'Ant-Man & The Wasp Quantumania' Review

Another Marvel Studios film has come and gone, and it was really well done. Ant-Man and the Wasp Quantumania is my favorite entry in the Ant-Man trilogy; take away Kang the Conqueror and it’s still my favorite. The movie did at times, many times actually, feel like Star Wars, and comedy was definitely shoehorned into the film quite poorly which is surprising since Paul Rudd wasn’t really on his A-game, in my opinion. He was great, and this was my favorite use of Scott Lang in the MCU yet… But Paul Rudd’s comedic parts just felt a little dry and too stretched out.

Cassie Lang on the other hand was recast with Supernatural alum Kathryn Newton. Newton’s first, presumably of many, times in the MCU was pretty weak. Her acting was REALLY dry and made the character unbearable at times, but she got slightly better as the film progressed. Making her into a “socialist” was foreseen and sad because I’m not really sure why we can’t just have a character, and let the actor or actress run wild and do their own thing. Not being spoon-fed weak lines and a poorly done story arch. Innocent happy-go-lucky Cassie from the first two Ant-Man entries is no more.

Enter adolescent, rebellious two times in jail Cassie whose a complete 180 from who we’ve seen in the past with the character. Cassie now seems to be on her way to becoming the hero Stature, which is what she goes by in the comics but time will tell if they change her superhero name. Kathryn Newton’s a great actress, but I just hope that they let her be more like herself and let her do her own thing instead of feeding her poor lines, bad fighting sequences and they just give her better scenes in general!

Characters like Bill Murray’s Krylar, Hank Pym and Hope van Dyne were done well. Seeing Murray in an superhero movie was really fun and his few minutes of screen time were perfect. Hope was… well, ok. Her becoming the new CEO of Pym Technologies, and changing the name mind you, was pretty weird. It makes sense that Hank would step away to be with Janet after losing 30-years with her, but Hope has just been a wasted character in my opinion. Complete character change from the first and even second Ant-Man films. The fact that she had very few lines throughout the film, while conversing with her parents as if she was a child, was just unnecessary.

Janet was really well done and Michelle Pfeiffer did a phenomenal job at building up Kang’s sinister and sadistic ways to life as we sat in our seats eagerly waiting for the villain to make his appearance on the big screen. Her having a history with Kang and a solid relationship for years within the quantum realm, only to see his nefarious intentions… was executed masterfully. Her feeling a lot of sad, deep emotions towards the realm for a while, only to redeem herself by the end was very nice to see and has me wanting more of Janet in the MCU frankly.

Scott Lang, I for one thought that Kang was going to straight-up murder him by the time the credits rolled… But it’s not surprising that he wasn’t. Him defeating Kang on the other hand, this variant of him, made no sense to me. This Kang said, “I’ve fought countless Avengers before” only to be stopped by the weakest one? I mean, this Kang was very emotional and pretty unstable mentally so I guess it made sense to have his guard down during the final fight. But I feel like it could’ve been done better.

Scott now being he the only one, of the world’s heroes on earth-616, to know of Kang and these evil variants who will, “end the world,” goes to show how important he will be heading into 2025’s Avengers: The Kang Dynasty.

Now lets get to Kang. Kang is my personal favorite villain in Marvel Comics, pretty close to Doctor Doom being my second favorite. It was a treat to see him brought to life, especially after “his” introduction in Loki. Kevin Feige, Nate Moore, Victoria Alonso and Quantumania scribe Jeff Loveness really know what they’re doing when it comes to the next big bad. The big bad that can rival Thanos, and at this rate… I believe he’ll outdo the Mad Titan, in time. Everything revolves around time at the end of the day, and Kang’s all about time. The mid-credits scene seeing the Council of Kangs being assembled (right out of the comics by the way) was a beautiful way to setup their greatness, and what might be coming.

The Council is basically universal “world” order without anyone other than every Kang throughout the multiverse knowing of its existence. They’re not the TVA (Time Variance Authority) they’re the TVA on steroids. They make sure that every Kang is staying in line, not trying to become mad with power like the banished Kang in Quantumania, not trying to rule, but just being Kang. Using their vast intellect of science for good, just living their life, and being human.

There are members of the Council who are evil, like the three shown in the scene: Immortus: the old Kang who in the comics is wise and after a while begins to want to conqueror everything and everyone. Rama-Tut: the Pharaoh Kang is the earliest Kang who traveled back in time to ancient Egypt who used his knowledge and power to rule all of Egypt, as his first of counltess evildoings. The Scarlet Centurion: a version of Kang who became best friends with his world’s Doctor Doom (from the past) and they became allies and used their genius to become Gods on their earth.

The possibilities are so rich and deep of great avenues to go down in the MCU with Kang. We’ll see more in Loki as shown in the end-credits scene with Kang alias Victor Timely, who is Kang when he traveled back to 1920s New York City posing as a science-loving fanatic, but secretly begins to “enslave” a following. The future of the MCU is bright, and I was pleasantly surprised by how great this film was ASIDE from everything to do with Kang.