On February 16, 2023, the superhero film “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantum Mania” was released in Ukraine, which officially began the fifth phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and introduced the audience to the main super-villain of the “Multiverse Saga”, Kang the Conqueror. What came out of it, read in the review.

shares impressions about the movie “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania”.

Beware there are spoilers ahead!

A little background

In July 2019, the film “Spider-Man: Far From Home” officially ended the third phase of the “Infinity Saga” of the Marvel film series, which lasted 11 years and became a real pop culture phenomenon. During this period, Marvel Studios, led by Kevin Feige, managed to unite such popular comic characters as Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, Black Widow, Hulk and Hawkeye in the Avengers team, which together with other superheroes defended the universe.

During this time, in addition to these six, characters from the comic series “Guardians of the Galaxy”, “Doctor Strange”, “Black Panther”, “Spider-Man” and, in fact, “Man – ant”. And, it is worth noting, all of this came together quite organically into a single picture. But so that watching them was understandable and interesting for both those who did not read comics and their devoted fans.

However, after the end of the “Infinity Saga”, most of the key characters left the franchise, giving way to new young characters, while some of the “old-timers” became a kind of bridge to the new heroes who were supposed to “ignite” the next “Multiverse Saga”.

The fourth phase of the Marvel movie series had a radical turn – now on the Disney+ platform they also began to release series related to movies for rental in cinemas. That is, now, in order to be aware of events in the movie theaters, Marvel fans will have to watch TV series as well. It would seem that this is good news. Unfortunately, however, so far many fans of the cinematic universe that was formed in the first three phases are not too happy with where the franchise is headed. For example, there are still no such bright characters as before, the scripts sag, and even at the behest of Disney, which now owns Marvel Studios, the plots are becoming too childish, and the principle of diversity, which is popular today in Hollywood, is often pushed “anyway, the main thing is to”. Therefore, fans are now cautious about every new product from Marvel.

What is the movie about?

The superhero movie Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantum of Solace has officially kicked off the fifth phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. And despite the fact that this is a film about the next adventures of Scott Lang and his loved ones, in fact, the main goal of the film is different – to get the audience more familiar with the main supervillain of the Multiverse Saga, Kang the Conqueror.

The events of the film take place shortly after the end of the film “Avengers: Endgame”, in which the heroes defeated Thanos. Scott Lang is now a hero (he even wrote a book about it) and life seems to be getting better. He holds family gatherings with his loved ones who have returned after the 5-year “jump” – his beloved Hope Van Dyne and her parents Hanko Pym and Janet Van Dyne, who has just returned from the quantum dimension. And, of course, his daughter Cassie, who, unlike them, did not disappear anywhere, so she had already grown up and became seriously interested in science.

Actually, it is a passion for science and played a wicked joke with the heroes. As it turned out, Janet hid from the others the fact that in fact the quantum dimension is quite dangerous and is inhabited by various creatures. At the same time, Cassie and Hank have developed a device that broadcasts a signal between our world and the quantum dimension. And when they decided to demonstrate it to others, as a result, all five were dragged into the quantum dimension, where the captured Kang the Conqueror, who dreamed of breaking free, was already waiting for them. For this he needs the abilities of Ant-Man. Kang tries to sway Lang to his side with an offer to spend time with his daughter, which he once lost – and he will not accept refusal.

Actually, a large part of the film takes place in the quantum dimension, suspiciously similar to the scenery of “Star Wars” (they are also filmed by Disney), and our heroes (Cassie has already secretly received a suit from her father) together with the colorful inhabitants of quantum space are trying to prevent Kang from carrying it out.

Characters and actors

In the new film, Paul Rudd (Scott Lang / Ant-Man), Evangeline Lilly (Hope Van Dyne / The Wasp), Michael Douglas (Hank Pym) and Michelle Pfeiffer (Janet Van Dyne) returned to their roles. The role of Lang’s daughter Cassie was played by Katherine Newton (“Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”, “Chimeras”, “Detective Pikachu”), for whom this is the debut in the Marvel film series.

The role of Kang the Conqueror is performed by the American actor Jonathan Majors (“Land of Lovecraft”, “Five of the same blood”, “Creed III”). The character was first introduced in Loki 2021 as “The One Who Remains” – a scientist from the 31st century who created Temporal Change Control to prevent a Multiverse War between variations of himself. Actually, in order to be well prepared for watching “Ant-Man 3”, you should not watch the previous two parts of the series as well as the series “Loki” (at least the last series).

