“Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” is a movie that promises a big grand tale but comes up just a bit small in how well it delivers that story. It is the third movie of the Ant-Man films and the 31st installment of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. 

The movie takes place after the Infinity Saga and wears the effects of those battles. This time we follow our crew of Scott Lang, Hope Van Dyne, Cassandra Lang, Janet Van Dyne, and the original Ant-Man Hank Pym on their adventure into the quantum realm. The film differs from previous Ant-Man films by making sure this movie has an outward effect on the Universe as a whole in comparison to the smaller stakes of the earlier entries. 

It is refreshing to see Ant-Man given something more than a small-time villain to go up against and show he is as capable as the MCU’s more recognizable heroes. However, when it plays out on screen, there is some tonal whiplash depending on whether the movie wants to be taken seriously or not. 

One big criticism lobbied against MCU movies is that they follow a specific “formula.” Mainly this formula is sticking to the “hero’s journey” and inserting random, snappy quips into very serious moments. Though the criticisms can be overblown at times, Quantumania is a case where the criticism is deserved. The movie never takes itself too seriously, much to the film’s disservice. 

While the story plays out there seems to be too big of a cast for what needs to be a movie that sets up the future of the MCU. This leads to a good portion of the cast being underused and underdeveloped save for a select few. These select few being the stellar performances from Jonathan Majors (Kang the Conqueror), Paul Rudd (Scott Lang), Kathryn Newton (Cassandra Lang), and Michelle Pfeiffer (Janet Van Dyne). 

Particularly Majors and Newton deserve praise for delivering such great performances given the tendency that the MCU has to get in its way. Newton plays Cassandra Lang’s feelings of abandonment to a high degree and makes the movie a lot more heartfelt in certain scenes.

There is not enough space to talk about Jonathan Major’s show-stopping performance as Kang The Conqueror. Building off of his great performance in the Loki TV series, he nails the complexity needed for the multiversal threat that is Kang. 

While the performances try to save the film from itself, it is too much of a difficult task. Since the film needs to set up for future events it doesn’t spend enough time to flesh out the ideas to build a compelling story for itself. Leaving some ideas to feel half-baked such as the theme of fighting oppression never exploring more than just a surface-level nod. 

A recent problem that many moviegoers have had with post-Infinity Saga MCU movies, is that the visual effects of the new movies seem not as polished as the previous films in the franchise. Quantumania seems fine at face value but with a deep look into the backgrounds and some fight scenes the bad CGI becomes more apparent. It seems that Marvel is looking to rely on more and more CGI as they move forward into Phase Five and beyond. Time will tell if audiences will still be open to how much they are using it. 

All in all, while the movie may have some issues with tone, cast size, and CGI, it is still an enjoyable watch and far from being the worst MCU movie. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania slots itself into the middle of the pack, from what needed to be a standout movie. Despite that, I would still recommend seeing the movie just for Jonathan Major’s performance as Kang the Conqueror alone. He tries and nearly succeeds at carrying this movie to the expectations placed upon it.