“Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania” Movie Review

“Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania” is Marvel’s newest project in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It is the first film in Phase 5 of the MCU, and it is an impressive start to this new phase. Paul Rudd and Evangeline Lilly return as Ant-Man and The Wasp. The film also stars Jonathan Majors as Kang the Conqueror and features returning actors like Michael Douglas and Michelle Pfeffier. Director, Peyton Reed and writer, Jeff Loveness work well together to present the story in a unique fashion with the 124 minute runtime. Although the film’s enormous budget exceeded 200 million dollars, this film stands out from its previous installments, which is both a positive and negative attribute to this film.

As a Marvel fan, while watching the film opening night on Thursday February 16th I have to admit this film reflects the state of complicity within the cinematic universe. Marvel projects are in a state where they rely heavily on each other for setting up future projects. My friend, who hasn’t seen a Marvel film since “Avengers: Endgame,” found the unfamiliarity of previous projects perplexing and confusing. We both compared the setting of the film to another franchise, like the setting in Star Wars.

In my honest opinion, the best part of this film was the acting and the excellent character development from the actors. Jonathan Majors creates a terrifying villain that is iconic like classic villains in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

The storyline struggles in the third act because it strays away from its previous film’s established movie format. The film strayed away from its previous successful films in terms of its usual action/adventure heist style films. The film shows each character’s growth which was a nice touch, but the ending of the film contradicts any growth at all. It felt convoluted because of its ambiguity ending, in a way no one really lost or won they just went through a bunch of chaotic commotion.

My friend Roxanne Gribbin, who is not a Marvel fan, offered her thoughts on this film. She said, “I thought it was really great, and I never watch Marvel movies but I thought the cinematography of the Quantum realm was really cool, I don’t have much to compare it to but I might start watching more Marvel movies.” Noting some problems, she continued, “I thought there were some certain plot holes but I feel that way with most Marvel movies because of the superheroes powers. I thought ‘Why not just do that?’ Vibe.”

From a critical standpoint she noted that the film struggled with major plot holes in the story that could have been resolved differently. I agree with her on her critical point because the same case can be said with other MCU projects. A prime example of this is in “Spider-Man: No Way Home.” If the characters made different decisions the film could have been just an after school special.

Overall, I give this movie a rating of 7/10. Mainly because of certain plot holes and how the ending feels like no progression was made at all. Roxanne gave it an overall rating of 8/10, from a non-fan perspective. This makes the average rating would leave the film to a score of 7.5/10, a solid score despite its confusing story and actions throughout the film. Whether you are a fan of Marvel, or just a casual movie viewer “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” will leave you feeling perplexed and perhaps wanting more.