With Kang, a Thanos-level villain, and a new universe in the Quantum Realm, the two hours of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is packed with plots that keep the audience engaged. After bringing it up in the Loki series, the MCU has reintroduced the concept of branching timeliness and multiverse through the third Ant-Man movie.
Ant-man and the Wasp: Quantumania begins with the happily settled Scott Lang aka Ant-Man, who is relishing the attention after being revealed to be an Avenger. He has also released an autobiography, detailing his adventures with the Avengers. We are then introduced to a grown-up Cassie, Lang’s daughter, who along with Hope and Hank, is secretly creating a portal to connect with the Quantum Realm. Cassie’s method is a success but also a disaster as it shrinks all of them and lands them in the quantum world.
In Quantumania, a world beyond time and space, they meet Marvel’s next big villain 'Kang, the Conqueror’, who conquers and destroys timeliness. As Janet, Hank and Hope try to find Scott and Cassie who got separated, Janet reveals her past encounter with Kang, establishing the new plot.
Another plot twist is revealed when Darren Cross from the first Ant-Man movie reemerges with a ‘big head’ as ‘MODOK’(Mechanised Organism Designed Only For Killing). It is revealed that he was saved by Kang who weaponized him.
The first half of the film is a bit slow, taking its time to introduce the viewers to the visually not-so-appealing 'Quantumania', with the VFX team creating a rich subatomic world of weird and strange creatures. The too much talking and slow narration may seem quite irritating and the dialogue between Hope, Hank and Janet becomes repetitive.
The second half leads us to the terrifying performance of Jonathan Majors who plays the villain ‘Kang’, and is perhaps the saving grace of the movie. ‘Kang’ is the variant of ‘He Who Remains’, from the Loki series. His weird calmness and unpredictability make him the central character who keeps the movie alive.
The film also brings out an emotional quotient when the father-daughter bond between Lang and Cassie is shown. Though the jovial and fun Lang from the first two Ant-Man movies is missing in the third one, a few of his one-liners have managed to enliven the audience. The Ant-Man, played by Paul Rudd, has maintained his performance with some thrilling action sequences.
Michele Pfeiffer’s Janet also plays a key part with more meat to her character than in the previous film. Kathyrn Newton as Cassie gets plenty of screen time, including some action sequences.
The last 15 minutes with two pre- and post-credit scenes sow the seed for the future Marvel movies with Kang.
The Director, Peyton Reed, has made a concerted effort to live up to the standards set by his first two Ant-Man films. It did not succeed to reach that level as it lacked the fun element but has proved to be a head start for phase 5 of MCU.
Movie name: Ant-man and the Wasp: Quantumania
Directed by: Peyton Reed
Cast: Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Michael Douglas, Michelle Pfeiffer, Kathryn Newton and Jonathan Majors
