The third chapter of Ant-Man marks the arrival of Kang and is an entertaining and at times spectacular film. But something is missing from the appeal.
Between 2021 and 2022 we experienced perhaps the most frayed and discontinuous Phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Compared to that of Infinity, which began in a much more linear and direct way, the Multiverse Saga had perhaps not started in the best way, with so many unanswered questions and titles – including films and TV series – that we struggled to fit into the general design which would take us to the fifth and sixth stages.
But the latest trailers for Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania to outline the future developments of the MCU, and after having previewed the third film starring Paul Rudd we can say that it’s finally getting serious: the new cinecomic by Payton Reed it is probably not the best of the saga on the ant-man (the Ant-Man review testifies that the first chapter still has, perhaps, an edge dictated by the novelty effect) but it turned out to be a solid film with an extremely intriguing plot in view of the highly anticipated Dynasty by Kang.
Mom, my Langs have shrunk
Somewhat in the wake of several predecessors, from WandaVision a Thor: Love and Thunderthe story of Quantum try to pick up the ranks of the character after the epic events of Avengers Endgame. The good Scott (Paul Rudd) has now left behind his criminal past and tries to go straight, basking in his now well-established and famous state of full-fledged Avengers. What happened during the final battle with Thanos, however, has a somewhat inflated the ego of the beloved Ant-Man, who has mostly turned into a dysfunctional superhero who spends much of his time basking in his own success. His daughter Cassie (Kathryn Newton) takes care of bringing the protagonist back down to earth, reminding him what a hero’s duty should be. The young Lang, in an attempt to follow in her father’s footsteps, however, risks slipping into illegality as happened in the past to her tormented parent, but despite everything she is committed daily to carrying on the Ant-Man crusade almost replacing Scott . And here Cassie, along with her grandfather Hank (Michael Douglas), reveals that they have conducted further research on the Quantum Realm and the Pym Particles, and it is at this point that the girl inadvertently reopens the portal which leads to the dimension in which poor Janet Van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer) has been trapped for Thirty Years. The entire Lang-Pym family, including Hope (Evangeline Lilly) are sucked into the vortex of atoms, and find themselves once again stranded in the quantum universe, on a journey that will reveal all the secrets and ghosts that Janet thought she had left behind .
As you know, it turns out that the Kingdom is ruled by an evil entity who plans his revenge against the Multiverse: Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors), a ruler of time bent on regaining his former powers. And therefore, for Ant-Man, Wasp and their allies begins a dangerous adventure to escape the clutches of the terrible variant of the one who remains (the Loki ending it is essential to frame the events of Quantum), in a story that will attempt to lay concrete foundations for the Multiverse Saga.
Kang the Conqueror arrives
Actually the narrative premise of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania – at least for the writer – it’s not exactly a coherence manifesto. Of course, we are not at the somewhat absurd levels of the first act of No Way Home (in which, we recall, Strange himself who was the demiurge of the plan to defeat Thanos breaks the Multiverse out of distraction), but in any case the way in which the journey to the Quantum Realm is triggered is not the most original. Furthermore, the film, while basing much of its message on the responsibility of being heroes, fails to fully resume this vein throughout the storyalmost forgetting the events narrated in the first half hour, relegating the entire prologue to mere filler waiting to really get into the action.
Apart from this note, however, Quantumania does what it has to do with good solidity, branching out its various storylines so as to deepen more or less each member of the cast of protagonists. Surely the evolution of Scott, of his superhero journey, and the relationship with his daughter Cassie are the pivots of the whole story, and the more central role granted to the characters of Hank and Janet is undoubtedly appreciable, pace of a Hope who instead it doesn’t have much to say and is not very thorough. But stealing the show, more than any other protagonist or supporting actor, is Jonathan Majors’ Kangwhich after the excellent performance shown in the sixth episode of Loki confirms his great acting polymorphism.
The picturesque and eccentric lord of the Sacred Timeline gives way, in Quantumania, to his more fearsome and ruthless Variant, a vengeful but staid tyrant, menacing and unnerving thanks to the talent and passive-aggressive inclination unsheathed by a super fit Major . A Kang who, due to his excessive power and destructive inclination, only partially recalls the Thanos of the early daysallowing a glimpse – also thanks to the two amazing post-credit scenes – a kaleidoscope of nuances that identify the villain of the Multiverse Saga as a creature with a thousand faces, iridescent in tone and approach to evil and despotic control.
A bit of Kang Dynasty
It’s a movie, Quantum, which also lives in a pleasant and intriguing visual frame. The Quantum Realm, while resulting somewhat derived from the cosmic imagery of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, is a backdrop made up of suggestive scenarios and creatures, and is cloaked in a subtle extravagance that accentuates the lighter and more comical counterpart of the film, which amalgamate with the dramatic moments. While not staging particular aesthetic flashes, Payton Reed’s film still shows off its own visual identity which flows into a couple of impactful and memorable sequences, punctuated by an enjoyable action mixture and in line with the “mythology” of the protagonist character.
The daring race to escape the quantum dimension and stop Kang’s revenge plan then leads to an ending that triggers interesting plots for the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and for the narrative arc that will lead us directly to Avengers: Kang Dynasty, while not affecting much on a purely dramaturgical level. In fact, it should be emphasized that the epilogue of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumaniawhile solving a large part of its storyline and projecting us towards the next incarnations of Kang, could have been braver, but Scott Lang’s new adventure rather, he chooses to ignite the Multiverse Saga by taking as few risks as possible. An understandable, albeit not very audacious, choice which in any case does not change the final result much: that is, with Phase 5, the Marvel Cinematic Universe begins to get serious again.
7.5
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