Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania Review - Kang Kicks Off Phase 5 With A Bang
In Quantumania, Scott Lang, nicknamed Ant-Man (Rudd), his daughter Cassie (Kathryn Newton), his superhero and love interest Hope van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly), and Hope's parents Janet van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer) and Hank Pym are all transported into the Quantum Realm (Michael Douglas). Once there, Janet is confronted with her past, and Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors), a monstrous creature who has devastated much of the Quantum Realm, is after all five of them. The family must come up with a plan to return home without allowing Kang to escape the Quantum Dimension.
A very different kind of Ant-Man film is Quantumania. Quantumania transports its characters to a very fanciful world and exponentially elevates the stakes in comparison to the previous films in the trilogy, which frequently had lower stakes and were much more realistic than other MCU films. Nonetheless, thanks in large part to the characters, Loveness and Reed are able to make the film seem as like it belongs in the Ant-Man canon. Rudd's Scott Lang has grown and matured throughout the Ant-Man trilogy as well as past Avengers collaborations like Endgame and Captain America: Civil War. As a result, his sense of humour and desire to be a good father assist to ground the magical aspects of Scott's trip and the Quantum Realm.
This contrasts well with the film's major antagonist, who—aside from Scott—is the main subject of Quantumania. The contrast between Majors' villain and Rudd's hero, Kang is larger than life and speaks about time in a way that is difficult for Scott to understand. Quantumania is at its most thrilling when Rudd and Majors are there, displaying precisely what makes the MCU unique: brilliant actors bringing these epic tales of good and evil to life.
Overall, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania pulls off the feat of being both an excellent addition to the Ant-Man trilogy — possibly the finest of the lot — and a prelude to what's to come in the MCU's Phase Five. By balancing the storylines of Scott Lang and Kang, Reed and Loveness do this, elevating them to the status of the main protagonists of the picture. While some characters, especially Lilly's Hope, are marginalised as a result, the movie as a whole benefits from this. After nearly 15 years of Marvel movies, Quantumania is both new and recognisable enough to please mass viewers. It isn't necessarily the MCU's riskiest excursion; it doesn't take many chances and instead feels like the product of a well-oiled machine.