Back in 2022 when the MCU officially released its new slate setting up Phase 5's direction, one of the titles that gradually became surprisingly prioritized interest for me was Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. Despite enjoying the first two movies (with the original being much more entertaining than I ever would've imagined), I still admittedly never quite gave this character's solo outings the attention that they rightfully deserved for standing out as fun, comedic palate cleansers for the larger franchise. Now this wasn't so much an "Ant-Man problem" or anything of the sort but a simple case of one movie being a part of a franchise that has far more compelling and excitement worthy projects surrounding it. However, that entire sentiment changed rather drastically during the official announcement of Quantumania's big villain.
Ever since the first Avengers movie was released, one of the most fun speculations to have which spawned countless of conversations amongst fans was who or what would be the next big threat to bring the superhero team back together. Now obviously Thanos was the big name and face that was being teased through the post credits scene, but it didn't stop people like myself from combing through Marvel comics to find other likely candidates that would be prime for a potential future Avengers sequel. One of the biggest names that frequently showed up on several online lists was none other than Kang the Conqueror, and considering how deeply intrigued I was with his particularly complex history, Quantumania as a result became a long time coming anticipated watch for me.
What's especially interesting and unique about this movie is the fact that, unlike previous MCU titles, the foundation for this story's villain can be traced back to not only previous movies but shows as well. It's also the first time that a solo character movie fully introduced and establish who would become the main antagonist lurking behind an entire Phase and future Avengers titles. Whereas Thanos made a couple of occasional short cameos just to tease the audience, Kang's first appearance here acts as a major set up for who he is and the game changing threat that he's connected to that future movies will tackle. To have all of this build up and scope be placed primarily on an Ant-Man sequel is rather bold, but considering the story being explored here, it kinda pays off...for the most part. So, without further ado, here are my thoughts on Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.
An Imaginative Visual Direction
Although we don’t get to spend a whole lot of time getting into the intricate details of the Quantum Realm’s individual inhabitants and settings, just the imagery surrounding everything is notably rich with versatility. There are several scenes taking place within this newly explored corner of the universe that imbued within me that same special feeling that I had when watching certain sci-fi or fantasy movies for the first time. That strong desire to pause the screen and just soak in all of the artistic elements shown behind the unique creature work and costumes being presented. So if I were to exclusively hone in on that specific component alone, I’d easily say that Quantumania is my favorite MCU project to date with the first Guardians of the Galaxy being a close 2nd.
An Epic Tale of Grand Adventure & Dramatic Stakes
Dimensional traveling, cosmic creatures, probability manifestations, a time dilated ant farm becoming a highly advanced weaponized army, multiversal threats, and a rebellion against a powerful conquerer from another universe are all components that can be found in the narrative of a single Ant-Man sequel. Just thinking about that fact blows my mind considering where we started with this character series being just a quirky superhero heist comedy. Quantumania is one of the prime examples of just how much the MCU has expanded over the course of its duration exploring new conceptual territories and taking character journeys into unexpected places both directionally and even tonally.
What this movie does is take the shared multimedia franchise's most arguably comedic and somewhat relatable grounded hero and tosses him in the sights of one of its most massive fantastical threats to date. Kang is by every definition a "big Avengers level threat" which is why I find it so fascinating that the powers at be behind Marvel would use such a lovably dopey character like Scott Lang to be the first hero to face him in cinematic continuity. But once you dive into the deeper themes revolving around the desire for reclaiming time with personal agendas and familial bonding in mind, you start to realize why Ant-Man was the ideal character to tell this particular story with. It also helps that Kang's need for Scott involves a heist which of course nicely ties into the character's roots.
What Quantumania focuses on at its core is various characters with different backgrounds being affected by the limitations of time and handling their issues with this reality very differently. Scott is a father that missed years of his own daughter's upbringing due to being absent in the Quantum Realm and is struggling to be the type of supportive parental figure that he feels she needs while also being a superhero mentor figure. Janet is a parent that has also missed years of her own child's upbringing for the same reason only her life away involved cataclysmic secrets that has resulted in a questionably distant relationship with Hope. And thematically similar comes Kang who is revealed to have been exiled by his variants now desiring to reclaim the time that he's lost being trapped in the Quantum Realm to wreak vengeance upon them.
