The Ant-Man films have always applied the theme of keeping things small. After all, his main superpower is that he can shrink his body down to the size of an ant (or go very large in case he needs to switch it up). Up until now, Ant-Man’s stories have stayed in their own little corner of the Marvel Cinematic Universe that serve as fun palate cleansers between the bigger entries, without needing to watch everything that came before just to get up to speed with the convoluted continuity. In a post-Endgame world, that doesn’t seem to be the case anymore. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is the first entry in the MCU’s “Phase 5,” a new era of Marvel films but without the characters we’ve come to actually love.

There’s a brief opening summarizing the present situation of our titular hero Scott Lang (Paul Rudd), who has written a book about his experiences as an Avenger and saving half the universe’s population from extinction. But the vast majority of the film, as the title suggests, takes place in the Quantum Realm, the deadly subatomic world underneath our own that’s been repeatedly teased in the previous Ant-Man movies. So it’s about time we actually visited the world. The main cast of Quantumania – Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Michael Douglas, Michelle Pfeiffer, and the new addition Kathryn Newton as Lang’s daughter – get sucked down and stranded in this universe, and the rest of the film involves them finding a way to return home while fighting against the Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors).

In the previous film, Janet Van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer) was saved from being trapped for 30 years in the Quantum Realm. And yet, in contrived fashion, she never told her family about what really happened while she was there. There’s a whole civilization in the Quantum Realm, filled with several tribes and alien-looking creatures that look similar to the microorganisms you see under a microscope. Kang apparently has a personal vendetta against Janet, who destroyed his only way out and left him to die in that universe.

Being the first entry in a new phase, Quantumania is stuck with the task of setting up Kang as next big villain that will terrorize the MCU like Thanos. Sadly, the film only does it in a passable manner. We’re repeatedly told that Kang (whose name the characters are even afraid to mention) is a genocidal, omnipotent being, a conqueror of worlds traveling through the multiverse and time itself. For most of the film that is true. Our heroes are powerless against him; he can levitate people and shoot lasers out of his hands, that is until the final act where he just ends up in a fist fight for some reason. Jonathan Majors is an incredible actor who does his best with what he’s given, exuding intensity with so little effort. But even he is not strong enough to fight a shoddy script that doesn’t have the nerve to actually make a terrifying villain. We’re supposed to believe this guy is the next Thanos?

With the film busy introducing Kang, the rest of the cast falls on the wayside. Evangeline Lilly’s Hope/the Wasp is just there with nothing memorable to do despite being a main character with her name on the title. Michael Douglas looks so done with all of this (probably because he has to keep saying lines like “I like ants”). Michelle Pfeiffer, at least, gets a bigger role in this as main expositional and narrative pusher. But maybe they’re not solely to blame. Marvel’s reliance on the Volume screen for CGI backdrops has increased significantly, and with the majority of the movie taking place in the Quantum Realm, there’s a high chance that these actors weren’t exactly sure at what they’re looking at or interacting with at the time of filming. Not to mention the Quantum Realm looking like a giant psychedelic screen saver.

For what it’s worth, I found Quantumania to be nothing more than okay, which is pretty much the standard MCU fare. But it’s quite clear that Marvel has stopped trying with their films and stuck to a certain franchise formula, for better or for worse. At this point these movies just blur into each other, devoid of any distinct artistic style or character arcs that actually matter, and they all end up looking and feeling the same. Instead, each entry suffers from perpetually building up to what’s next, and becoming an advertisement for itself. None of the light comedy and charm from the previous Ant-Man films are present here (Michael Peña’s funny recaps are sorely missed). Regardless, I’m sure this will make money. They all do, anyway. But with hollow stakes and minimal consequences, I’m afraid the MCU has become unabashedly complacent.

Rating:

Rating: 2.5 out of 5.