This weekend the third Ant-Man movie is hitting theaters, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. Following Scott Lang’s life after the Infinity War and he tries to live a normal life as a former Avenger. Much like the second movie, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania takes viewers on an all-new adventure – but this time to a much smaller location – the Quantum Realm.
Audiences have had glimpses of the Quantum Realm before in the previous movies, but not to the scale of this film. Quantumania takes full advantage of world-building and introduces a full-scale universe at a tiny level. With new civilizations, new creatures, and even new foes that Ant-Man and his family have to work together to fight. Add in a little twist of the multi-verse and it’s the recipe for a completely different type of movie than fans are used to when it comes to Ant-Man.
As the title suggests, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania features both Ant-Man and the Wasp, but the movie also heavily focuses on Hank Pym, Janet Van Dyne, and Cassie Lang. This isn’t just about Scott’s life, but his whole family and their involvement in the Quantum Realm, including Janet’s years of silence about what happened in all of the years she was missing. This of course leads to conflict between the characters and sets the movie up to introduce new bad guys and other characters that fans may not see coming.
The world inside the Quantum Realm may seem familiar to a lot of viewers. It seems to have a touch of Star Wars, a bit of Strange World, and even a dash of Dune‘s elements all coming together. Maybe it’s the prevalence of space epics in recent years that makes this world, while beautiful seem like it’s something we’ve just seen before. But the strange creatures almost seemed familiar, and less alien than one would expect. That could be due to the amount of Marvel films and the amount of space adventures fans have already been on as well.
One thing Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania does have that other recent MCU releases don’t – the ability to watch the movie without having to be completely up to date on every Marvel release ever. There are small details you may not get if you haven’t seen the previous two Ant-Man movies, or really any of the MCU releases. But overall, you can watch Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania without knowing every character’s back story and thoroughly enjoy the movie as a stand-alone story that is just there to entertain you.
We’re deep into phase 4 of the MCU timeline, and what it has meant for the movies and series we’re still not really sure. There of course is a lot of timeline shifting and the multi-verse taking part in the different storylines. But not everything is adding up, and the overlap between the MCU series on Disney+ and the movies that have been hitting the big screen do start to finally pull together some when it comes to Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.
The multi-verse portion of the MCU also gives the story runners a chance to play with the origin stories of some of the characters. What we know as a tenet for an origin story may not be the case when it comes to the big screen anymore. It may leave fans upset or may even confuse them, and in the case of one particular character introduced to the big screen in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, even the series that was released about them on streaming may not actually apply to this storyline. It is so different in fact to any of the known (to date) origin stories that these variants may make fans wonder if any of the MCU series actually can be applied to the movies that have been released or are scheduled to be in the future.
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, on its own, is a strong movie and can hold its own. But the third movie featuring Ant-Man as the main character loses a bit of its charm that the original two movies had. You no longer have the quirky friend cast members or the little side stories that made the Ant-Man movies stand out on their own. Instead, the movie feels like just another space (albeit quantum-sized) epic that can just be added to the list of Marvel movies.
Had this movie been the style that Ant-Man’s movies were introduced as, and continued through for the character, it would be a perfect addition to that. However, instead, fans are left with just another space adventure and battle – that seems to have lost its charm on the way. Will this detract from a fan’s experience watching Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania? Not at all, overall the movie is fun, and colorful and explains yet another unknown part of the MCU. But if you’re going into the theater looking for an adventure with a bit of the comedic relief given through a rambling tale from Michael Pena and creative editing – be prepared for a bit of mild disappointment.
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is in theaters everywhere on February 17th. Be sure to stay in your seat through the end of the credits like every other Marvel film, there are two additional scenes for fans to enjoy and debate over as well.
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About ANT-MAN AND THE WASP: QUANTUMANIA
In the film, which officially kicks off phase 5 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Super-Hero partners Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) and Hope Van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly) return to continue their adventures as Ant-Man and the Wasp. Together, with Hope’s parents Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) and Janet Van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer), the family finds themselves exploring the Quantum Realm, interacting with strange new creatures and embarking on an adventure that will push them beyond the limits of what they thought was possible. Jonathan Majors joins the adventure as Kang. Director Peyton Reed returns to direct the film; Kevin Feige and Stephen Broussard produce.