Director: Peyton Reed

Writer: Jeff Loveness

Starring: Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Jonathan Majors, Kathryn Newton, David Dastmalchian, Katy O’Brian, William Jackson Harper, Billy Murray, Michelle Pfeiffer, Corey Stoll, and Michael Douglas

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is the third Ant-Man film and the thirty-first entry to the Marvel Cinematic Universe overall. Like the previous two Ant-Man films it is directed by Peyton Reed, although this time around the script was written by Jeff Loveness, who has previously worked on Rick and Morty, as well as some Marvel comics.

After the events of Avengers: Endgame Scott Lang (Paul Rudd), has been living a much simpler life. Catching up on missed time with his daughter, Cassie (Kathryn Newton), and writing a popular book about how he saved the world. Cassie has been completing experiments to try and find a way to explore the Quantum Realm without actually going there. While she’s showing this to Scott, Hope (Evangeline Lilly), Janet (Michelle Pfeiffer), and Hank (Michael Douglas), a portal is opened and they’re all sucked into the Quantum Realm and have to find a way out.  

Sadly, this film is just a mess. The Quantum Realm is essentially just a Star Wars rip-off, that’s not as interesting. For the first half of the film the pacing is just awful. It’s all over the place, jumping from scene to scene as quickly as possible so you don’t realise how bland everything is. The script is so bad, that it wouldn’t be a surprise if it was AI generated. The dialogue is absolutely awful. Every cliché comic book line you can imagine just smashed together with poor exposition that never feels natural. The whole thing is just awkward. There are also so many bad jokes that just aren’t funny. Even Paul Rudd’s effortless charm can’t save the film, although he does have a few funny moments, they are just few and far between.

At almost all times it’s painfully obvious that they’re standing in front of a greenscreen. There’s no depth to the world and the Quantum Realm doesn’t feel real or tangible. It’s hard to believe the characters are interacting with it. Some of the big set pieces just have the main characters running in front of everything like they’re on a ride at Disney World and we’re watching the souvenir film they bought afterwards.

Jonathan Majors is the best part of the whole film. He’s really great as Kang the Conqueror and while the film is a mess it does do a good job at setting him up to be the next big villain of the MCU. It does feel like there’s finally some forwards momentum in the overarching story, which has been missing from recent films. Kang is a force to be reckoned with and hopefully the upcoming Avengers film will be a lot better than this one.

Quantumania may be the worst film entry to the MCU. It’s a soulless mess and just not entertaining or fun to watch.

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