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Movie Review:
After teasing so much about the quantum realm, Marvel finally gave us a closer look at it alongside a classic villain through the third installment of the Ant-Man franchise: Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania. Is it a glimmer of hope amongst Marvel’s recent mediocre movies? Or yet another dud? Lamentably, it is the latter.
[Be warned, this review contains spoilers.]
Quantumania picks up after the events of Avengers: Endgame, where Scott Lang (Ant-Man), his daughter Cassie Lang, Hope Van Dyne (The Wasp), Janet Van Dyne and Hank Pym get sucked into the quantum realm after Cassie’s device malfunctions, leading to Lang’s capture by the villainous Kang the Conqueror.
Subsequently, Janet explains that back when she was stuck in the realm, she enlarged Kang’s multiversal power core, rendering it unusable. Only Scott can shrink it back down. After he does so, Scott is told that the core will be used to conquer and destroy entire timelines, but it still ends up in Kang’s hands. To prevent him from escaping the realm, the five rally the natives and an army of technologically-advanced ants. After destroying Kang’s ship and the ants getting Kang under control, the five enter a portal one by one to return to Earth. But when it is Scott’s turn, Kang suddenly appears and nearly beats him to death. Luckily, Hope returns, and together they defeat Kang by destroying the core, with Kang in it.
Quantumania has come under fire for a myriad of reasons, one of which is the lackluster computer-generated images (CGI). Marvel had been the epitome of CGI, especially with Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame. That said, the CGI in recent movies have been deteriorating and Quantumania is no different. The quantum realm is a perfect stage to showcase stellar scenery with its magnificent, futuristic appearance, but what is shown on screen is, to say the least, a missed opportunity. Although the realm itself is at best acceptable, everything else is anything but lively as the characters barely interact with the environment and worse still, Kang’s sidekick MODOK, looks as if his face was stretched unnaturally and stuck on hastily. To put it bluntly, his CGI was laughably sub-par.
The elephant in the room, however, is the poorly-written plot. Ever since Quantumania’s release, many fans have lambasted how its story unfolds. Notable criticisms include: Cassie suddenly knowing how to fight, having a suit, and forging a friendship with Hank; failing to explain why Scott specifically is needed to shrink the power core; and, controversially, killing off Kang. Above all, Quantumania fails to be a standalone movie. For context, all Marvel movies happen within the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) and move towards a common ultimate goal, currently being Avengers: Kang Dynasty. While Quantumania successfully introduces the quantum realm and Kang to set up the next Avengers movie, what does it bring to the table other than that? Nothing changes afterwards. Cassie suffers no consequences as a result of her device’s malfunction, so what is the point of Quantumania? It really is nothing but a tool to advance the Kang Dynasty.
Similar in nature but executed significantly better is Captain America: Civil War from 2016. Also a third installment, Civil War is a build-up to Avengers: Endgame, but the key difference is Tony Stark (aka Ironman) and Captain America breaking apart at the end, shattering the already fragmented Avengers. Quantumania needed to include a fundamental shift like this to merit a second viewing.
Regrettably, Quantumania leaves much to be desired and these criticisms are only the tip of the iceberg. It is high time Marvel put an end to their downward spiral of lackluster movies and return to their pre-Endgame form.
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