So you have these central figures who were all consequentially trapped in the same dimension at different points losing something that they held dearly trying to reclaim that treasure of theirs by any means necessary. This is the interesting and emotionally centered tale that lies within all of the fun, crazy cosmic elements circling around this science-fiction adventure blockbuster that I appreciated. Despite how easily they could've opted for this route this late in the franchise's success and with Disney's financial backing, Quantumania isn't just a sequence of audience servicing spectacle with a loose story thread behind it all. There's actually a legitimate sense of weight behind the narrative foundation within its key players involved.
Although, I do wish some of these character centric elements were explored a little bit more deeply (especially Kang's) even if the writing does a solid enough job at establishing where everyone's goals are. That same sentiment can also be said for the more interesting fantastical ideas. Within the Quantum Realm itself holds a story of an entire race of people that is fighting to reclaim their home from an outsider who came and conquered their lands. This feels like an epic scope tale that is somehow trying to forcefully squeeze itself into an Ant-Man movie as a side plot, but...it kinda works. More so than Korg's revolution against the Grandmaster in Thor: Ragnarok, you do feel a little bit more of that authoritarian presence from Kang here.
It also ties into Scott's philosophy of "looking out for the little guy"being challenged when faced with the dilemma of escaping with his family to protect them or supporting the rebellion's cause. However, in regards to King's dominance over this realm, a lot of it is told through visual storytelling with Kang's security forces being everywhere as well as the very nature of who this character is established to be. You don't actually get to see what the Quantum Realm's world was like for these beings before he arrived which would have given us a deeper context as to what these people are fighting to take back. Yes, there are some pieces of dialogue shared about the world "pre-Kang", but this is one of those situations where "show and tell" should've been implemented rather than just speaking about it.
This takes me to what is essentially the running theme surrounding my feelings towards this movie. There are several great ideas presented to the audience that are given just enough to time to get the essential points across, but not quite enough to fully satisfy their scope of potential. Once it ended, I immediately started to feel as though I was just handed one of the most epic comic book movies to date that unfortunately had several context expanding scenes removed that would've made it even more exceptional. For example, imagine how more dramatically rich this movie would've been had it contained more tender scenes with Scott trying his earnest to be a good parental/mentor figure to Cassie, a scene with Janet before the adventure struggling with an unspoken internal trauma, or perhaps an extensive flashback showing how the Quantum Realm got "conquered".
I think Quantumania is a few scenes added and one character completely omitted (I'll tell you who that is in a bit) away from being one of the MCU's top greatest movies of all time. To put it in video game terms, the movie comes across as a highly satisfying demo that strongly entices us to buy the full game only to be told by the studios that what we played was indeed the full game. That being said, considering the massive undertaking that this movie has to juggle being a significant foundation for the MCU going forward, an epic self contained adventure worth paying theater admissions for, and a series consistent quirky superhero heist movie somehow, I'm actually really impressed by how Quantumania turned out in the end.
As for standout moments within the story, there's a few that I really enjoyed such as the probability storm segment during the actual "heist" element of the story. Again connecting back to the series' roots, we get to see Scott take on his most insane heist mission yet, and through this endeavor, experiences something truly profound. Just the visuals and mind bending concept of our hero having to struggle his way through 100s of theoretic copies of himself just to get to the target was such a thrilling and fascinating spectacle to witness. The fact that his copies start out chaotically smothering over him only to eventually unite with the goal of saving Cassie admittedly had me choke up a bit. They literally form an ant hill to lift our Scott up to his destination. How can you not love the beautifully irony there?
It's a great emotional beat tied in with an awe inspiring visual representation of quantum mechanics onscreen. This sort of combination here is actually another callback to the first movie during Scott's sub atomic incident where she shrunk down to what seemed like infinity. Being forced into this visually striking and thought provoking realm had a bit of light existential horror resulting in him escaping through the motivation of reconnecting with his daughter. I was happy to see them bring this unique element of the franchise back with new elevated stakes involved. These are the types of scenes in the MCU that sticks out to me the most as pushing boundaries with the superhero genre and leaning into ground breaking science-fiction and fantasy cinematic ideas.
Kang The Conqueror Is Here!
Alright guys, here it is. The big shining hook factor of the movie. Our next Avengers villain, and a character that I've been hoping to see adapted to live action for over 10 years now, Kang the Conqueror. After Season 1 of Loki ended with what can essentially be described as an episode dedicated to hyping up Kang's eventual arrival, my excitement levels were through the roof for Quantumania's villain conflict. This was a character that had major shoes to fill playing as a follow up act to one of the most celebrated comic book movie villains of our modern times (Thanos). Let's be honest, there was always going to be one unavoidable and lingering question once Avengers Endgame was over and the new phases begun. That question being "How on Earth do you follow that?".
