The Reel Review
Ant-Man, the Wasp, and other family members are transported into the Quantum Realm, a sub-atomic universe outside of time and space, after their daughter Cassie develops a portal into the alternate world. Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Kathryn Newton, Michael Douglas and Michelle Pfeiffer star in this latest installment in Marvel’s Ant-Man and the Wasp comic book action/adventure fantasy saga.
Ant-Man fans looking for the winsome anti-hero charm of the prior two films – 2015’s Ant-Man and 2018’s Ant-Man and the Wasp – will find it in disappointingly short supply in this bloated, silly, CGI-fest that appears more interested in marketing toys based on cutesy Star Wars cantina characters than in telling a coherent story. While the visuals themselves are nice, the dull, dumbed-down story feels way more Looney Tunes than Marvel.
And despite the title, Rudd and Lilly curiously are given comparatively little to do for much of this film. Instead, it focuses on daughter Cassie and Pfeiffer’s Janet, and what transpired during the 30 Earth years that Janet was stranded in the Quantum Realm with the villainous Kang the Conquerer, played by Jonathan Majors (Devotion). Director Peyton Reed’s inclusion of Bill Murray as Lord Krylar and Corey Stoll returning as a weirdly cartoonish version of Kang’s sidekick M.O.D.O.K., further highlights the clumsy tone of this lackluster Marvel misstep.
REEL FACTS
• This is the first Ant-Man movie not co-written by its titular star, Paul Rudd.
• Emma Fuhrmann, who played the now-teenage Cassie in 2019’s Avengers: Endgame, says she found out her character was recast with the more established Kathryn Newton (Freaky, Blockers) when Disney released details of the film at Investor Day in December 2020. Abby Ryder Fortson (Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret.) played Cassie in the first two Ant-Man films.
• Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania suffered the largest second weekend drop (69%) of any film in the 32-film Marvel Cinematic Universe, its $476 million in global revenues falling way short of its reported break-even point of $600 million.
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