Shrink Wrapped ‘Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania’

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Rating: 4.0/5.0

CHICAGO – Ant-Man gets supersized in this agreeable Marvel Studios movie, which pits our tiny hero against his most formidable foe yet. While the first two Ant-Man movies were largely comic detours where the bug sized superhero carved a small but charming place in the larger universe, the third Ant-Man and The Wasp film puts him squarely at the center of the next phase of Marvel moviemaking.

We begin with small-time thief Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) coasting on his celebrity, writing a puff piece autobiography and cashing in on the goodwill he earned as one of the lesser Avengers. But his life of relative leisure is upended when his rebellious teenage daughter Cassie (Kathryn Newton) establishes contact with the Quantum realm. Before you know it, Scott, Cassie, Hope Van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly), Dr. Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) and his wife Janet Van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer) are all sucked into the sub atomic dimension.

Ant Man and The Wasp: Quantumania
Photo credit: Marvel Studios/Walt Disney Studios

Most of the film takes place in this Quantum realm, a sort of limbo between dimensions and the multiverse. It’s where Pfeiffer’s Janet Van Dyne spent three decades … before she was rescued in the previous movie. She proves to be a lifesaving guide for them as the navigate the expansive world building. But most importantly this sets up Marvel’s new big baddie in phase five of the Marvel Cinema Universe (MCU).

And that guy is Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors). First introduced at the end of the Disney+ “Loki” series, Kang is menacing in his quiet power. Majors lends not just his imposing physicality to the role, but also a certain logic that makes him scarier than your typical comic book meglomaniac. Kang can transcend multiple timelines of the multiverse and wants to conquer all to bring order.

There’s plenty to see here, with tribes of roaming refugees hiding out from Kang’s armies, along with a Quantum cantina scene where Lord Krylar (Bill Murray) shows up in a revolutionary wig, acting like a sub atomic rapscallion, who once had a fling with Janet during her early Quantum years, but now has submitted to Kang’s rule.

Paul Rudd (Ant Man), Kathryn Newton (Cassie) and Evangeline Lilly (The Wasp)
Photo credit: Marvel Studios/Walt Disney Studios

The small time pleasures of seeing the agreeable Rudd riff on the comic book genre are still there, but the film has much bigger things on its plate. Along the way Ant-Man and the Wasp get small they also get big, as they attempt to save the sub atomic universe and get back home. For the first time in a while, all the Marvel machinations actually kinda work.

Most Marvel movies are generally watchable and get the job done without leaving that much of a lasting impression or having a “re-watchability factor” for me. “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quatumania” is good not great. But it does make me excited for what’s next. And isn’t that sort of the point?

By SPIKE WALTERS Contributor HollywoodChicago.com spike@hollywoodchicago.com