Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania: Movie Review

Cast: Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Kathryn Newton, Michelle Pfeiffer, Michael Douglas, Jonathan Majors
Director: Peyton Reed

Returning once again and with the giant-sized job of kicking off Phase 5 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Paul Rudd's Scott Lang finds himself - and his erstwhile family sucked into the Quantum realm when his daughter Cassie (Newton) messes up an experiment.

As they try to escape, Lang and his crew find a new threat rising from deep below and one that Hope's mother (Pfeiffer) had thought long buried and forgotten - Kang The Conqueror (Lovecraft Country's Jonathan Majors).

Largely confined to more larky escapades, Ant-Man goes bigger in this latest Peyton Reed outing - but ironically, despite his size feels sidelined throughout.

Serving more as an ensemble riff on a Star Wars cantina cum Disney's Strange World outing in the quantum realm, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania does a great job of seeding Jonathan Majors antagonist Kang as a soft spoken menace - but somehow manages little else.

Forced into groups, Ant-Man and his daughter try to bond despite abandonment issues, while Wasp Hope (Lilly) tries to get answers from her mom - both groups feel Piecemeal at times  with only Rudd's huge empathy and angrier side nicely standing out as proceedings continue.

Newton has fun as Cassie even if the "Even if this isn't your fight you still should" mantra is overtly hammered home repeatedly throughout. While one sequence feels like Majors' first appearance in Lovecraft Country, the action in the weird CGI heavy quantum realm never really rises above the rote full scale destruction we've witnessed countless times before, and grown weary of. And there are narrative issues as an uprising is seeded early on with weird and wonderful creatures, but who are left to become deus ex machina in the film's final act.

Perhaps Marvel could have gone weirder in its animal antics and certainly flexed its multiversal muscles a little more in this its 31st outing. Though it is commendable to see the usually smug Lang suffering more of an existential crisis this time around - and still unsure of his place in the world of the Avengers.

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania somehow feels slight in its introduction of its next phase with slow setup shoehorned in after Rudd's initial self-deprecating imposter syndrome humour. 

It may aim for epic but with Majors and Rudd really only rising to the occasion and with the film's females vociferously sidelined after strong early ensemble antics, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania feels like a more muted Marvel than a monster-sized kickoff for phase 5.