In general, Kang’s character looks promising, although it is in the movie “Ant-Man 3” that he is shown relatively primitively. But this is probably the plan, because the character is introduced gradually, and all this needs to be stretched out for several more years. At the same time, Majors manages to present each variation of Kang in a different way – the character from “Loka” is significantly different from the Conqueror. It is possible that more different Kangs await the audience in the following films and series.

Also in small roles in the film were Bill Murray, who portrayed Janet’s devious old acquaintance from the quantum dimension Krilar, and martial artist Cathy M. O’Brien, who played the local freedom fighter Gentorri. The star of the series “In a good place” William Jackson Harper played the role of one of her associates.

In addition, Randall Park returned to the cameo role of detective Jimmy Wu from the previous installments, and Corey Stoll, who played the role of antagonist Darren Cross (Yellow Sting) in the first film, now transformed into the character of M.O.D.O.K. (Mobile Agency for the Organization of Disasters).

At the same time, and this may disappoint some fans of the Ant-Man series, in the new part there was no place for the main comedic characters from the previous films – the trio of Lang’s “partners” in business: Luis (Michael Peña), Dave (TI Harris) and Kurt (David Dastmalchan). Although the latter still voiced one of the characters in the third part – a pink creature from the quantum dimension of the Internet (the one who constantly joked about holes).

Scenes after the credits

Traditionally for most Marvel movies, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantum of Solace has two scenes after the credits. At the same time, like the film itself, they are both dedicated to Kang.

In particular, in the first scene, the audience is shown a meeting of a huge number of Kangu variations, which have come together to decide what to do with the Conqueror. One of them is a scroll, which is likely a reference to the Secret Invasion series, which will be released in the spring of 2023.

In the second scene, meanwhile, there is a reference to “Loki” Season 2, where the characters Loki (Tom Hiddleston) and Mobius M. Mobius (Owen Wilson) travel through time to find one of Kang’s variations. We remind you that the new season of the series will be released in the summer of 2023.

Reaction to the film

“Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantum Mania” was released simultaneously with the rest of the world in the Ukrainian box office, and so far it has mixed reviews. Yes, it currently has a 6.6 out of 10 rating on IMDb based on 12,000 reviews.

Meanwhile, critics have given the film a 49% on Rotten Tomatoes, currently one of the worst scores for a Marvel film. On the other hand, the same critics from “Tomatoes” rated “Wakanda Forever” at 84% freshness… Therefore, it is not always worth following their ratings. Meanwhile, the general audience appreciated the film much better. Yes, on the same Rotten Tomatoes, the audience gave the film 84% freshness.

Meanwhile, on Metacritic, film critics gave the film a score of 49 (mixed to average reviews) and audiences only a 4.7 score (mixed to average reviews). Moreover, ratings are constantly “jumping”, as if haters and fans staged a real battle.

Our verdict

If you evaluate the film “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantum Mania” purely as an entertaining spectacle without pretensions to anything more, then in general it rather deserves a positive assessment. There is a fairly simple but logical plot, charismatic characters, Paul Rudd still surprises with his rather young appearance, good special effects – and all this is invested in an acceptable time frame. True, the humor has decreased, and what remains is quite flat.

If we attempt a more in-depth analysis, the film is quite primitive and secondary. Probably, that is why the critics were so harsh towards him. Although, let’s be honest, the previous parts were not particularly difficult.

As for the representation of Kang’s character – so far, this film has become a kind of warm-up for him, and accordingly, it is revealed gradually. The film is definitely a must-see for dedicated Marvel fans who want to continue to follow the development of the cinematic universe, because, in fact, for the first time, it fully introduces them to the new big villain and drops a few hints about his further development.

On the other hand, unlike some of the previous projects of Marvel’s fourth phase, watching “Ant-Man 3” is by no means torture and spending time on it is generally not a pity. Such a simple, entertaining popcorn movie that’s best watched in IMAX.

Overall assessment – 7 out of 10 points.

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Read about other movie news of the week in our separate review. You can also familiarize yourself with a selection of the most interesting TV series of February 2023.

Marina Grigorenko