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Review: Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania Trailer

The new ‘season’ of the MCU i.e. Phase 5, returns with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantamania. An odd choice to kick the phase in with as Ant-Man isn’t exactly the most popular or had the best run of previous movies.

Ant-Man and the Wasp find themselves exploring the Quantum Realm, interacting with strange new creatures and embarking on an adventure that pushes them beyond the limits of what they thought was possible.

The film from the outset feels like we are watching a live action version of the recent Disney Strange Worlds. The creatures and oddities found in the Quantum Realm are straight out of George Lucas’s imagination and some of the backgrounds and effects look like they have been directly lifted from the aforementioned Strange Worlds.

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania on Screen One
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania

The problem with Quantumania is that it serves as the real introduction to the next big bad post Thanos, in the shape of Jonathan Majors’ Kang. It’s both a strength and a weakness. Majors is simply terrific as Kang, but the film isn’t about him. It’s the further adventures of Paul Rudd as Ant-Man. Rudd does what he can with rather bland, slimline character, which removes the main part of his character, that he’s a former thief with the hero status thrust on him. Now he’s a minor celebrity everywhere he goes, taking pictures with people’s dogs, and getting free coffee when he’s mistaken for the other bug guy.

There’s no Michael Peña who was the previous movies main highlight. We’re stuck with a sidelined Evangeline Lily who gets next to nothing to do this time apart from look doe faced at her mother for not telling her the truth. Michelle Pfeiffer however runs around looking like an extra from Dune. Michael Douglas and Cory Stoll’s roles are fortunately kept to a minimum. But other than Majors, Kathryn Newton is the only one of the cast to stand out and have any real relevance to anything.

But this is Jonathan Majors film. This is all about Kang and his introduction to the MCU and for once he looks like a seriously terrifying threat. The post credit scenes are worth sticking around for, even if you end up searching Google or a Marvel Encyclopedia for answers.

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantamania will be quickly forgotten as Phase 5 continues, but Marvel is at risk of too much of a good thing now as the air has been raised time and time again, especially with some of the Marvel TV Series that have been on Disney+. This is a very weak entry into the MCU, it’s not the worst by a long shot, Thor: The Dark World and Morbius. But it’s not that far off either.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5.
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania poster on Screen One
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania poster

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is in cinemas worldwide now

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