---
title: "‘Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania’ sidles up to — but doesn’t quite reach — greatness"
description: "Launching phase 5 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the 31st entry in an ever-expanding franchise, the third ‘Ant-Man’ is a movie that, save for being the launchpad for what comes next, feels wholly unnecessary."
type: "NewsArticle"
publisher: "Daily Maverick"
site: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za"
section: "WHAT WE’RE WATCHING"
author: "Tracy Benson"
author_url: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/author/tracy-benson-2/"
canonical_url: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2023-02-23-ant-man-and-the-wasp-quantumania-doesnt-quite-reach-greatness/"
published: "2023-02-23T20:00:36"
updated: "2023-02-23T09:01:39"
lang: "en-ZA"
word_count: 882
---

# ‘Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania’ sidles up to — but doesn’t quite reach — greatness

> Launching phase 5 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the 31st entry in an ever-expanding franchise, the third ‘Ant-Man’ is a movie that, save for being the launchpad for what comes next, feels wholly unnecessary.

By Tracy Benson · Published 23 February 2023, 22:00 SAST · Updated 23 February 2023, 11:01 SAST

## Key points
- Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania is the third outing for Marvel's pint-sized superhero, with Paul Rudd and Evangeline Lilly reprising their roles. Post-Endgame, Scott Lang is living his celebrity life while daughter Cassie tinkers with leftover Pym technology. When her experiments go awry, the group are pulled into the Quantum Realm. The film serves as a bridge between bigger entries in the MCU, introducing villain Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors). Visually impressive but lacking a sense of scale, Quantumania offers some enjoyable moments but doesn't quite reach greatness. There's enough to enjoy but not enough to justify the experience.
- Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania serves as a bridge between bigger MCU entries and introduces the “Big Bad”, Kang the Conqueror.
- Post-Endgame, Scott Lang is living his best life in San Francisco and his daughter Cassie tinkers with leftover technology and Pym particles.
- Visually, the Quantum Realm has a lot going on but it disassociates the actors from their surroundings.
- Jonathan Majors' performance as Kang is excellent and Michelle Pfeiffer's Janet van Dyne backstory is fleshed out, but overall the film falls short of greatness.

## Content

The *Ant-Man* films have always occupied an odd space in the greater Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). They have twice served as a palate-cleanser after the big Avengers team-up films, with 2015’s [*Ant-Man*](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWdKf3MneyI)following [*Age of Ultron*](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmeOjFno6Do), and 2018’s [*Ant-Man and The Wasp*](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUkn-enk2RU) set directly after [*Avengers: Infinity War*](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZfuNTqbHE8).

Although that isn’t quite the same case here – we’ve had seven [films](https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2022-07-11-thor-love-and-thunder-a-stylised-popcorn-munching-adventure/) since [*Avengers: Endgame*](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcMBFSGVi1c) – *Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania*, the third Ant-Man outing, falls into a similar (ant)trap, and only serves as a bridge between bigger entries.

[YouTube video: "YouTube video"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlNFpri-Y40)

Post-*Endgame*, Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) is living his best life in San Francisco. Recognised as an Avenger and hailed as a hero, he’s touring with his tell-all book and generally loving being a celebrity.

Meanwhile, his teenage daughter Cassie (Kathryn Newton) thinks the world still needs saving and has been tinkering with leftover technology and Pym particles. When her clandestine experimentation goes awry, it results in Scott, Cassie, Hope (Evangeline Lily), Janet (Michelle Pfeiffer) and Hank (Michael Douglas) being sucked back to the place none of them wanted to be – the Quantum Realm.

That’s a bare-bones outline of the first 15 minutes of the film, but from there you can guess exactly what’s going to happen, if not precisely how. Unfortunately, *Quantumania* exists solely as the launchpad for the next phase of the MCU and to properly introduce the overarching “Big Bad”, Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors). But more on him in a bit.

The Quantum Realm itself is a psychedelic, green-screened landscape reminiscent of pulp sci-fi book covers, filled with fantastical CGI beings such as walking spaceships, balls of lightning, humanoid broccoli, sentient ooze and Bill Murray.

Visually, it’s got a lot going on, which only serves to make the action feel less grounded. Considering we’re dealing with a size-changing superhero, something vital is lost when we don’t have a sense of scale or point of reference.

Likewise, having the whole film set in the Quantum Realm only serves to disassociate the actors from their surroundings, with the strained efforts at both humour and gravitas hamstrung by a phony backdrop.

![(L-R): Kathryn Newton as Cassandra "Cassie" Lang and Paul Rudd as Scott Lang/Ant-Man in Marvel Studios' ‘Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania’. Photo by Jay Maidment. © 2022 MARVEL.](https://cdn.dailymaverick.co.za/i/7pZEpZ_6Ggnm-mIewPQyi3xQxKY=/200x100/smart/filters:strip_exif\(\)/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/DBY-08940_R.jpg)

*(L-R): Kathryn Newton as Cassandra "Cassie" Lang and Paul Rudd as Scott Lang/Ant-Man in Marvel Studios' ‘Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania’. Photo by Jay Maidment. © 2022 MARVEL.*

![MIchelle Pfieffer as Janet van Dyne in Marvel Studios' ‘Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania’. Photo by Jay Maidment. © 2022 MARVEL.](https://cdn.dailymaverick.co.za/i/4eDUZnBW04Dna_DQel-0xQHbZgs=/200x100/smart/filters:strip_exif\(\)/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/DBY-07883_RC.jpg)

*MIchelle Pfieffer as Janet van Dyne in Marvel Studios' ‘Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania’. Photo by Jay Maidment. © 2022 MARVEL.*

The only character that doesn’t feel out of place is Kang – the sole reason for *Quantumania* to exist. So at least it’s a good reason. Majors is an excellent villain and sets up just how menacing and dangerous Marvel’s new onscreen foe will be.

