My SPOILER review of Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania
Hello y’all. I wanted to share my thoughts about my new favorite movie, Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania. Now, just a warning, this post will be very long and will contain many SPOILERS for this movie. The post may also contain some mild spoilers for Loki, so read at your own risk.
Ant-Man
I really liked Scott’s characterization in this movie. I feel that it is consistent with his other appearances, and I feel like Paul Rudd did a great job of portraying the character (as always). I may be biased, however, as Paul Rudd and I do root for the same football team. Anyway, I specifically liked how they continued some parts of his character from previous movies, such as his obsession with Captain America and how he likes to eat citrus after he turns into Giant-Man. I also liked his book, “Look Out for the Little Guy”. I thought that was pretty funny.
Cassie
I thought that she was okay in this movie. She gave Scott some good motivation. More importantly, she gave MODOK motivation to be a better person (“I don’t know, just don’t be a jerk”). I really liked that part of the movie. I also liked how Scott taught her how to use her suit and powers. I was a little unsure of Kathryn Newton as Cassie because I don’t think that she really looks like the previous actresses, but I think her performance was fine. I think that some brown colored contacts would have helped, though. Hailee Steinfeld wore blue contacts in Hawkeye, so it isn’t unheard of. I guess it’s possible they tried them and they irritated the actress’ eyes or something.
Kang Kang the Conqueror was really cool in this movie. They did a good job of showing how powerful he is and what he can do. I think that it is important that he appeared in a movie and showcased his powers before the next Avengers movies because he did not have superpowers in his last appearance in Loki. Now, audiences will be a little more familiar with the character heading into the next movie. I also liked the explanation of his backstory and motivations. I think that it was a lot more clear in this movie than it was in Loki, so that was nice. I think that the episodic format and Michael Waldron’s inexperience as a writer caused a lot of Loki to be convoluted and rushed. I did not like Jonathan Majors’ portrayal, however. Specifically, I didn’t like his line delivery or his way of talking or his exaggerated facial movements. I also didn’t like his performance in Loki, so this wasn’t unexpected. The Kang variants in the post-credits scenes had these problems 10x worse, in my opinion. I understand that they probably wanted to make each variant sound and look different, but it’s almost hard to watch and listen to. I’m kind of hoping that he’s recast even if he is innocent (hopefully he is).
Hank Pym
I really liked Hank Pym in this movie. He had some great lines, such as “I like ants!” or “every gosh-darn word” (when talking about how he read Scott’s book). I think that Michael Douglas’ performance really helped to sell these lines. I also liked how Hank showed up at the end with his ant army. That was pretty cool. In addition, I liked how Cassie called him “Grandpa Hank” throughout the movie because it showed that they’re like family. The Pym Particle pizza was pretty cool, too.
Janet Van Dyne
She was cool too. Michelle Pfeiffer did a good job portraying the character again. I think that she was good as a guide through the Quantum Realm, and I liked how she had history with a lot of the Quantum Realm characters and was able to explain everything to the other members of the Ant-Family.
Wasp
Hope was barely in this movie. I think that her small role was fine, however. I don’t know how she could have really been in the movie more, but it was a little surprising because her name is in the title of the movie and she only had what felt like 5 minutes of screen time. Still, I think that Evangeline Lilly did a good job of portraying the character and I like how she has taken over the company and renamed it to “Pym Van Dyne”.
MODOK I loved MODOK so much. Every scene he was in was great. He appeared to be a real threat to the heroes even though he doesn’t actually do any real damage to them. Also, he was so freaking funny. “I’m such a jerk”, “at least I’ll get to die as an Avenger”, and “you were always like a brother to me”, were HILARIOUS. MODOK’s change of heart after Cassie told him not to be a jerk was pretty great. I liked when he showed up to disable Kang’s forcefield. I’ve seen a lot of people complain about MODOK’s design and how weird it is, but I think that some of that was intentional. I agree that he could have looked better, but there’s no way that he would have looked good. I also liked how well the Darren-is-MODOK reveal works with the rest of the trilogy. In Ant-Man, Darren’s face is magnified when he is talking to Scott and it appears to be large and circular like MODOK. Additionally, when the mask of the Yellowjacket suit opens, Darren’s head kind of looks like MODOK. Also, when Ant-Man defeats him, his arms shrink first. I don’t think that any of this was intentional, but it works really well with this movie. I thought that Corey Stoll’s performance was excellent, and I was really sad that his character died. I want more MODOK!! I know that there’s a MODOK show on Hulu or something, but I tried watching it and just didn’t like it. Maybe MODOK can come back through some sort of quantum something or other.
