Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, the third installment in the Ant-Man and The Wasp franchise was finally out on Feb. 17, and fans are excited. Taking place after Avengers: Endgame, Scott Lang (Paul Rudd), his daughter Cassie Lang (Kathyrn Newton), his significant other who takes on the role of The Wasp, Hope Pym, (Evangeline Lily) and the original Ant-Man and The Wasp, Hank Pym (Michael Douglas), and Janet Van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer) get trapped in the Quantum Realm and have to learn to survive while battling fearsome villain Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors). The Quantum Realm is a place that doesn’t conform to the boundaries of space and time. As shown in Endgame, five hours for Scott in the Quantum Realm was five years for everyone outside of it. Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania is one of the first places where Kang is seen outside Marvel Comics, and his arrival will jumpstart the MCU’s fourth phase, the Kang Dynasty. 

After watching the movie, I enjoyed it overall. I have seen better though. I definitely preferred the first two Ant-Mans, and Quantumania is my least favorite out of the three, but the charming personalities of Scott and Hope, and the iconic acting of Douglas and Pfeiffer still make it a movie worth watching. Although it wasn’t the best Marvel movie ever made, it was a great way to kick off the Kang Dynasty. 

Throughout Quantumania, bits and pieces of Kang’s backstory are revealed. Kang is the main villain in Quantumania, and Jonathan Majors was perfect for the role. He made the menacing character of  Kang come alive on screen, and it was the way that he looked like a normal person that made his character so much better. Unlike other MCU villains such as Thanos, Kang looked perfectly human. Jonathan Majors did a great job in the way that you could tell Kang had no remorse for anything he’s done, and everyone else had wronged him. In the first scene, viewers see him entering the Quantum Realm and meeting (and manipulating) Janet, but you don’t learn much more until later in the movie. Even then, not all is revealed about Kang, making this movie an excellent teaser for what’s to come. 

Quantumania was a visually stunning movie. Since it was set in the Quantum Realm, most of the film was CGI, but the characters seemed just as natural as the non-CGI characters. It didn’t feature horrible effects where everything was fake. The backgrounds did a great job of showing how different the Quantum Realm is from the regular world, such as the buildings being able to move or how the food and drinks looked. 

It was a beautiful movie, but I felt like a lot of it was lazily written. So much of the movie’s conflict could have been avoided if Cassie and Hope had just listened to Janet (the woman who spent 30 years in the Quantum Realm) and didn’t mess with stuff they weren’t supposed to mess with. I understand that Marvel needed a way to bring Kang in, but I think they could’ve done that without Cassie trying to act more mature than she was. She didn’t listen to Janet when told not to mess with the Quantum realm, which made it clear that she thought she knew more than Janet did.

Cassie tried to make it seem like her dad knew nothing and that he was a bad person for wanting to settle down and start a life where he could spend more time with his family. Scott is a very family-oriented person, and that’s shown throughout all three movies. It shouldn’t have been a surprise to his family that Scott didn’t want to run around saving the world constantly and would rather lead a calmer and safer life. It was clear that Cassie didn’t understand that, and her immaturity was shown in one of the first scenes of the movie when she used Pym particles on a cop car when she was arrested. 

Despite my opinion of Cassie, I did like how the movie showed Scott being so family oriented as his greatest weakness and strength. No matter what, his first priority was always Cassie and her safety. As sweet as that was, it was also Scott’s reason for helping Kang. Kang used Cassie as blackmail, and there were times early in the movie when Kang would threaten to hurt Cassie to make Scott do what he wanted. Scott wanted to make up for the time that was lost due to Thanos, and he was willing to go to any extent to get that time back. 

The character of MODOK also felt incredibly lazy. I understand that he was supposed to be comedic relief, but I think they could’ve made his character anyone else, rather than bring back Darren Cross from the previous two movies. Instead of bringing back a character that many have forgotten, they should’ve brought back Luis. He was such a beloved character from the first two movies, but he made no appearances in Quantumania despite being one of Scott’s best friends. Like many viewers, I was disappointed when he didn’t show up. I know it would not make sense for Luis to go into the Quantum Realm, but the writers came up with a way for Jimmy Woo to be in the movie, so they could have done the same for Luis.

Overall, Quantumania was beautiful, but the plot was lacking. It felt like it was only used to kick off the Kang Dynasty and not to add any depth to any character in Ant-Man. We’re supposed to be seeing more of Kang in Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, coming out in 2025. It’s not a movie I regret seeing, and I do recommend seeing it if you’re a fan of Ant-Man, or of visual effects, but don’t expect too much from the story.