Thanos wiped out half the universe including some of our heroes, got decapitated in the beginning of the next movie, and still ended up being a terrifyingly intimidating threat returning afterwards beating our franchise leads into the ground. It took the magic of Scarlet Witch, the immense cosmic foresight of Doctor Strange, a living and breathing infinity stone battery (Captain Marvel), an entire army of franchise spanning heroes, and Ironman's sacrifice just to finally take this guy down. So, how can Kang step in as our new big bad of the MCU worthy of getting excited and equally terrified over? Well in a sense, he does this primarily through heavy contextual and conceptual character building.
Over the course of three phases, Thanos was essentially a presence looming in the background while other villains were taking their rightful center stage facing off against each hero in their own respective movies. However, there was always a teasing reminder to let the audience know that the infinity stones were being highlighted for a reason and that it would all eventually lead towards whoever the big purple guy was that sent Loki after the Avengers during that movie's alien invasion. Then came Infinity War several years later where he was finally fully introduced and very quickly solidified why he was worth the wait through pure action and controversial philosophy regarding his genocidal agenda.
What makes Kang unique here is that we aren't seeing several movies reminding us of certain objects that connects to him until he shows up much later in the franchise. Instead, we get an entire season of a character series (Loki Season 1) that sets up the significance of an anti-hero variant of Kang that was able to stop him before only to have him supposedly set loose in the end (Sylvie's killing of He Who Remains). Movies like Multiverse of Madness and No Way Home never sets up Kang but instead establishes the general idea of the multiverse which we know loosely connects to the lore that surrounds his mission.
Now comes Quantumania which just casually steps in merely over 1 1/2 years later and tells the audience "We're not gonna drag this out guys. Here is Kang the Conqueror in all of his glory after being built up primarily through theoretics and speculations from a Disney+ show. So...whaddya think?". Well, at the risk of sounding like a broken record with my previous statements regarding the overall storytelling, Kang is a very enjoyable villain that comes off as a remarkable sample for something even better. However, unlike my previous complaints towards other comic book movie villains like Ultron or Gorr the God Butcher who were one off disappointments that never fully reached their potential, Kang is a very interesting and unique problem to have in comparison.
By his very nature, this is a villain that is crafted with multiple guest appearances in mind gradually forming a larger narrative of who this character is. Instead of acting as your typical one and done, "what you see is what you ultimately get” antagonist, Kang can be described as a growing collection of different individuals that forms one looming presence surrounding different stories. Going by this context, Kang the Conqueror, as seen in Ant-Man 3, having the issue of feeling somewhat unfinished might actually be intentional for the grander scheme of things. It's one of the components that makes him arguably the most conceptually interesting and complex villains that the MCU has ever tackled to date.
He's a multi-layered puzzle that we're slowly witnessing unfold through various titles which begs the question "Do we judge what we see of him in one movie/show or do we wait until the entire Dynasty storyline is completed to fully assess who he is?". But just speaking on his appearance here alone, putting the "wait and see" theory to the side, he still has to satisfyingly deliver with every appearance that he shows up in, and guys, he certainly does here. When talking about live action adapted comic book movie or TV villains, there's a few things that I typically look out for depending on the type of character that it is: threat presence, design execution, agenda, motivations, narrative value, expectations payoff, and actor performance.
If I were to generally "grade" by that list alone, I'd safely say that Kang the Conqueror succeeds in many regards. Speaking on threat element, this was something that I was particularly excited to see reminding myself that the comics have built him up as one of the most formidable foes in the history of the medium. This is a villain that has killed off the Avengers in some fashion multiple times which puts a lot of expectations on the portrayal here. Wasting no time whatsoever, once our titular hero confronts Kang for the first time, they make sure to show off his level of threat by completely dominating everyone in the room. Through his advanced technologically based feats, this is a character that is able to completely paralyze and toss people around without even touching them (Darth Vader style).
Having him threaten to kill Scott's daughter in front of him if he didn't obey him while also disregarding the fact that Ant-Man is connected to the Avengers was an effective way to set up the fear factor behind him. There's a great line by Kang during their first encounter when faced with Scott's bluff to call the other Avengers. Kang's statement,"You're an Avenger. Have I kill you before? They all blur together after a while" accompanied by Scott''s baffled reaction is such a strong way to establish that this is someone with a visceral and shocking history. But dialogue isn't everything nor is a couple of "force pushes" enough to really sell the power behind someone like this. You're gonna need just a tad bit more than that which the movie happily provides.
