Ant Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023, PG-13)

*Premise spoilers*

It seems like we just wrapped up Phase 4 with Wakanda Forever, and now we’re charging right into the start of Phase 5. As much as I’m still loving Marvel, it’s probably good that it sounds like the plan is to start spacing projects out more—let me savor! I just saw this movie a couple hours ago, so, while my opinions haven’t necessarily all coalesced, my thoughts are definitely fresh.

Since the events of Endgame, Scott has been enjoying the fame of being an Avenger but taking an understandable breather. This is especially important to him because he missed five years of Cassie growing up and wants to be there for his daughter. When Cassie designs a device to map the Quantum Realm, her signal is picked up by someone inside, and Scott, Cassie, Hope, Hank, and Janet are all pulled into the subatomic universe. As they try to figure out how to get home, they’re confronted by Kang, a powerful exile who’s turned the Quantum Realm into his own empire.

This is certainly a different look for the Ant Man and the Wasp films, in more ways than one. As has been noted all over, the stakes are astronomically higher than than the high-tech heist of the first film—while the first season of Loki got to tease the MCU’s new Big Bad, Quantumania really gets to introduce Kang in a major way. As such, the movie has a more serious tone than its predecessors. Even during his parts in larger MCU stuff like Civil War and Endgame, a lot of Scott’s scenes skewed more towards humor. This time, Scott and his family are stuck in a universe completely unlike their own, and they’re the only heroes standing in the way of destruction on a multiversal scale.

Not that there’s no comedy or fun shrinking-and-growing fight scenes, because of course there are. Ultimately, I’d say this still feels like an Ant Man and the Wasp film, despite the differences in tone and stakes. I enjoy watching our heroes navigating the Quantum Realm. Janet, who was trapped there for so long, is confronting old demons and wrestling with secrets she’s hidden from her family since being recovered, while Hank and Hope try to get her to open up about her past. Scott is desperate to make up for lost time with Cassie, but she grew up a lot in the years that he was gone and he’s still figuring out how to relate to her now. Throw in trying to keep her safe in a completely unknown, dangerous environment, and it’s a lot for him to take on.

All the returning cast turn in nice work. Paul Rudd is of course reliably good as Scott, and Michelle Pfeiffer gets a greater chance to shine this time around as Janet. For my money, Evangeline Lilly and Michael Douglas don’t get as much to do as Hope and Hank, but both make the most of their screentime when it counts. Kathryn Newton is engaging as teenage Cassie, although I still love Abby Ryder Fortson’s version best. The Quantum Realm offers up a colorful cast of side characters, including William Jackson Harper as a weary telepath and Bill Murray as an old friend of Janet’s. And then, there’s Jonathan Majors, who gives a fantastic performance as Kang the Conqueror. There’s a visible throughline between this character and the Kang we saw on Loki, but Majors does a great job of making them feel distinct without a lot of big obvious differences (accent, overall character design, etc.) Super excited to see what more the coming phases have to offer here!

Warnings

Comic book violence, language, drinking (alien alcohol,) very mild sexual references, and thematic elements.

Character Highlight: Hank Pym (Ant-Man)

With Ant-Man, Hank Pym joined the ranks of Marvel geniuses:  Tony Stark, Bruce Banner, Peter Parker, and so forth.  The particle he created and the subsequent technology he’s invented to manipulate it make Ant-Man and the Wasp’s fight scenes pop in a way unlike those of any other MCU franchise, but Hank’s contributions to the larger universe are more than just functional (a few Hank-related spoilers.)

Hank is far from the first brilliant STEM type in the MCU, nor is he the first father with a complex relationship with his child – after all, Tony’s issues with Howard are baked into his character, and the film that introduces Hank also introduces Scott Lang and his daughter.  He’s also not the first “difficult” man in the franchise, someone prickly to get along with who freely goes rogue based on the assumption that his way is the only logical one.  Still, there are a few things that make Hank stand out.

One detail I instantly love is the fact that Hank is a retired superhero, the first Ant-Man.  First, he was a legitimately covert hero, and not just having a secret identity a la Spider-Man.  Even members of various intelligence agencies don’t know if the Ant-Man was ever real, or if he was just an urban legend dreamed up from grainy footage of unexplained things happening in the field.  Hank’s era wasn’t Cap’s time of pledge drive tours and newsreel footage, and it wasn’t the current age of fans stopping Thor on the street for selfies.  For Hank, there was no glory, no recognition, not even an acknowledgment that he existed.  And that kind of fits with who he is.  Just as Tony’s “I am Iron Man” announcement makes perfect sense for him, Hank’s low-key approaching to getting in, getting out, and getting the job done feels in-character.

