I keep the bar set pretty low for Marvel movies these days. I do that hoping that the next MCU film will be able to take that bar up a notch or two. But, Ant Man & The Wasp: Quantumania somehow manages to combine family dynamics, a time traveling villain, quantum realm aliens, and really smart ants, to serve up a cocktail that ultimately underwhelms.
The main reason for this is because the movie never lets its audience spend enough time with any one of those aspects to become invested. Ant Man 3 wants to explore Scott and Cassie’s father-daughter relationship, but do so in about 3 minutes of dialogue and screen time. Before we know it, we’re already in the quantum realm which apparently changes from Ant Man film to Ant Man film to suit the MCU’s needs. The quantum realm is this alien sub-atomic universe within our own filled with alien life forms and people. Wait-people? How? Why? They never tell us. They’re just there. Before you know it, we’re off to see Kang.
Which, let’s all be honest, Kang is the real reason we’re here. You’d think we’d spend some time with Kang and get to know him better. And-at first-it feels like the film is going to let us do that and then boom! Nope. The writers just need us to know he’s The Bad Guy and let’s keep moving. Now we’re onto the part of the movie where The Bad Guy must be stopped and how are we going to do that?
Oh, and by the way, M.O.D.O.K. is here. I’m not sure why he’s here but he is. But, like a lot of things in the film, he’s a useless addition that brings nothing more to the film. He’s not even very funny.
What’s missing here is that Ant Man brand of goofiness that the Ant Man films brought to the MCU. In the early phases, each MCU movie had it’s on flavor. Iron Man was one flavor. Guardians of the Galaxy brought another. And Ant Man had its own. Thor had a flavor for a while and then changed flavors half way through (thanks to Taika Waititi). Ant Man 3 completely ditches its flavor hoping we were in the mood for something more dramatic. But that zany, goofball flavor was what made Ant Man good in the first place. You take that away and you’re left with a movie that turns out to be pretty bland.