.
The biggest shocker of the entire film comes during the end credits, where it’s revealed that ace cinematographer Bill Pope was its director of photography continuing a stellar filmography including The Matrix trilogy, Spider-Man 2 and 3, and Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. How he could ever shoot such an ugly-looking, poorly conceived piece of slop doesn’t feel right. About 97% of the film is set in the Quantum Realm, where Scott Lang (Paul Rudd), Hope van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly), Janet van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer), Cassie Lang (Kathryn Newton) and Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) are transported after Cassie sends a signal to communicate with the subatomic world.
This means that 97% of the film is set against green screens and CGI-laden backgrounds, or, in this particular case, The Volume. To anyone who thought Thor: Love and Thunder had poor visual effects, there were at least some bright colors during a couple of set-pieces. The entirety of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is terribly drab, whether it’s the Quantum Realm itself which looks amazingly fake, or action sequences so mind-numbingly dull and devoid of any legitimate weight that it immediately jumps as the MCU’s ugliest-looking production yet. There are only two sequences that featured dazzling effects, which were when Ant-Man would shrink down and transport himself into the Quantum Realm. These visual moments are incredible on IMAX 3D. They’re the only time Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania remembers that it’s an Ant-Man film, not a backdoor pilot to Avengers: The Kang Dynasty.
Oddly enough, the Ant-Man bits are the worst part of the movie. Every time a character yelled “dad!” or “Cassie!”, they do a lot, it’s unintentionally hilarious at how emotionless their line delivery is. Paul Rudd still continues to have fun playing Ant-Man, but everyone around him, minus Pfeiffer, give no effort whatsoever to at least make their performances convincing. Michael Douglas certainly made the case for Kevin Feige to kill his character off in the MCU’s future, and he looks especially bored spewing absolute nonsense and having to act in front of green screens, CGI elements, and volume sets. Lilly is also pretty boring to watch as Janet van Dyne, but Kathryn Newton is on a whole other level of flat as Cassie.
Whoever at Marvel decided to replace Emma Fuhrman with Newton for no apparent reason other than the fact that Newton was a more-known star should be fired. There’s not a single convincing line that she utters in the film, and the chemistry between her and Rudd is completely non-existent. Rudd had incredible chemistry with Abby Ryder Fortson and Fuhrman as Cassie. But there’s no synergy between the two, especially now that they’ve set her up to be a member of the Young Avengers, as much as Marvel is trying to make audiences believe that a Young Avengers project isn’t in the works, it’s coming. Even Bill Murray, David Dastmalchian, and William Jackson Harper who briefly appear and are apparently giving some levity to the material can’t make their presence feel memorable in the slightest.
Only Michelle Pfeiffer and Jonathan Majors dominate the screen. Janet’s past relationship with Kang brings some terrific flashback sequences that show humanity to the villain that has been sorely missed in many MCU titles. They’ve already developed him far more than Thanos, which makes him way more excited for his future appearances in the franchise. Add the fact that the future of the MCU will be a showcase of Majors’ versatility as an actor and The Kang Dynasty may very well be one of the biggest events in comic book cinema history.
But the MCU will have to undergo a massive overhaul to win back audiences. That does not mean that every single film and television titles should needlessly connect itself to the larger story at play. Absolutely not. Some of the very best Phase Four titles, Eternals, Moon Knight, and Werewolf by Night, barely have any large connections to the MCU. They introduce new characters and worlds to the franchise that will be exciting to explore in future installments, while also slightly opening the possibility for them to appear in other titles as well, as it is the nature of things.
The overhaul means that the MCU should go back to a few releases a year, two to three films and two to three television shows a year, with occasional special presentations, seems good enough, with an emphasis on quality. Yes, the stars are a driving force of the power of the franchise, but many of its post-Endgame entries have not embraced the massive nature of blockbuster filmmaking. A film like Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania should feel huge in scale, scope and stakes.
It’s only when Kang shows up on the screen that the film has some weight and feels significant. It’s a shame that it looks so bad and has mostly phoned-in performances from everyone involved. However, Kevin Feige seems to be taking criticisms of Phase Four to the heart, which will hopefully be beneficial for its future, especially with how this movie sets up the rest of The Multiverse Saga, which sounds tremendously exciting. A shame audiences will have to go through the ugliest-looking superhero movie in decades before two incredible end credits stingers reenergize them to want to check out its next title. It didn’t need to be this way, but the future of the MCU seems more hopeful than ever before. Time will tell if it will finally feel special again.