Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania

Peyton Reed Directs this third Ant-Man outing, this time written by Jeff Loveness. We find Scott (Paul Rudd) in a happy place, the world is good and he’s having a nice time. But life can come at you quickly when you’re a superhero! Firstly he has to pick up his daughter Cassie (Kathryn Newton) from jail. Then during a family dinner with Hope (Evangeline Lilly) and her parents Janet (Michelle Pfeiffer) and Hank (Michael Douglas) he also discovers that his daughter and Hank have been monitoring the quantum realm. A mishap with that monitoring sees them all catapulted into the realm discovering a whole new universe full of fascinating creatures and landscapes alongside an evil warlord in Kang (Jonathan Majors). While there they find out what Janet had really been up to in the realm, all of this makes their attempts to return home all the more difficult.

Upfront I have to say I had a good time with Quantumania it was light going and zinged along at a decent pace. It felt that it benefitted from being the first in the MCU phase 5 films (apparently!) Making it feel a lot less weighed down by the MCU than can often be the case.

Story wise it felt more Star Wars than Marvel, this feeling was added to in no small way by the world that it created with some weird and wonderful lands and fun inhabitants that included enjoyable cameos from Bill Murray, William Jackson Harper and Corey Stoll’s MODOK, who did remind me of Rick Moranis’s Space Balls character!

All the main performances are enjoyable and it’s great to see Michelle Pfeiffer on screen. Paul Rudd gets the balance of surprised super hero right as always. But all the best moments are built around Majors whose quiet menace offers promise for his future MCU appearances.

Quantumania is not one of the strongest additions to the MCU but I had a good time with it. The worlds, its characters and story are all fun. And with its relatively short run time it zips along at a decent pace. This third Ant-Man has had some sniffy reviews, but I had lots of fun and enjoyed it.