The Marvel Cinematic Universe continues to push the envelope and evolve with every new movie or project that they present. Since Avengers: Endgame served as a finale to the first ten years of the MCU, they have taken more chances with new characters and new stories to keep audiences engaged. After a lot of compelling projects that dealt with heavy emotions (Wakanda Forever & Shang Chi), becoming a father and finding purpose (Thor: Love & Thunder), and crazy multi versal situations (SpiderMan: No Way Home, Dr. Strange: Multiverse of Madness), it was time for the smallest but also the biggest underdog in the MCU to have his moment to shine.
In Antman & The Wasp: Quantumania Scott Lang and his family of heroes are placed in their most complex situation yet, stuck in the Quantum Realm with a formidable foe waiting to make a deal. Unlike some of the previous installments of Antman, a majority of this story takes place in one big location for much of the movie. It tries to present a lot of ideas that work but also there were some ideas that could have been executed better. Presenting popular sci-fi elements into a film can be tricky, but too much of something is always tricky to pull off. The humor that this specific franchise is known for is again spearheaded by Paul Rudd and his way of interacting with other characters, especially the people from the Quantum Realm. The direction from Peyton Reed this time around is his most ambitious yet and it shows all throughout the film, from the personal moments with Scott interacting with Cassie (played this time by Kathryn Newton) and Hope to the epic action sequences with Kang and the rest of the craziness in the Quantum Realm, it all blends together in a weird but fun way.
By far though the biggest takeaway from this movie is Jonathan Majors (The busiest actor in Hollywood right now) and his full debut as Kang the Conqueror. The performance by Majors is so complex, flawed, and layered which makes every decision he makes more interesting. He isn’t one-dimensional and every choice he makes is never wasted or done out of emotion, which is exactly the way that Kang is portrayed in the comics. The possibilities for what Majors can do in the future with Kang are literally endless, and you can see why Jonathan Majors was cast in this role. It was also nice to see Scott battle a big bad right out of the gate which solidified his importance in the universe. Overall, the movie was a fun time that wasn’t necessarily perfect and tried to introduce a lot of concepts, but for me, it falls in the lower half when you rank it with the other MCU films.