Though it centers on a scrappy character who can flexibly alter his anatomy to become either as tall as a skyscraper or as small as an ant based on his needs, director Peyton Reed's Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is most defined by its rigidness. It wastes little time in launching us headfirst into a hidden universe only to reveal that any joy to be found there is hamstrung by a creaky story that never finds anything unique, jokes that offer increasingly diminishing returns, surprisingly flat visuals that only rarely convey a sense of scale and a villain who could be its saving grace were he not held back so thoroughly. Though there are moments that hint at the tantalizing potential of a more bold vision, the latest Marvel film buries them underneath a mechanical journey where the cast seems as lost as the characters.
Leading this is the titular Ant-Man, aka Scott Lang. Played once more by Paul Rudd, he is trying to get used to his new life after losing years during the events of Avengers: Endgame. He has even become a bit of a celebrity with a self-aggrandizing memoir that professes values he does not actually live by. This frustrates his daughter Cassie (recast as Kathryn Newton of Freaky), who thinks he should be doing more to help others. Unbeknownst to Scott, she has been doing some poking around into the quantum realm with returning characters Dr. Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) and The Wasp, aka Hope Van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly) by her side. They believe these experiments to be safe and try to convince a concerned Janet Van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer), who was rescued from the realm in the prior Ant-Man film, but something goes awry. This pulls all of them into said quantum realm where they will have to reunite and escape before they get found by this universe's ruler who has a plan he has been waiting years to see completed.
This character is the infamous Kang the Conqueror, and he's the film's greatest asset. Played by the outstanding actor Jonathan Majors, who has been magnificent in everything from The Last Black Man in San Francisco to the upcoming Magazine Dreams, he brings a menacing presence that manages to transcend the trappings of this story. The deliberate manner in which he speaks makes it even more unsettling when Kang will snap without warning. There is a more intimate theatrical sensibility to him that Majors molds into something disquietingly immense.
This a challenge because the film does a lot of mucking about before Majors is free to command the screen. This is done under the guise of establishing how much the inhabitants of this universe fear Kang, but it never carries any urgency with it. Be it an extended cameo or the return of a familiar face from a previous film, none of it is ever as engaging as just seeing Majors give a monologue. For all the ways this franchise is built around thuddingly immense spectacle, the smaller character moments he gets are the most mesmerizing to behold. Had the film been more willing to turn itself over to him and strip away most everything else, it might have worked.
Alas, there is a frustrating fidelity to building on the franchise that makes this individual film far too fleeting. Longtime fans may appreciate the tie-ins and set-ups that are dutifully doled out, though this increasingly resembles more of a checklist meant to establish yet another intergalactic conflict rather than an effort to actually make a film that's good on its own. There are attempts to give characters an emotional journey, but it all feels like an afterthought with supposedly significant lines carrying next to no weight as a result. The only part of Quantumania that is memorable is Majors who, without spoiling, will likely have more of a role in future films to come. One just hopes they're better than this one. ♦
ANT-MAN AND THE WASP: QUANTUMANIA
