Comically Serious

Marvel’s Phase 4 was a decidedly mixed bag amongst critics and fans alike who saw the phase as bloated and directionless. While we were given flashes of insight into the overall direction of what is now dubbed the “Multiverse Saga”, Phase 4 seems to have suffered from massive amounts of set up, and despite a pandemic hiatus, fatigue setting in amongst viewers.

That isn’t to say there weren’t any winners in Phase 4. Works like Spider-Man: No Way Home, WandaVision, Loki, and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever have proven to be very popular with audiences, but it is still clear that despite individual stories, fans want to understand some sort of clear idea of what is in store for the series.

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania begins Phase 5 and also serves as a proper introduction to our newest over-arching villain: Kang the Conqueror.

The films sees Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) enjoying some celebrity status following the publication of a book detailing his exploits in saving the world with the Avengers, and a relationship with Hope Van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly). We learn that his daughter Cassie (Kathryn Newton) has been working on a device with Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) that acts like a “Hubble Telescope” into the quantum realm. Upon learning the device sends a signal into the quantum realm, Janet Van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer) demands it be shut off, and before long the group is pulled into the quantum realm by a portal.

Separate, the group must now navigate the quantum realm, and learn about what happened during Janet’s stay in there. As well as contending with Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors).

This movie was…alright. I’ll admit folks, this movie didn’t “wow” me by any metric, and I’m uncertain if it is due to the film itself or some Marvel fatigue finally setting in (if that is the case 15-years was a good run).

Performances are varied throughout the film, although I felt that many felt phoned in, or possibly even bored with the dialogue. There was a scene between Janet, Hank and Hope that felt so…bland. They were discussing important plot elements, but nothing between those actors felt authentic.

The film’s best aspect is undeniably Jonathan Majors as Kang. Majors plays a role that is the exact inverse of He Who Remains from Loki, this variant is cold, calculating and ruthless. He steals every scene he is in, and I’m definitely looking forward to seeing the character in a better film.

From a visual effects standpoint, this movie is 90% in the quantum realm, which means we are spending a lot of time in entirely CGI environments. The CGI is good for the most part, but there are several scene where it doesn’t mesh well at all. This includes the CG used for the character of MODOK, whom admittedly, was always going to be a difficult characters to make seem convincing in live action.

The film’s score is very generic and I honestly can’t think of a single track that stands out.

Humor in the film was also hit or miss. There are some lines that I thought were genuinely funny and had great delivery, and others that fell very flat (something the audience I saw it with seemed to be in agreement with given the lack of laughter).

But overall, the think the biggest problem of the movie is how directionless it seemed. For a two hour and four minute movie (that’s about as long as The Empire Strikes Back), barely anything happens and the film just seems interested to rushing to Kang (and the climax) as fast as humanly possible.

Its not a terrible movie, just aggressively average. I think it would be better watched on Disney+ in a few months rather than seeing it in the cinema.

Hopefully, this won’t be an indication of how Phase 5 will be on the whole, but if this is the direction that the MCU takes, then we’re in-store largely for middling, C+ at best movies moving forward. Only time will tell.

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania gets a 6/10.