Rating: 7.6
TL;DR - Quantumania is a fun sci-fi adventure filled with goofy comic book weirdness! It’s not Marvel’s best effort — it can be quite messy — and I miss the charm of the more small-scale Ant-Man films, but I had a good time with it! Jonathan Majors was incredible as Kang — he truly saved the movie for me!
However… the movie did leave me feeling a little empty. Not everything worked… and the cracks in the MCU are starting to really show their effects…
Has the magic of the MCU worn off? God I hope not… but Quantumania worries me…
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Film Info:
Premise: Scott Lang and Hope Van Dyne, along with Hank Pym and Janet Van Dyne, explore the Quantum Realm, where they interact with strange creatures and embark on an adventure that goes beyond the limits of what they thought was possible.
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Marvel Studios
Directed by Peyton Reed
Written by Jeff Loveness
Cast: Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lily, Jonathan Majors, Kathryn Newton, Michael Douglas, Michelle Pfeiffer, William Jackson Harper, Katy M. O’Brian, Bill Murray, Corey Stoll
Runtime: 2hr 5min
Rating: PG
Action, Adventure, Comedy, Sci-Fi
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IMDb Rating: 6.6/10
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 47%
RT Audience Score: 85%
RT Critic Average: 5.6/10
RT Audience Average: 4.2/5
Metacritic Score: 48
CinemaScore: B
Letterboxd: 2.8/5
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Fun Fact: Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige has called the film "a direct line" into Phase 5 and will lead directly into Avengers: The Kang Dynasty (2025), while Peyton Reed said the movie will have a "profound impact" on the MCU.
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Review:
written by Tyler Park
What happens when you’re solely focused on your next big Endgame and try to stuff 6 hours worth of stories into a 2-hour movie? You get a Quantumania. Hours of content being shoved down our throat with absolutely no time to process any of it. But beyond it being overstuffed, all of the charm from the first two movies (specifically the first) has vanished. A lot of Ant-Man’s appeal was his operation in a normal sized world, either tiny or large— but when the world he occupies is larger than life itself, the effectiveness of that charm is gone. It has no heart. It is just spectacle for the sake of spectacle.
I sound angry. I’m not, I have to say I did like the movie. Quantumania is a fun sci-fi adventure filled with goofy comic book weirdness! It is far from Marvel’s best, but I did have a fun time. But there are so many issues… so let me back up a bit and start over…
Martin Scorsese’s views on comic book movies are no secret; he claims they are more like theme park rides than true cinema. For years, I have staunchly disagreed with this stance, I love the Marvel Cinematic Universe and found so much to appreciate in their films. But after seeing Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, y’know what?
He might be right.
It pains me to say this, but Quantumania is not a great film. To be clear, I enjoyed the movie. I’d even give it a thumbs up! But it is a fun movie, not a good one. It is, by all accounts, a theme park ride.
And frankly, that disappoints me.
I come to Marvel for the characters I love, the heart and emotion in the stories, and yes, for the fun superhero action. Infinity War and Endgame were such huge successes not because of how fun they were but because of how they captured people’s imaginations and emotions. People felt tied to the characters and couldn’t wait to see them all come together. I for one, was so emotionally invested in those films, and all of Marvel at the time.
Why do I bring that up? Well, because I felt nothing while watching Quantumania. There is no emotional weight to it, nothing compelling me to invest myself in the story. It is all spectacle, and no substance. I felt so empty coming out of it. It felt so forgettable and I never seemed to actually get into the movie. I just couldn’t buy into what it was doing. And I am so crushed to say this, because I was looking forward to this movie so much! I really wanted to love it, but alas, it is the first Marvel movie in a while that I have come very close to not liking.
I love the first Ant-Man film, and its sequel Ant-Man and the Wasp has even grown on me over the years. This one felt nothing like them. An Ant-Man film it is not, lacking the spirit and everything else that made the franchise what it was. It is completely different, and delves into very odd corners of the MCU. Doing this isn’t a bad thing, but I mourned the loss of the charm that the first two films had. I loved the small-scale heist plots. I loved the simple narrative of a dad trying to get more time with his daughter. I loved the unique action set-pieces; battles taking place on a toy Thomas the Tank Engine, or using a Hello Kitty PEZ dispenser as a weapon. I loved Michael Peña’s character, Luis, and his awesome storytelling! It had this really heartfelt and likeable element to it, and was different from what we were used to in the rest of the MCU. Yes, the films did serve as a sort of “palate cleanser” after the big Avengers films, but that worked for them! I think the decision to make the third Ant-Man film an “Avengers-level event” movie was a mistake, because that essentially forced them to get rid of everything that made these films special. (Including Michael Peña which I will never forgive.)
And I gotta blame director Peyton Reed here. He bit off more than he could chew. I can understand wanting to do one of the bigger Marvel movies as the Ant-Man ones are on the smaller side of the universe, but forcing the Ant-Man franchise to become one of the major events was a big mistake. It didn’t work. Frankly, Peyton Reed was operating in his niche with the first two films, and he’s just completely out of his element with this one. You can tell he is trying so hard to make it a big sci-fi spectacle, but comes up short in almost every way. He just got a little too ambitious. Tonally the film is all over the place, the pacing doesn’t make sense, action scenes are cut together really oddly and the film overall seems to have no vision. It just sort of exists. Even with the action scenes, there are no memorable moments, and frankly there were barely any real action scenes in the film. I really can’t help but wonder what this trilogy would have looked like had it been helmed by Edgar Wright (who was originally supposed to write/direct the first film).