When Kang is shown unleashing his suit's more explosive capabilities wiping everything out in close quarters to him as well as being able to successfully fight a shrunken down Ant-Man and Wasp on his own, I couldn't help but grin a little. Going by the source material's many examples and movie's teasing lines, Kang should technically be able to take on the entire Avengers roster that we've had. After watching what he does in Quantumania's action heavy segments, I can fully buy into that idea being a reality for his MCU iteration. This guy swats down our heroes like the insect themed characters that they are, disintegrates people around him, literally took over an entire realm with a strategic overthrowing, and brutally beats down Scott like a biker bully ganging up on a child.
Although I still wasn't entirely satisfied with the way in which he was taken down (and hopefully we haven't seen the last of this variant), I will say that I was happy to see that the movie wasn't afraid to show off his formidability as a powerhouse fighter. Speaking a bit more about his surface level aesthetics, without skipping a beat Marvel was able to successfully adapt his design from the page to the screen which isn't an easy feat. The comic book look could've easily come across as goofy and tonally problematic, but the way in which they visualize it as both a stylistic royal garb and fearsome high tech suit of armor worked beautifully in my opinion. My only nitpick was the neon blue face light. Giving him a more practical mask or facial paint of sorts would've worked a whole lot better than a CGI on and off switching color light on his face. Just a thought.
Last but not least is arguably the most crucial part of this character's success in the MCU being Jonathan Majors' performance. I remember after his over the top, bizarre take on He Who Remains came out with Loki's season finale, there was a lot of concern as to how the more villainous Kang would be portrayed. Well, just like the suit design praise, I can happily say that Majors does an exceptional job in the role. The intensity that he brings during the more climactic confrontations in the movie are just as screen stealing as his calmer demeanor seen primarily throughout.
Jonathan Majors proves that he is able to bring some of those nuances of history and experience playing a pivotal role in the makeup of who this villain is. Being able come across as a man that can easily crush you to pieces somehow with a wave of a hand while also having the intellect to comprehend and rule an entire world of scientific mind bending elements is a tricky balance to play. Despite any nitpicks that I may have with how much the movie decides to flesh out this character, Jonathan Majors is certainly one of the stronger points that keeps the villain anchored with a sense of personal stakes onscreen for me. When I left the theaters, what stuck in my mind (and will continue to do so) wasn't Kang's powers or time traveling story...it was Jonathan Majors' incredible delivery.
Where we get into the storytelling surrounding him is where Quantumania's feeling of being edited down into a sample of its true potential returns. Kang is revealed to have been a man that was exiled by own variants resulting in him crash landing into the Quantum Realm. He meets Janet and the two work closely to help him recover his ship's battery core before his true sinister nature is accidentally revealed causing her to trap him in the realm leading to his eventual conquering. Now there's obviously a lot to unpack here and the movie admirably tries its very best to give enough information to the audience to help sort through such a large scope narrative. However, as stated earlier, there's a massive piece to his character that is mostly told where it should've been immensely shown instead.
A character with such a rich backstory of taking over and wiping out entire worlds and timelines for ages while also fighting with multiversal doppelgängers is such a monumentally layered foundation for a villain. And yet, most of what we see of Kang is just his time with Janet building a battery in the past and threatening our heroes to obtain and fix said battery in the present before he eventually has to fight them. Everything that's immensely compelling about him is presented as a piece of dialogue (albeit with a great performance) which feels a bit watered down at the end of the day. However, and here comes that question again, "Is it all intentional for his future appearances to fill out?".
Now if I were to take into consideration what the Loki finale established, just these two variant appearances alone does bring forth something quite interesting. Where I might complain that we don't get to see Kang's insane history displayed in some satisfyingly in-depth fashion, the movie makes up for it by somewhat dipping into his psychologically complex mindset. He experiences time differently from our heroes and apparently knows how it all ends. This is a fascinating idea elevating him into something mythological in scope while also keeping him grounded as a scientist/warrior. He vaguely warns us of his variants being problematic, so is he the real villain or is he a necessary evil against something far worst?
