Ant-man and the Wasp: Quantumania - Still Fun and Light but Seemed to Focus on Highlighting the Future Major Villain, Kang the Conqueror

Like other previous movies from Marvel Studios, my wife and I were highly anticipating this one and decided to buy the tickets when they were already sold in advance last weekend. As our favorite theater did not have any evening show on its first day, we bought the tickets for its third day last night. So let's head down to the movie now.

Brief Story Line

After the events in Avengers: End Game, Scott Lang (Paul Rudd - Ghostbusters: Afterlife, Clueless etc) was enjoying his peaceful life with his girlfriend Hope (Evangeline Lilly - The Hobbit films, The Hurt Locker etc), though he was having a bit difficulty with his now teenaged daughter Cassie (Kathryn Newton - Freaky, Blockers etc). And it was not really helped by the fact that Cassie's grandparents Hank Pym (Michael Douglas - Basic Instinct, Wall Street etc) and Janet (Michelle Pfeiffer - Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, Murder on the Orient Express etc) who were quite supportive of her actions.

When they were having get together, the whole family somehow were transported into the Quantum Realm where they met with intelligent beings and were entangled in the war between the Conqueror, Kang (Jonathan Majors - Captive State, The Harder They Fall etc) and the rebels led by Jentorra (Katy O'Brian - Z Nation TV series etc) with her trusted friends Quaz (William Jackson Harper - Midsommar etc) and Veb (David Dastmalchian - The Suicide Squad etc). 

So what would happen to Scott and the rest as they tried to escape from the Quantum realm? And how would the story conclude? You could find in this movie.

End of Brief Story Line

I remembered that when I watched the first Ant-Man and its sequel Ant-man and the Wasp, I felt that it was fun, light and just amusing, especially with the charming Scott and his funny friend Luis (who loved to tell the story with dialogues as though spoken from his mouth). Now in this third movie, it was still fun with Scott's easy going attitude but sadly his old friends were no longer appearing here. Instead we were introduced to plenty of new characters, with one especially funny Veb who instantly became my wife's favorite.

The early part of the story which showed Scott's new life was fun to see, and surprisingly it did not take long for the whole gang to be trapped inside the Quantum realm. This was where the movie became more exciting with the adventure in the mysterious and weird new world. However, despite the quite amazing visualization of the realm and the wonderful visual effects, I could not help feel that it was not really extraordinary and a bit too similar with Star Wars movies and Star Trek series (with those unconventional looking species). Even one of Jentorra's fighter with the light on his face reminded me of Robot in Lost in Space. 

The story itself was not complicated, just everyone trapped inside the realm trying to return to their world while trying to beat the villain. This time we were shown Kang again after he was introduced in the Marvel TV series earlier and he was still very powerful and I think the strongest one that Ant-man faced (obviously aside from the ones he had to fight together with the Avengers). Even though Kang the Conqueror was said to the the most powerful villain, personally to me he talked a bit too much and did not exactly scream scary. Perhaps he would be more frightening in future movies.

I said above that what I liked in Ant-man movies were the fun characters, but other than Scott himself and Veb, I did not think there were too many moments where we could laughed a lot in here. There was also the appearance of new villain M.O.D.O.K who was more like a joke instead of instilling fear. I did not put the name of actor playing him as it would ruin the surprise (unless of course if you have read it somewhere). One more well known star appeared in here, i.e. Bill Murray (Groundhog Day etc) portraying a certain character. 

I found that this movie was still having the same spirit as the previous two films probably because it was directed by the same person Peyton Reed (Bring It On, The Break-Up etc). This time though, it was written by Jeff Loveness who is going to be writing for the upcoming Avengers movie in year 2025. The fights in the movie were not absolutely awesome but still pretty entertaining and that scene where Scott was entering one particular location by himself was quite interesting. The climax fight was OK, not very spectacular but sufficient. There were one mid end credit scene and one post end credit scene which was likely to set up for the next stories in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. 

Overall to me, this film was quite enjoyable, fun and light which are kind of the trademark for Ant-man movies. Personally to me, I preferred the first and second movies more as they were lighter and funnier, but my wife and I still liked liked this one as well, though we felt it was not the best one in the MCU. I am not sure if there would be another Ant-man in the future but I think there is possibility of one character from here that would appear in the next Avengers. The critics were not really appreciative of this movie either with mixed review, but I think people would still flock to the theaters to see any Marvel film regardless of the ratings. 

Mike's movie moments rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars