Are the cracks in the Marvel Machine finally starting to show? After a lackluster “Phase 4” (that included some great moments and films but never came together as a whole) Marvel promised that its “Phase 5” would bring us more cohesiveness starting with opener Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. (Which for my sanity I’m going to just refer to as Quantumania from here on.) But if Quantumania is any indication of what is to come we may be in for a bumpy ride.
After the fun but empty Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and the bland and mediocre Thor: Love and Thunder, Marvel seemed to be on the rebound with Black Panther: Wakanda Forever but Quantumania represents a step backward for the superhero studio. Brimming with eye-rolling dialogue, lousy effects, wooden performances, and an underbaked script the film is only salvaged by its fun third act and a great new villain.
The film begins with a flashback to when Janet Van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer) was in the quantum realm, a place she was stranded for the last thirty years. (See Ant-Man and the Wasp for her escape from that.) A mysterious traveler arrives and Janet goes to find him. We then jump back to the present day and are caught up in an exposition-heavy book reading/voice-over by Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) as he lets us know where the characters are now. The problem is that most of the things that the characters are doing are either in opposition to their character motivations or make no logical sense and are just there to start the plot.
You can’t convince me that Hank Pam (Michael Douglas) is content being “Grandpa Hank” and also secretly working on quantum realm science experiments with his adoptive granddaughter Cassie (Kathryn Newton). The same experiments and quantum realm mumbo jumbo that got his wife, Janet, stuck down, to begin with. Then there’s Hope Van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly), Hank and Janet’s daughter who now runs a company and is an entrepreneur because, well that sounds nice, it won’t come back up or matter to the plot. She could have been the season winner of The Great British Bakeoff and it would have been the same. Well, Cassie, Hope, and Hank were all working on mapping out the quantum realm and are sending a signal down there and then everyone including Scott gets sucked into the quantum realm and the first ten minutes and first act of the film concludes.
The film flies through the set-up so fast that it gives you whiplash. There is no time to connect emotionally with the characters or set up their personal stakes. While later we set up the stakes for the people and creatures of the quantum realm and that the world could be in trouble too if our heroes fail we don’t have any emotional stakes for Scott, Cassie, or Hope if they fail. There is some shoehorned in development that Scott doesn’t help people as he used to (which the guy saved the entire universe cut him some slack) and that makes his daughter Cassie upset. Just a little more breathing room on the front end would have really helped this film out. Let us live with the characters for a bit, and to avoid spoilers there is something set up that is so glossed over in these first ten minutes that when it does come back into play it’s a borderline deus ex machina.
From here the next hour crawls by as our heroes are split up, Cassie and Scott, Hope, Janet, and Hank, as they try to navigate the wacky and wild quantum realm. If you’re wondering why this sounds like the plot of a Rick and Morty episode it’s because the film is written by Rick and Morty scribe Jeff Loveness. While Loveness is able to create wacky worlds for that show and do it quickly it doesn’t always translate to a feature film. Here he has the luxury to let things breathe but instead spends the time showing off the strangeness of the quantum realm and jokes that don’t land. The reason that the quantum realm doesn’t work is that it doesn’t feel real. It makes no sense, there is nothing about it that seems cohesive, you have jelly guys, aliens, broccoli men, and living buildings. (“Holy sh** is that a broccoli man?” Michael Douglas shouts out at one point.)
Quantumania so desperately wants to be Star Wars but it lacks the finesse and world-building that the original trilogy had. The lack of practical effects, and some bad green screen work doesn’t help, because the actors have nothing to act off of. There is nothing about the world that seems real and it feels like Paul Rudd and co. are just wandering through a cartoon. This leads to some wooden acting as vets like Douglas and Pfeiffer to try their best with the corny dialogue and nonsense words. Even the usual wise-cracking Rudd is painfully unfunny for the first half of the film. The jokes feel forced and too obvious. Rudd had a writing credit on the first two Ant-man films but here the sole writer is Loveness and this is his first feature film and it shows.
Thankfully, around the mid-point, the villain is introduced and the film gets back on steady but not quite solid ground. And what a villain he is. We are introduced to the next Marvel big bad, Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors.) Majors does the heavy lifting with a villain who is powerful, intimidating, charismatic, and dangerous, even though his motivations are unclear. Kang works because he’s an Avengers-level threat and the smallest Avenger and his family has to face him alone. Majors gives it his all with a restrained performance that lets the darkness of Kang bubble just below the surface. He treats the role like Shakespeare, never once winking at the camera or being coy, he plays it straight and the film is much better for it. He outshines everyone and makes a lasting impression. He wants to rule or destroy the multiverse or something and Majors makes him a danger.
There is a tonal shift between this film and the two Ant-Man films that come before it and it causes this one to suffer. Scott Lang is just not meant to be a serious hero. Rudd tries his best but he lacks the dramatic chops to take his own movie seriously. The same can be said for director Peyton Reed who is always better in his zone of comedy film and doesn’t quite know how to stage an epic story like this. There are half-baked ideas about revolution, getting time back with the ones you love, and what it means to be a hero, but none of these themes are ever explored. Even the backstory to Kang is left unexplored but perhaps they are leaving that for another Marvel movie. (The new Avengers is titled Kang Dynasty if that is any hint of what is to come.)
The last act is a breath of fresh air for the film and it provides some fun action beats, good humor, and a few moments of emotion. It’s hard to talk about the better parts of the film without spoilers but it’s a fun ride at the end. Especially the battle sequences involving Kang. The film probably would have benefitted from his introduction quite a bit earlier. The Ant-Man films have always been low stakes and more grounded and having the crew in such a fantastical setting, facing off against the new big bad and trying to deliver the drama just doesn’t quite click.
There is too much of a sense of “been there, done that,” besides Kang, Quantumania doesn’t offer anything new to the overstuffed Marvel buffet table. While everyone tries their best to bring a new dish, and try something new the film can’t help but feel underwhelming. It’s more of the same beats, moments, and brand of humor, and after thirty-one films it’s starting to feel a little bloated, undercooked, and stale.
2/5