Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania (2023)

 

Ant-Man may not be one of the heavy hitters of the expanded Marvel Universe, but there is always something likeable about the character, especially since he's played by Paul Rudd, a man blessed with such a nice face it's tough to see him in antagonist roles. The films always had something quirky that set them apart, even if not to the level of say a 'Guardians of the Galaxy'. Now 'Quantumania' did receive quite a lot of flack, but maybe that is also in part due to Marvel fatigue. Because this is fine. It is even more memorable than its predecessor.

Scott Lang is on top of the world: now a succesful author in a loving relationship with Hope Van Dyne (boss of the Pym-Van Dyne Corporation). The only little crack in the brightness is his daughter Cassie, who absolutely means well and wants to help those that can't help thgemselves, but gets herself thrown in jail on several occasions because, well, she uses the Ant-Man tech to do so. 

Bit dangerous, innit?

Cassie has been working with her grandfather Hank to build a contraption that scans the quantum realm, but during her demonstration, the entire family gets sucked back into the Quantum Realm, only a different Microverse where apparently lots of lifeforms reside. But all is not well, as Janet Van Dyne is being mercilessly hunted by a powerful despot named Kang, who wants to escape the Quantum Realm. Years before, Janet stopped him, as he plans to destroy entire universes in order to halt different versions of himself.

Multiversal timelines, yes. It's a comic book thing and an easy explanation for... anything, basically.

And they also discover that an old adversary long thought dead is alive and well, of sorts. Will they be able to overcome the odds? 

As if you didn't know the stakes are rarely that high.

Let's address the elephant in the room: the CGI. It isn't perfect, by far. The greatest to suffer is the depiction of MODOK. Sure, that character has always looked silly (Humpty Dumpty in a battle dress) but because of budget cuts (as most funds were apparently funneled into 'Wakanda Forever') the artists couldn't complete what they had envisioned. So yeah, MODOK looks pretty awful. It's not Corey Stoll's fault, as he is having fun with it, but the memes wrote themselves. Some of the backgrounds also feel a little too much like a cutscene from a videogame. 

But on the flipside: a lot of the creatures and environments are vibrant, colourful and inventive. The supposed jungle, the high-tech city, a lot of the background creatures... It's really fun to try and discover new things every time. 

The actors also deliver. Paul Rudd has his part down to a T and with heavy hitters as Michelle Pfeiffer and Michael Douglas you can't really go wrong. Sure, some of the dialogue is cringey, but the delivery is mostly fine. 

Bill Murray's cameo was completely pointless, though. Egad, how the man is slumming through it. It's been a long time since he went for gold instead of just the paycheck. 

In short: 'Quantumania' is still a fun adventure and a good time. It might not rank in the top echelon of Marvel films, but it most certainly isn't one of the worst. Like said in the beginning: this one at least has memorable images and dialogue, whereas the previous one is really easy to forget. A good, solid timewaster that won't leave you disappointed.