Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania
Year: 2023
Rating: PG-13
Length: 124 minutes / 2.06 hours
I’m not sure how much more of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) I can take. After a lackluster Phase 4, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023) is what they chose to kick off Phase 5? Don’t get me wrong, I truly enjoyed the first Ant-Man (2015). However, this was because I saw it more as a comedy heist film than as an action-packed superhero film. Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018) initially indicated this shift for me, but now Quantumania has cemented the averageness of Marvel movies in my mind.
The part that hurts most is that they could have leaned more into the comedy. They tried with M.O.D.O.K. (who had a fantastic comedy spin-off TV show before being in the MCU) but most of those jokes were childish at best. I have to give them props for making this bizarre character make sense in the greater scheme of MCU continuity. However, even Paul Rudd’s expertly comedic delivery of his lines was few and far between and not enough to save this movie from being the same as all the rest. Even just including Luis (Michael Peña) would have helped a lot.
The fact of the matter is that I’m tired of these movies. The more they have to lean into creating fantastic worlds through extensive CGI, the less I want to see them. I know there are tons of unique universes to explore in the MCU, but nothing seems to set them apart from each other. Sure, this one is “small” but it’s so far down in the small as to be indistinguishable from an alien planet in Guardians of the Galaxy (2014). I might give the MCU one more shot in theaters for the final Guardians film, but for everything else I’m just going to wait for it to show up on Disney+.
A weak start to MCU Phase 5 with another “samey” Marvel movie, I give Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania 2.5 stars out of 5.
1/2
