Trisha Hande
Staff Reporter
7 March 2023
Did you know that Ant-man and the Wasp: Quantumania, the third movie in the Ant-Man trilogy, was the first film released in Marvel’s phase five? Unfortunately, it has not set a good example for the next set of movies.
Ant-man and the Wasp: Quantumania, is a two-hour film released on February 17th, 2023, and it did horribly for a Marvel production. This movie stars Paul Rudd as Ant-Man, Evangeline Lilly as the Wasp, Katheryn Newton as Cassie, Jonathan Majors as Kang, and lastly, Michael Douglas as Hank Pym.
Quantumania had a significant drop in Rotten Tomatoes scores as the first two movies scored in the mid-80s to a mere 47% comparison. This puts it at the bottom of Marvel films, barely surpassing Eternals, the lowest-rated Marvel film. However, there is some hope with the audience score at an 83% approval rating, but is it any good?
In the first movie, Scott-Lang, the main character, and Ant-Man begins as a criminal fighting family conflicts and money problems. Without enough money to pay for his daughter’s (Cassie’s) medical treatment, he turns to robberies to manage.
When he gets recruited by scientist Hank Pym he gets an opportunity to be a hero for once and starts to leave his old life of crime behind while fighting off the villain: Yellow Jacket. Yellow Jacket also known as Darren Cross was once an employee of Hank but tried to steal the company to utilize the particle technology that allows Ant-Man to shrink and grow for wrongdoing.
Eventually, Ant-man defeats him and he is thought to be dead. Additionally, Cassie is successfully treated for her heart disease.
In the second Ant-man movie, Scott Lang is under house arrest for violating the Sokovia Accords in Captain America: Civil War. But, he is confronted once again with a mission from Hank and Hope Van Dyne. They required his help to find Janet Pym, Hope’s mother, played by Michelle Pfeiffer who they discovered was alive and trapped in the quantum realm.
While doing so they run into the antagonist of this movie, Ghost or Ava Starr who has special abilities channeled from quantum energy that allow her to phase through matter. She is after Hank’s lab in order to recharge her energy through the quantum realm.
After narrowly escaping Starr’s wrath, they send Hank to the realm and he successfully rescues Janet who gets to reunite with her family after decades. Scott gets to reunite with his family as well while somehow managing to successfully evade his house arrest.
Similar to the prequels, Ant-man and the Wasp: Quantumiania finds Ant-man in yet another conflict, but this time it delves deeper into the quantum realm where they face the major antagonist: Kang the Conqueror who possesses qualities of high-intelligence and the power of super strength.
In Quantumania, Scott’s daughter is all grown up, as this movie occurs after the blip. She plays a larger role in the plot now and fights alongside her father.
While the story was filled with action, suspenseful at times, and had decent acting, the plot itself was bland. It felt generic, somewhat predictable, and very unrealistic in regard to the events that occurred.
The movie lacked dynamic characters, and it seemed like too many characters were cast causing a lot of them to fall short and have little character development. For example, the movie is called Antman and the Wasp but it really just felt like the spotlight was only on Ant-Man and Cassie.
Another issue is that a key character–Cassie’s mother– was nowhere to be seen in the movie, which was disappointing because it would have been nice to see how their family dynamic held up now that Cassie is older.
Additionally, the graphics and CGI were honestly underwhelming despite the 200 million dollar budget. The quantum realm appeared very fake, messy, and painful to look at. Unfortunately, this movie supports the popular opinion that Marvel films have decreased in quality over the years.
The only redeeming factors were some of the acting and the soundtrack. Paul Rudd as usual did a great job depicting his character with a touch of humor and Johnathan Majors also did an amazing job portraying the villain. The soundtrack was refreshing, containing 22 songs composed by Christopher Beck. Many of the songs featured orchestral and percussion instruments that did a good job in building suspense when necessary.
All that being said, the prior movies outshone this one and essentially a good soundtrack and actors alone cannot save a film. The movie had a lot of potential and the quantum realm could have been so much more, but it was just disappointing.
Followers of the Marvel universe who have enjoyed the previous Ant-man series, would probably still enjoy the movie. But, people who are expecting an extraordinary film will more than likely be disappointed and find themselves wanting to leave.
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