The MCU juggernaut rolls on, with this 3rd instalment in the Ant-Man franchise. This time pitting Paul Rudd’s titular hero against Marvels newest villain Kang the Conqueror.
Reconnecting with his daughter Cassie after years apart, Scott Lang aka Ant-Man is unaware that she’s been secretly working with his Girlfriend Hope (Evangeline Lily) and her father Hank (the irrepressible Michael Douglas) on a project to explore the quantum realm. Having been rescued from that world, Hank’s Wife Janet, is horrified to hear of her families experiment, but her warning comes too late as the group are soon sucked into the mysterious microscopic world.
Completing his Ant-man trilogy, Peyton Reed directs once again, this time with a script by Rick and Morty writer Jeff Loveness, who injects a vein of zany humour into the film. Unfortunately, by being set in a CGI heavy alien world with no everyday objects, the film loses much of the charm that come from ant-man’s unique powers. There are no shrinking buildings or huge salt shakers in this instalment.
The script is heavy on exposition but threadbare, with the Father – daughter relationship between Scott and Cassie which should have been the heart of the film, left severely undercooked.
On the plus side, Michelle Pfeiffer is outstanding and gets a lot more to do as Janet van Dyne, as much of the films plot hangs on her character.
Jonathan Major’s makes for a formidable villain and delivers an intimidating performance, which bodes well for the franchise as they build towards The 2025 Avengers film ‘The Kang Dynasty’.
Despite being named in the title, Lily’s Wasp is once again almost completely sidelined, but fares better than the criminally underused Douglas who’s screen time is mostly limited to flying the team around in their hijacked spaceship. Michael Peña’s Luis is strangely absent from this instalment and his comedic delivery is sorely missed, however Newton is a welcome addition to the Ant family as Cassie. Rudd himself is as charismatic as usual, but facing off against a more serious threat, he isn’t really given the right material to shine.
The influence of writer Loveness is keenly felt in the variety of absurd creatures encountered by the family, which lean towards the wackier CGI critters seen in late 90’s Star Wars. Amusing enough for youngsters, but annoying for adults.
A comics accurate MODOK who is basically an oversized floating head, also features heavily but really doesn’t translate well to live action.
As always with the MCU, there’s post credit scenes which offer hope of better things to come, but the law of diminishing returns is biting the franchise hard since Endgame.
Quantumania is diverting enough for a family afternoon at the pictures, but is probably an entry that won’t chart highly in people’s rankings.
Only the performances of Pfieffer and Majors prevent this from being a quantum dud.
⭐️⭐️
Paul Steward
@grittster
19/02/23