Review : 'Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania'

In this latest Marvel film, Paul Rudd and Evangeline Lilly reprise their roles as the eponymous protagonists, with Jonathan Majors playing a very terrifying villain. Ant-Man and the Wasp may be able to shrink to insignificant proportions, but Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is enormous.

Release date: Friday, Feb. 17
Cast: Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Michael Douglas, Michelle Pfeiffer, Jonathan Majors, Kathryn Newton, Bill Murray, Katy O’Brian, William Jackson Harper, James Cutler, David Dastmalchian
Director: Peyton Reed
Screenwriter: Jeff Loveness
Rated PG-13, 2 hours 5 minutes

This third film based on the characters (and the 31st in the Marvel Cinematic Universe series, for those keeping track) is a significant departure from its two predecessors. While the previous entries were generally more humorous and smaller-scaled in comparison to the giant films starring the other superheroes, this installment definitely aims higher, taking place nearly entirely in the Quantum Realm and rivalling the Star Wars films in their exotic world-building. Imagine the cantina scene from Star Wars on steroids and stretched out to feature length, and you'll get a sense of what director Peyton Reed and screenwriter Jeff Loveness are aiming for.

Fans' opinions will vary; myself, I appreciated the previous hilariously inclined Ant-Man films as palate cleansers following the overwrought histrionics of the Avengers films. Of course, the fact that the title character is performed by Paul Rudd, an actor who is so lovable and naturally humorous (not to mention seemingly ageless) that watching him play a superhero seems like sharing a joke with an old buddy, helped.

Although there are occasional laughs in this film, many of them revolve around the visually entertaining, homicidal organism MODOK (more on that later), humour is largely in limited supply. which is certainly suitable for a picture starring one of Marvel's scariest-ever villains in the form of Kang the Conqueror (a truly scary Jonathan Majors, quickly establishing a career annuity) and a potential cataclysm involving... to be honest, I'm not sure what. I only know it's really, really horrible, and that between the Multiverse and the Quantum Realm, it's nearly impossible to figure out what the hell is going on in Marvel movies these days.

The film begins with a smug Scott Lang (Rudd) enjoying the fruits of his popularity, such as delivering readings of his biography Look Out for the Little Guy! and accepting free treats from his neighbourhood coffee shop, even though the proprietor misidentifies him as Spider-Man. His relationships with Hope Van Dyne/The Wasp (Evangeline Lilly) and his now-teenage daughter Cassie (a fantastic Kathryn Newton) are going well. Hope's father, Hank (Michael Douglas), appears to have blissfully retired, though he remains preoccupied with ants, and her mother, Janet (Michelle Pfeiffer), appears to be enjoying her freedom from her decades-long captivity in the Quantum Realm.

The extended family's happiness is quickly disrupted when they are all mistakenly dragged into the quantum realm as a result of Cassie's unwise scientific experimenting, which is clearly following in her father's footsteps. Janet is reunited with some old pals, notably the smarmy but frightening Lord Krylar (Bill Murray, doing the Bill Murray thing), with whom she supposedly had a fling, much to Hank's chagrin. Janet also has a history with Kang, whom she earlier blocked from fleeing the realm and who now desperately wants to leave. Because how else is he going to face off against the Avengers?

For better or worse, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantum Leap is the series' most openly sci-fi feature, and it works well on that level. To give credit for the onscreen depiction of the Quantum Realm would entail rewriting dozens of pages of credits, but suffice it to say that the visual design of the multi-faceted locales, inventive clothing, and outlandish creatures on show is genuinely amazing on every level. A mind-blowing climactic battle featuring a "probability storm" (don't ask) that results in a swarm of Ant-Mans who first don't get along but finally learn to collaborate for their survival is the kind of scenario that doesn't even require consciousness-altering chemicals to appreciate.

The picture also succeeds on an emotional level, especially with the love bond between Scott, who is anxious to be a decent father, and his feisty teenage daughter, who more than proves herself when it comes to donning a size-altering suit and mixing it up with the bad guys.

It's frustrating to see the main characters split up for long stretches of the film, but Lilly's Wasp has plenty of moments to shine, and Douglas appears to be thoroughly enjoying playing bemused, as when Hank accurately observes about one particularly odd Quantum Realm creature, "Holy shit, that guy looks like broccoli!" (It's not quite Gordan Gekko's "Greed, for lack of a better word, is excellent," but it's amusing.) And Pfeiffer is fantastic in her extended part, relishing the chance to be a fierce heroine and making the most of it.

But it's Majors who gives the proceedings true seriousness. While the actor's imposing stature is unsurprising given his legendary wicked persona, he also invests his portrayal with such arrestingly calm stillness and ambivalence that you're on edge every time he's onscreen.

Nonetheless, he isn't the villain who steals the show. That would be MODOK, Kang's "Mechanized Organism Designed Only for Killing," who looks like a gigantic head in a tiny body and is played by an uncredited former Ant-Man actor. The other characters' reactions to the strange creature are funny, as is the slogan inspired by him, which eventually serves as the film's unofficial motto: "It's never too late to quit being a jerk," which is as profound as it gets for Marvel.