Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania
At one point in the movie, Kang the Conqueror basically tells one of the characters, “You haven’t seen the whole timeline. It doesn’t end.” After a rushed Phase 4, and years of plans having been announced, the Marvel Cinematic Universe feels very much like it will never end, even though you kind of begin to wonder whether it should, at some point. In half the time, the MCU has become the cinematic equivalent of “The Simpsons”- a cultural landmark that’s spawned plenty of pretenders to the throne that probably should have ended by now. There are plenty of people who still enjoy it, but for a lot of people, it feels so far gone that to even try to keep pace feels like a fool’s errand. I still very much enjoy the MCU, and have enjoyed when I’ve checked in on “The Simpsons,” but I’m not anticipating each next chapter with the featured intensity I had during the first three phases. “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” is a perfect example of a movie that feels like just another building block when it probably should have wrapped things up. I still greatly enjoyed it, though, and that’s because the cast and director Peyton Reed get the tone that should be for these movies.
In retrospect, I think 2015’s “Ant-Man” might be my favorite of the Phase 1-2 origin films next to the first “Iron Man.” What Reed did with that film was tell a self-contained story that had a singular charm, and a focus that was based around not its place in the larger MCU, but giving us a clue as to the world Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) while hinting at the possibilities in the future rather than explicitly spelling them out. (That train set action sequence in Cassie’s room is still a Top 5 scene in the MCU for its visual inventiveness and excitement.) “Ant-Man and the Wasp” had a clear path forward in building off of the first film, but you were left forever waiting to see how it would tie in to what we just saw in “Avengers: Infinity War.” “Quantumania” has more of a blank slate to work with in terms of its beginning, but the end is very much about leaving us in a place to see where the future after this will take us. At least with previous third solo films, it seemed as though larger arcs came to a close, even as new ones were introduced. That does not mean “Quantumania” doesn’t follow in its predecessor’s footsteps on a thematic level, though.
If the “Ant-Man” films are built on one idea, it’s trying to repair broken families. “Quantumania” continues in that tradition, as Scott is trying to give his daughter, Cassie (Kathryn Newton) a normal life after missing five years after The Snap. He was trying to do this in the first two films, as well, but with her being a young woman now, with her own agency- and him an established Avenger- that’s not as simple as he hopes it will be. One of the touches I really like is to have Lang as the narrator over the beginning of this film; it harkens back to the way Sam Raimi tells Peter Parker’s stories in his “Spider-Man” film, and because Rudd is as sincerely charming in the role of Lang as Maguire was Parker, it’s a great fit. But when Cassie has taken an interest in the Quantum Realm- something supported by Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) and Hope Van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly) in secret- Scott and Janet Van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer) have reservations, though not for the same reasons as they find themselves initially teleported into the Realm.
Jonathan Majors is absolutely one of our great actors, as well as one of the most distinct ones visually to look at. There’s something about his face that makes him both insanely charismatic and also capable of wicked viciousness. Kang the Conqueror first showed up at the end of Season One of “Loki,” and immediately, that face helped Majors sell both of those ideas. That grin, those eyes, and the ability to convey a remarkable degree of emotions with just a look- I’m not going to say his career (and performances like “The Last Black Man in San Francisco,” “The Harder They Fall” and “Devotion”) have led to him playing a Marvel villain, but the pathos, swagger and righteousness he showed in those films help you see why he was their pick for the next big villain in the MCU, and his work here is just a primer of what’s to come as he tries to get Janet and Scott to help him. (And as Janet, Pfeiffer gives a terrific performance that helps make her character’s revelations land with the appropriate heft. Her and Majors are the film’s MVPs.
That the film spends most of its time in the Quantum Realm is a blessing- and a curse- for this film. On the one hand, it makes for an expansion on the world of Marvel in general, and Bill Pope’s cinematography is beautiful. On the other hand, the ability to ground the film in a thematic manner akin to the previous films is gone. Yes, the film’s trying to build a division between Scott and Cassie in terms of action in helping others vs. inaction, but it’s manufactured; another comparison one could make with this film and the Raimi “Spider-Man” films is how the film’s opening is almost like the “Raindrops are Falling on My Head” sequence in his second film, when really, that doesn’t feel like the Scott Lang we’ve come to know at all. But, Rudd and Newton make the connection work, even when their disconnected, and we want to see more of them moving forward. The problem with this film, though, is that it doesn’t seem to have an arc for Lang to truly go on. By this time, we’re at least accustomed to seeing the characters grow a bit in each film. That doesn’t seem like that tall an order for the MCU to accomplish every time after all this time. Here, it keeps me from being completely on board with a film I generally enjoyed.
