Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania Review: An Overstuffed MCU Entry

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blasts our heroes into the Quantum Realm for a new adventure in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. This superhero film kicks off Phase Five of the MCU and features Scott Lang/Ant-Man (Paul Rudd) and his now-grown daughter Cassie (Kathryn Newton) as they travel to an unfamiliar realm and take on a new foe known as Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors). Despite Marvel’s track record of providing fun, easily digestible entertainment, kicks off Phase Five with a whimper, providing an overstuffed, lifeless superhero extravaganza that exists to set up more in the future.

What made the first two films successful? Those movies were intentionally small-scale with low, lighthearted stakes. As a result, they’re funny, breezy, and rewatchable. This movie entirely forgets what made the first two work, throwing Ant-Man into a CGI-filled world of colorful creatures. An adventure almost wholly set in the Quantum Realm leads to a movie that feels like a prequel. Part of an film’s appeal is seeing the hero interact with objects and environments familiar to us, like a Thomas the Tank Engine toy or a Hello Kitty Pez Dispenser. But with an entirely CGI environment, the superpowers on display lose their X factor and humor.

This movie loses every sense of realism that the first two had by taking every scene and filming it in The Volume. Everything feels artificial, with every scene filmed in front of what looks like an LED screen. While the opening few scenes retain a few of the comedic elements the movies are well-known for, we are quickly thrown into a large-scale, high-stakes adventure that throws all character development out of the window. ‘s only focus is to have an action-packed experience that establishes a big bad who will return in the