The Quantum Realm
I thought that the Quantum Realm was very strange and unique in this movie. It was definitely different than it was in the previous movie, but they explained that well. Additionally, you can kind of see Quantum cities in Ant-Man and The Wasp, so it isn’t surprising that there was more to the Quantum Realm than what we saw in that movie. I liked Bill Murray’s performance, but I was surprised that he only had one scene. I hope that he didn’t actually die because I would like to see him and the Grandmaster from Thor: Ragnarok on screen together. I doubt that that would ever happen, though. I think that the ooze was a good way of explaining how everyone can understand each other. I thought that Veb was kind of weird with his obsession with holes, but that joke definitely paid off at the end of the movie when he gets shot. He finally got holes of his own. The Quantumnauts and other Quantum Realm people were cool too. They had a unique design. The Quantum Realm itself was also unique. It reminded me of a combination of Star Wars, Avatar, and Mad Max, but it was still unique. I also think that the visual effects were good for the most part, but I don’t really mind bad CGI as long as everything else is good or if there was no other way to do it (Star Wars prequels, for example). Overall, I think that there was a lot of great world-building in this area and I think that it will be a cool location in the MCU moving forward. I think it would be cool to see the Quantum Realm again in Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, Secret Wars, or even Loki season 2.
The Humor
Humor is the thing that I was most concerned about heading into the movie. A couple of the previous MCU projects (some of phase 3, most of phase 4) have had some really bad humor, so I was worried for that reason. Additionally, I don’t like a lot of the other projects that the writer, Jeff Loveness, has worked on (Rick & Morty, for example). However, the humor was more or less my favorite part of the film. I really liked the parts with MODOK, and I thought that Scott’s book was pretty funny. For example, how Scott wondered if he was the Hulk’s baby. That was hilarious. I also liked how people wanted Ant-Man to take pictures with their dogs. The dog in the stroller at the end of the movie was pretty funny, too. I didn’t really like Veb at first because I thought he was kind of weird at first, but there was a payoff in the third act so it’s okay. I was surprised that David Dastmalchian provided the voice for Veb. He sounds so much different than Kurt. I also thought that the scene where you can see MODOK’s bare b*ttom was a little strange, but it was kind of funny. The MODOK creation scene also reminded me of the Darth Vader suit up scenes in Revenge of the Sith and Empire Strikes Back.
The Action The action was also one of my favorite parts of the movie. I liked how Scott explained to Cassie how to do a “jump-tap”. I also liked the Giant-Man scene at the end of the movie. It was pretty cool when he showed up. I also liked how he used the building to block the lasers. It reminded me of Captain America using his shield. I wonder if that was intentional. I also liked how Ant-Man cannonballed at the forcefield and then turned into Giant-Man. The giant ants were cool too. I liked the giant Cassie vs MODOK scene. Kang and MODOK had some cool action scenes. I know that Kang being defeated by giant ants was one of the things that a lot of people didn’t like about this movie, but I didn’t really mind it especially because he showed up again to fight Scott before he made it through the portal and because we know that he is still alive. It did kind of remind me of how Steppenwolf is defeated in the theatrical cut of Justice League though.
The Suits
I liked the suits a lot more than I was expecting to in this movie. When the new Ant-Man suit was revealed, I didn’t like it because I thought it was a downgrade from the suit he has in Ant-Man and the Wasp and Avengers: Endgame. It looks a lot better in the movie, in my opinion. I feel that the practical suit on screen looks a lot better than the concept art version. I have mixed feelings about the circle on his chest, though. With it, it ruins the “ant face” that was on the last suit, but the comic suit does have a circle like that on the chest, so I understand the reasoning. It is also functional because that is where the nanotech is stored. The same goes for the Wasp suit. I didn’t really like the circular design on her suit when it was first revealed because it’s not a part of her comics suit and it ruins the “wasp-face” on her suit. I do like the new colors, however. Cassie’s suit was cool I guess, but it doesn’t make a lot of sense that her shoes are just regular shoes. I liked Kang’s suit. It’s a really good adaptation of his comics suit. I think that he should have had the blue face shield for more of the movie though. I also liked MODOK’s mask. It’s pretty funny looking. I am glad that it was removeable though. I know that a lot of people don’t like that the Ant-Man suits are now fully nanotech, but I don’t think that they used it in an annoying way like they do in other movies (like in Endgame when Black Panther uses nanotech to remove his mask just to tell Hawkeye to give him the gauntlet. Like, why did he remove his mask? Has Hawkeye ever seen his face? Oh well). Additionally, I think that it was a good way to explain why they all have their suits in the Quantum Realm.
Other Thoughts
I think that the opening scene should have been a cold open, then the MARVEL intro. In other words, the movie should have started with the Janet/Kang flashback THEN done the intro. I think that would have been a little bit better.
POSSIBLE SEQUEL?
I think that a fourth movie could be fun, but I don’t really think that it is necessary. I think that the overall story of the trilogy is wrapped up pretty nicely. I would definitely be excited if another movie was announced, though. I would want it to take place more in the real world and be a bit more of a grounded story, though. I did like this movie, but I wouldn’t want another entire movie about the Quantum Realm. I would want to see more of the Ant-Man side characters like Luis or Cassie’s mom and stepdad. It would be cool to see Luis get a suit and powers because that was kind of alluded to in Ant-Man and The Wasp. I think that he could be Goliath, even. I would also like to see some other heroes in the movie, such as Hawkeye. I think that Ultron could be a cool villain for an Ant-Man movie. They obviously have comics history (at least, Hank Pym and Ultron do), but MCU Ultron is a jokier sort of villain and I think that that would work well in an Ant-Man movie.
FINAL RATING
Overall, I liked a lot about the movie. I would probably give it a 3/10.
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