He plays Kang with a quiet, barely constrained rage, delivering the silly, comic book dialogue with an austerity worthy of Shakespeare.

And it works.

With a minor inflection change and twitch of his fingers, Kang demonstrates without a doubt that he is a formidable enemy. It’s a very different version of Kang that fans might have encountered in the Disney+ [*Loki*](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nW948Va-l10) series; *Quantumania*’s Kang is very much the danger that He Who Remains warned about.

That’s not to say that Majors’ performance is the only good thing about *Quantumania*. If you were wanting more of Janet van Dyne, either as a fan of Michelle Pfeiffer or just wishing you knew more about the 30 years the character spent trapped in the Quantum Realm, *Quantumania* delivers.

Janet’s backstory is fleshed out a great deal, and Pfeiffer takes her role seriously, likewise delivering a convincingly traumatised portrayal of someone forced to return to a nightmarish place they lost so much time to.

![Paul Rudd as Scott Lang/Ant-Man and Jonathan Majors as Kang the Conqueror in Marvel Studios' ‘Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania’. Photo by Jay Maidment. © 2022 MARVEL.](https://cdn.dailymaverick.co.za/i/07uiciaIGKUNNimyCGRn9MElGVg=/200x100/smart/filters:strip_exif\(\)/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/DBY-05005_R2.jpg)

*Paul Rudd as Scott Lang/Ant-Man and Jonathan Majors as Kang the Conqueror in Marvel Studios' ‘Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania’. Photo by Jay Maidment. © 2022 MARVEL.*

![Katy O'Brian as Jentorra in Marvel Studios' ‘Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania’. Photo by Jay Maidment. © 2022 MARVEL.](https://cdn.dailymaverick.co.za/i/P2iUaZL2c-_RZzzJazsSVEoaAgQ=/200x100/smart/filters:strip_exif\(\)/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/DBY-09499_R.jpg)

*Katy O'Brian as Jentorra in Marvel Studios' ‘Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania’. Photo by Jay Maidment. © 2022 MARVEL.*

![(L-R): Michael Douglas/Hank Pym, Michelle Pfeiffer as Janet Van Dyne, and Evangeline Lilly as Hope Van Dyne/Wasp in Marvel Studios' ‘Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania’. Photo by Jay Maidment. © 2022 MARVEL.](https://cdn.dailymaverick.co.za/i/TB0GgDid-PQIP-jP0KclPx9gmvU=/200x100/smart/filters:strip_exif\(\)/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/DBY-01352_R.jpg)

*(L-R): Michael Douglas/Hank Pym, Michelle Pfeiffer as Janet Van Dyne, and Evangeline Lilly as Hope Van Dyne/Wasp in Marvel Studios' ‘Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania’. Photo by Jay Maidment. © 2022 MARVEL.*

![Evangeline Lilly as Hope van Dyne/Wasp in Marvel Studios' ‘Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania’. Photo by Jay Maidment. © 2022 MARVEL.](https://cdn.dailymaverick.co.za/i/V_b3H05GnszcYr4CaIfhgmIqlVI=/200x100/smart/filters:strip_exif\(\)/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/DBY-10054_R.jpg)

*Evangeline Lilly as Hope van Dyne/Wasp in Marvel Studios' ‘Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania’. Photo by Jay Maidment. © 2022 MARVEL.*

There are other flashes of enjoyment: some admittedly funny dialogue (though the lack of Michael Peña is keenly felt), a few fist-pumping action beats (among the chaotic CGI), and a surprisingly interesting and well-rounded character in Cassie (though she’s essentially invulnerable).

Offbeat floating head villain M.O.D.O.K. is also a brief stand-out, even though he gets very little screen time.

And that, in short, sums up what is so disappointing about this film. With a few exceptions, everything comes with a caveat.

Over its two-hour run time, *Quantumania* sidles up next to greatness, but never quite reaches it. Even the overarching theme of missing time with loved ones and making up for absence is overshadowed by Kang, and quickly wrapped up with little to no fuss.

There’s enough to enjoy, but not quite enough to justify the whole experience. **DM/ML**

*This story was first published by*[*Pfangirl.com*](https://www.pfangirl.com/entertainment/ant-man-and-the-wasp-quantumania-spoiler-free-review/)*.*

![‘Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania’. © 2023 MARVEL.](https://cdn.dailymaverick.co.za/i/Hhke41_psTFJ2DS5xJxWjE1sBsw=/200x100/smart/filters:strip_exif\(\)/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/AMATWQ_FAMILY_Payoff2_1-Sht_v4_lg.jpg)

*‘Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania’. © 2023 MARVEL.*

Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania *is at cinemas from 17 February and on Disney+ from 5 April.*