This is a fascinating connective thread following He Who Remains who was an antagonist against free will but was necessary to stop his more sinister variants. Will every Kang that shows up simply claim to be the best version needed because the others are absolutely awful to have around? I won't get into how convoluted the comics get with his various appearances throughout history connecting and somehow contradicting each other. However, we can't just ignore what Multiverse of Madness introduced being the idea of incursions as well as Loki's multiversal war idea. The post credits scene introduces the council of Kangs with some notable figures setting up what we can assume to be Kang Dynasty and Secret Wars.
So we have all of these different game changing components circling around just one character (or an infinite amount of one character) which is why I can understand the unfinished feeling of Quantumania's villain presentation. However, there's also a patience-challenging nature of Phase 5-6's direction regarding where our expectations should be with each Kang appearance. Suffice it to say, I'm happy with what we got here, but I'm also very mixed about what we could've gotten or should expect to get. Sounds a little confusing? Well funny enough, given who we're talking about here, confusion and uncertainty is a perfectly fitting response.
The Big Headed Problem with M.O.D.O.K.
So I mentioned earlier in the review that Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania was a few extra scenes and one character omitted away from being a standout franchise entry. Well, I suppose it's high time that I finally address the big headed elephant in the room and talk about said character being none other than M.O.D.O.K.. I'll never forget when the trailers first came out and we got a few seconds of who appeared to be the popular Marvel villain yet fans like myself were still a little unsure about the context behind the teases. Was it in fact M.O.D.O.K. or were we seeing something that was heavily influenced by the character but was something else completely different acting as a visual Easter egg of sorts?
Well now that I've seen the movie, I can confidentially say that I would've much preferred if it was indeed just a visual Easter egg of some minor creature merely looking like M.O.D.O.K. and nothing more. Guys, I won't sugar coat it; this is by far one of the worst villain adaptations that the MCU has done. Now we can talk for days about the shoddy CGI and overall terrible character design being put on display with him. We can also talk about whether or not a live action M.O.D.O.K. (that's close to the classic design) would even visually work without being a part of a very straight forward comedy. However, the more notable problem with this character isn't so much what lies on the surface but instead his questionable placement in the movie's narrative and tonal establishment.
This is the same movie where Ant-Man, a mostly comedic and relatable grounded hero, is pressed against the wall fighting a terrifyingly powerful and franchise shifting cosmic threat. The dramatic stakes are its highest where all of existence is concerned and the concept surrounding the main villain's story is the richest that we've ever seen in terms of lore. It goes without saying that time plays a key factor in this movie and I'm not talking about time traveling or thematic storytelling. I'm talking about the actual runtime of the movie and what is being focused on at a given time. There's a lot to juggle here, so every second is crucial in effectively telling this massive cosmic tale as well defined as possible.
So, what does M.O.D.O.K. actually bring to the Ant-Man family's journey into the Quantum Realm facing an Avengers level threat in serious need of a backstory recap montage? Absolutely nothing substantial. This is a character insert that felt completely unnecessary to the grander narrative that annoyingly took up time that could’ve been spent on diving deeper into Kang’s character or even the rebellion story. M.O.D.O.K. is revealed to be a now crudely morphed Darren Cross (Yellowjacket) after being trapped in the Quantum Realm and experimented on by Kang. Now taking this idea on its own does have some merits to working for an Ant-Man sequel theoretically speaking.
Seeing him in the more armored up version being a mindless killing machine with the revelation identity intact plays as a nice plot twist connection to Ant-Man's first cinematic solo outing while also adding another layer to Kang's twisted mentality. The problem however comes the moment M.O.D.O.K. is unmasked and, terrible facial CGI work aside, becomes a big floating joke for the rest of the movie. Yes, the Ant-Man movies have always pride themselves as being unapologetic comedies to an extent, but this particular sequel clearly had more heavy dramatic stakes involved making less room for cartoony goofy gags to be spotlighted. Especially when your antagonist is a multiversal threat with direct ties to other projects.
There are distractingly long scenes surrounding M.O.D.O.K. that play out as dragged out dialogue exchanges just to make him the butt of a running joke. And although I would've been perfectly fine and even welcoming towards this character showing up in the MCU at some point, this was definitely not the title for him. Perhaps a more comedic Ant-Man 4 appearance, a quick cameo in a Captain America sequel, or maybe a surprisingly serious take to fit some of the more slightly darker iterations would've sufficed. But having him just forced in here like a floating CGI gag afterthought is a bit embarrassing. With a movie that already has more than enough going on and a titular character that's already funny on his own (the car podcast scene with Scott is pretty hilarious), this was a strange creative choice.
Rating: 8/10
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