Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania Swarms The Box Office

   On February 17th, Marvel kicked off phase 5 of their cinematic universe with the release of Ant-Man: Quantumania, a sci-fi superhero thriller that re-establishes Ant Man as one of key players in the MCU, also earning 225 million at the box office opening week.

  After the lackluster and un-eventful Ant Man and the Wasp released in 2018, the Ant Man series was in much need for an impactful film to recapture its audience. Quantumania does exactly that, introducing Kang the Conqueror as the movies main villain, a bloodthirsty being bent on, well conquering, the entirety of the multiverse. With the previous Ant man movies being relatively unimportant to the entirety of the MCU, a big player like Kang really helps make Scott Lang’s (Ant-Man) story much more interesting and overall more impactful to Marvel’s series of movies.

   The acting in this movie ranges from quite terrible to spectacular, as Johnathan Majors (Kang), Michelle Pfeiffer (Janet Van Dyne), and Paul Rudd (Scott Lang/Ant-Man) provide amazing performances and offer great range from somber tones to eccentric and regal. The star was Majors, his ability to present such a threatening villain in so many different ways and change emotions like it was the flip of a switch was beautiful to watch, he made Kang pop off of the screen in most scenes. 

  Unfortunately, I did say there were some quite terrible performances, and Kathryn Newton (Cassie) fits the bill for that description. She did not achieve what the standard is for most MCU movies, and her acting was at best subpar, even in the most emotional moments of the film, especially for being one of the main characters of the film, Cassie Lang, Scott’s daughter. Every other lead in the movie performed very well, and they did not disappoint.

   The disparity between the acting also remained the same for the visuals of the film. At times it looked like a wonderland, the quantum realm sucking you into its flashiness yet terror, but then the next scene it would look like it was green screened by a 5th grade school news production team. However, the good does largely outweigh the bad in this area, and the film does keep relative consistency with its good visuals.

   The plot follows just about every other superhero storyline, but I’m not saying that’s a bad thing by any means, it accomplishes what it needs to and it does it pretty well all things considered. It’s not a story that will blow the audience away by any means, but it does have value in the future implications this movie will have on future films within the universe.  In totality, the film is a solid start to phase 5 of the MCU and creates excitement for the next big bad, Kang, while also furthering the story of our hero Scott Lang.