Kick-starting Phase Five of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) on Feb. 17, “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” garnered massive anticipation as our tiny heroes met face-to-face with the next impossible foe. However, the film’s fun-sized and action-packed story fails to live up to its standards and falls short.
Directed by Peyton Reed, the film sees Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) continuing to tackle quantum physics as his titular bug-sized superhero persona Ant-Man. When his daughter Cassie (Kathryn Newton) accidentally transports her family to the Quantum Realm with her invention, Scott soon emerges as an integral character to the multiversal plot in the MCU. Danger awaits in the waking forms of the almighty Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors) and his sidekick M.O.D.O.K. (Corey Stoll) as Scott and Cassie, along with Hope van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly), Janet van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer) and Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) traverse beyond the yellow brick road and into the Quantum Realm.
Unfortunately, it takes our heroes to endure a long-winded journey before anything begins to make sense. After a stagnant first act, the Quantum Realm ends up lacking a sense of identity as it suffers from an oversaturation of nonsensical lore — there are sentient buildings with human emotions, creatures with broccolis as their heads and a blob-like critter whose entire personality revolves around its obsession with the human anatomy.
Evidently, it’s increasingly difficult for MCU projects to construct major settings with individualistic and distinctive qualities, especially when its current phase is operating on such a grand scale of world-building.
Nonetheless, the film’s disoriented and choppy pacing ends up distracting its viewers with disposable side characters designed for cheap comedic relief, rendering the entire first act of the film as a poorly regurgitated parody of amalgamated Star Wars lore. Perhaps originality is the film’s biggest enemy, both visually and narratively, with fans even addressing the uncanny resemblance it bears with “Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over” and other CGI-loaded films.
It takes a few events to escalate before the film redeems itself with a rather exhilarating second act. As Hope and her parents navigate their escape from trigger-happy robots, Scott and Cassie are captured and await their confrontation with the film’s highly anticipated villain, Kang the Conqueror. The stakes grow higher as Kang threatens Cassie’s life, forcing Scott to comply with his demands and journey into the probability storm to retrieve an invaluable item.
But, when all hope is lost in these uncharted territories, the film achieves a poignant and emotional beat in its story. Scott’s love for Cassie persists as the one static quality that continues to see the light of day. Even through the impenetrable fabrics of time and space, the theme of fatherly love continues to take flight as the core identity of all the chapters in the Ant-Man saga.
It’s hard, however, to shake off the tiring trope of kidnapping a side character who means a lot to the protagonist for leverage. When Kang threatened Scott with Cassie’s life, this setup proved to be a running plot device for many previous MCU projects and strips the film’s writing of any creativity.
Placing Cassie’s life in jeopardy not only renders her character nothing more than a plot device for the story’s progression, but it also tremendously fails to further develop Scott’s character. These characters that were once shown with great potential are now underused and forced into a box for the plot to advance.
Before resorting to hostage tactics as leverage, Kang initially offered Scott the opportunity to travel back in time and fulfill all the empty memories he could have had with his daughter, alluding to Scott’s immobility in the time vortex. Although this narrative was strongly emphasized in the film’s promotional material, the plot never leans into this angle and instead takes a much less creative route.
The film would have strongly benefited from this unique direction tenfold as it plays congruently with the themes of family and grief. This direction would have also shaped Scott’s character with far more complexity as he struggles to sacrifice his reasonable desires and cement Kang as an omnipotent figure with the authority to manipulate an Avenger with his own paternal instincts.
After a controversial recasting, many fans were led to anticipate Newton’s performance on screen. Yet, the film provides the actress with little to work with, and Cassie’s writing falls even flatter than Newton’s line delivery at times.
The beginning of the film emphasizes Cassie’s altruistic nature as she constantly bashes her father as an underperforming superhero. Later on, Cassie delivers an impromptu speech at the last second to the civilians of the Quantum Realm, requesting their participation in overthrowing Kang’s regime. However, the film fails to satiate Cassie’s heroic arc and paints her decision with hesitation rather than intention. This results in a lackluster storyline that would have been avoided if Cassie deliberately made those decisions herself rather than committing to them halfheartedly just because she was at the right place and at the right time.
This sentiment resonates with the other characters who are oftentimes underused and separated from each other for the convenience of the plot. However, the same could not be said of Jonathan Majors’ portrayal of the almighty Kang. Whether it’s the subdued yet chilling tone of his voice or the subtlety of his microexpressions, Majors commands the audience’s attention in every scene he occupies. Undoubtedly, Majors brings an intimidating presence to his role as Kang and establishes a menacing villain for many to fear in the future of the MCU.
But, perhaps that’s precisely where the film seemingly shoots itself in the foot: it continues to rely on setting up major characters and significant plot points that won’t occur until later on. Nothing seems to last with any sense of permanence or significance when it comes to the chaotic, unfolding events of these stories. Yet, these projects are continuously marketed as must-see movies to see before the saga wraps up.
Following the infamous and highly praiseworthy success of the Infinity Stone saga, these projects of the early Multiverse Saga are met with high anticipation and eagerness. However, there is a logical fallacy at play here in the storytelling of the MCU where the actions and deaths of these characters don’t seem canonically consequential since there exists a plethora of other unexplored universes and variants.
While this phenomenon undoubtedly expands the world of the MCU, it also presents an issue to consumers who tackle a long, excessive game of process-and-elimination, trying to decipher what is integral to the plot of upcoming projects like “Avengers: The Kang Dynasty” and “Avengers: Secret War.” The lore doesn’t stop and continues to risk the burnout of audience members, resulting in public outrage and catastrophically low reviews from those who expected more plot milestones to be achieved from these films.
Rather than focusing on further developing its characters, this formulaic structure of the Multiverse Saga focuses on setting up major plot points that won’t carry much weight until the very end.
“Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” is a fun, thrilling ride through the unknown universes within our universe. Visually, the film packs a punch with its stellar cinematography and dynamic camerawork. However, the film continues its stay in the realm of overly formulaic MCU projects that sacrifice substance for suspense, leaving much to be desired and more room for these characters to grow.
Raymond Dinh is an Entertainment Staff Writer. He can be reached at raymontd@uci.edu.