And like I said, it doesn’t work as an Ant-Man film by any means. Sure, it has the characters, but them being in the story doesn’t change anything. The only characters truly used in the film are Janet van Dyne and Kang. The rest were completely wasted. Scott (Ant-Man) doesn’t even have a character arc, he is just kind of there, alongside Hope (the Wasp) and his grown-up daughter Cassie. The characters are likeable and I love seeing them on screen, but they really had nothing to do, and it just felt like what happens when characters show up for cameo appearances in other character’s films. The problem is this is an Ant-Man film with no real story for Ant-Man. He feels miscast in his own story, heck, it was unnecessary for him to even be there, and the film never truly explained why he could take on Kang. I just never believed any of it. The film lacked verisimilitude, in terms of character, plot and world-building.
Jeff Loveness really needed someone else here to help flesh out his script. It feels like a shell of a great movie. Dialogue isn’t great, for one, but that’s minor. There are lots of moments that work, but they never add up to anything. There is never any weight to what happens either, it felt like things would happen with no setup or reasoning at all, they just would happen because they had to in order to progress the plot. It’s a very by-the-numbers plot that barely holds up and steals so much from other films such as Star Wars. But not great Star Wars… the one I would compare it most to is Rise of Skywalker. Why would you take so much from that? The structure of the film is a mess too, with no discernible 3-act structure — the characters end up in the Quantum Realm, stuff happens, and then all the sudden we’re at the end. It just felt like there was no buildup, no real reason for this story to be told. Heck, I try to think back on this movie and it’s just a jumbled blur of colours and meaningless content. It’s so forgettable and lifeless. It’s such a missed opportunity for a great Ant-Man story. (And at this point I wouldn’t mind giving them the chance to do an Ant-Man 4 *properly*.) Frankly, there were missed opportunities throughout the entire film, and most of the issues stem from the writing. I really hope either Loveness can come up with a significantly better script for Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, or that Marvel finds a new writer for it… if we’re in for more of this in an Avengers movie… count me out.
The worst thing is that I’m here complaining about the movie when there were still so many things I liked about it! I can genuinely see how some audiences are enjoying it more than I did, as many standalone elements I really liked and even loved! The problem is, they just never came together to make me love them all as a final product. I liked many of the creative ideas offered up, I really liked the visuals of the Quantum Realm (even if you could very much tell it was shot on green screen/the volume), I liked seeing all the new and returning characters and cast members (Paul Rudd is fantastic and charming as always (too bad he didn’t have more to do here), Michelle Pfeiffer is awesome here, and I really liked Kathryn Newton as a grown up Cassie), and I LOVED Kang.
Before I go into anything else let me make one thing very clear: Jonathan Majors is INCREDIBLE as Kang the Conqueror.
There are some amazing actors in this movie, including Michael Douglas and Michelle Pfeiffer, but Jonathan Majors puts them all to shame. He truly carries the movie; the only times I truly found myself invested were when he was on screen. He is operating leagues above everyone else! He is so menacing and truly embodies the threat of Kang. I was completely blown away by his performance, he stole the entire movie and then some! Truthfully, he was so compelling I found myself almost rooting for him! Kang was even a fantastically written character, he worked the best out of any character in the film and I am super interested to see how they handle both Kang and Majors in the future. But my god, Jonathan Majors can truly do no wrong, he is giving an emotionally acrobatic performance that this film and franchise does not deserve. For instance, much like with Gorr in Love and Thunder, we are only told of what Kang is capable of and what he has done but never shown. Film is a visual medium, it would’ve been nice to see some of the events we hear about occur, but luckily we have such a fantastic performance from Majors that it's hard not to see Kang as a major threat!
Which brings me to an interesting thought… why didn’t they just make this a Kang the Conqueror movie? Marvel has never done a villain-centered piece before and it could have been pretty interesting — and certainly would have worked a lot better than this. This film pretty much only works as Part 1 of Marvel’s Phase 5 anyways, all the Ant-Man stuff could have been saved for something else, something more fitting.
Remember how I said the film was a tonal mess? MODOK is a prime example of that. This marks the first time I have hated the way Marvel has used a character, and truthfully had me laughing AT the movie rather than with it. He’s basically a character made for a parody, and putting him in the same scenes as super serious, imposing villain Kang made for some massive tonal issues and made it very difficult for me to take anything seriously. Nothing with MODOK worked for me, it just got way too ridiculous and frankly this is probably a character best left on the pages of a comic book. And his look…. Yikes! The CGI was ridiculously bad, I genuinely cannot believe the design was approved. Much of the CGI in the film wasn’t great either, Marvel really has to get some of these issues sorted out.
I liked the movie! I had fun with it and I really wish I could have given a more positive review. But the film had too many flaws and issues for me, and I have come to expect better from Marvel. I really can see how people liked it, but I am more in the middle. I absolutely did not hate it, but it’s just too flawed to love. It has its moments and has lots of creative ideas, but overall misses the mark on a lot of things. At least the score had musical continuity with the first two films. I was happy to hear the Ant-Man theme again! But in a time where Top Gun and Avatar came out and reminded audiences what blockbusters are truly capable of, it is hard to go back to Marvel when they are merely coasting off previous successes and delivering half-baked films.
I love Marvel, I really do. It’s why I’m being so critical of their missteps when they happen, because I don’t want to have to write this again. But they need to step up their game. I want to head into the next few films and love them! Quantumania had so much potential and because of that it’s ultimately a disappointment, despite how entertaining it is. And it highlights greater issues with the Marvel machine right now; the cracks are starting to show.
Has the magic of the MCU finally worn off?
I really hope not. But Quantumania worries me.
(At least the end credit scenes were fantastic!)
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