By Joel Harley
Since his arrival in the MCU with 2015’s Ant-Man, the solo adventures of Scott Lang have tended to serve as something of a palette cleanser between big Avengers outings. A break from the action after Age of Ultron, a much-needed breath between Infinity War and Endgame. Sure, Ant-Man is an integral part of the MCU at large, but more importantly, he’s the humanity; the affable everyman; just a guy trying to do the right thing by his daughter.
This time? Not so much.
With Peyton Reed’s third Ant-Man adventure, Scott (Paul Rudd), Hope (Evangeline Lilly) and the ant-gang find themselves in the thick of it, facing off against the MCU’s next Big Bad. Re-enter Kang The Conqueror (Jonathan Majors), following up on threats issued in Loki Season One.
Sucked into the Quantum Realm within the first fifteen minutes of the film, the family are scattered asunder and left to fend for themselves in this strange new world. While Scott and an all-grown-up Cassie (Kathryn Newton) try to navigate the tribes of the Quantum Realm, Janet (Michelle Pfeiffer) and Hank (Michael Douglas) catch up with old friends, enemies… and Bill Murray. Also, Evangeline Lilly is there, although she may as well not be.
The least accessible of Reed’s three Ant-Man films, Quantumania does attempt to make some concessions to newbies, serving as a fine introduction to Kang the Conqueror. Here, Majors almost single-handedly steals the film from its titular stars, stopped only by Pfeiffer – who proves to be Kang’s most worthy foil thus far.
And it’s only the strength of its performers which ground this green screen adventure. Not even Rudd’s effortless charisma can save the characters from feeling lost against a background of grey-brown sludge and unremarkable landscaping. There are some interesting visual flourishes – hey, that guy’s head is made of broccoli! – but this is the ugliest MCU release yet. The cheap airport action of Civil War may have been mocked for its lack of scale and ambition, but at least we could make out what was going on.
Hideous visuals notwithstanding, there is some fun to be had in the arrival of MODOK (ugly, but in the wrong way), the brutal final fight, and some of the more out-there sci-fi concepts. Amidst the Kang mythmaking, Reed remembers to make time for Scott and Cassie, giving the film its sweetest moments and the closest it comes to the old Ant-Man heart.
Quantumania emerges as one of the weakest MCU adventures so far; an ugly, overpacked mess. Worse than that, in its rush to set up the next big thing, it manages to lose sight of what matters. Look out for the little guy, indeed.
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is in cinemas now.