Hank’s tenure as Ant-Man also helps bridge the gap between our big superhero eras.  Before Hank, we had Cap in World War II, and we saw how the S.S.R. would eventually become S.H.I.E.L.D.  And while we know S.H.I.E.L.D. carries through into the present day, bringing with it spies like Nick Fury or Black Widow, it’s not until Iron Man that we see another superhero in this world.  Hank, though, shows that heroes were still there – they just weren’t in the public eye.  I imagine that, when Captain Marvel’s movie comes along, we’re going to see her similarly fleshing out some of that stretch between Cap and Iron Man.

Another thing I like about Hank is how genuinely disturbed he is by the idea of anyone else getting a hand on his technology.  While we’ve seen shades of this before, like Howard Stark worrying about his stolen “bad babies” on Agent Carter or Tony trying to keep the military away from his suit, Hank gets very next-level about it.  He realizes that the Pym Particle could very literally destroy the world (sure, part of that is arrogance, but Hank has the smarts to back it up,) and he goes to the length of pulling a heist on the company he founded to make sure no one else takes control of it.

Finally, I like that we see Hank actively grooming a successor for his mantle, even if it’s long after Hank hung it up himself.  Of course, I would’ve preferred Hank to have looked to Hope from the start, but I like Hank recognizing the qualities he feels are needed in Scott and, along with Hope, training him to use the suit and other Ant-Man-related stuff, like working with the ants.  Hank’s tutelage feels very true to form for him – kind of manipulative and full of half-truths, peppered with insults and impatience – and it’s fun to watch him cantankerously try to craft Scott into Ant-Man, only to watch Scott take the suit and do something entirely new with it.

Relationship Spotlight: Hope van Dyne & Hank Pym (Ant-Man)

The MCU features all kinds of familial relationships – plenty of the “the family you make” variety, naturally, but also lots of actual family ties as well, such as brothers (Thor and Loki,) sisters (Gamora and Nebula,) brothers and sisters (T’Challa and Shuri,) and fathers and sons (Ego and Peter.)  But when it comes to the Ant-Man franchise, their thing is definitely fathers and daughters.  For the films, they all but have the market cornered on this relationship – there’s also technically Thanos and Gamora-Nebula, but that’s a whole other thing.  Ant-Man is driven by Scott’s desire to regain his visitation rights with Cassie, and another major relationship in that movie, as well as Ant-Man and the Wasp, is the one between Hank and Hope (some Hope-Hank spoilers.)

Our introduction to Hope in the first film features an icy exchange between her and her father at Pym Technologies, where we’re given the information that she was the deciding vote in kicking Hank off his own Board of Directors.  Not everything is quite as it seems – Hope and Hank are making plans together to steal Hank’s technology from Darren Cross, the company’s new CEO, and they play up the antagonism between them to help deflect Darren’s suspicion.  To the outside observer, there’s nothing to suggest that these two would be working on anything together.

But it’s not all an act, either.  There’s been a rift between Hank and Hope ever since they lost Hope’s mother Janet and Hank wouldn’t tell her what happened.  Hope has grown up believing her mother is dead but knowing her father is hiding something about it, while Hank throws himself into researching the Quantum Realm into which Janet disappeared rather than raising his grieving daughter.  The way Hank handled this situation left distance between them, and it left Hope with scars not easily healed.

Janet’s disappearance fuels the other main source of conflict between them:  Hank’s initial refusal to let Hope wear his suit and take on the main role in their planned heist of Pym Technologies.  It’s why Scott is brought into the picture at all, because Hank wants someone else in the suit.  After what happened to Janet, he’s terrified of losing Hope too and would rather risk the mission by sending in someone less trained than risk his daughter, but of course, he doesn’t tell any of that to Hope – Scott is instead the one who realizes and explains his expendability to her.  And without that explanation, Hope only sees her father putting his trust and weight behind an unknown element, a convicted felon with no training, instead of someone with her skills and expertise.  No wonder she’s at first so bitter about being tasked with training Scott.

Ant-Man allows them to get some of these issues out in the open – and, significantly, features a post-credits scene in which Hank unveils the Wasp suit to Hope, proving once and for all that he believes in what she can do and is ready to see her in action.  So, by the time Ant-Man and the Wasp comes around, Hope and Hank are in a much better place.  It again involves Janet, but this time, it brings them together rather than keeps them apart.  Scott’s experience in the Quantum Realm in the first film have ignited their hopes that Janet can be found and retrieved, and together, they throw their time and energy into their search.  Their working partnership is a lot more solid than it was in the first movie, and what’s more, they also lean on one another emotionally.  They both open up more, and as they face the monumental prospect of recovering Janet, they hope/strive together instead of suffer separately.