Ant-Man Quantumania: Did it Live Up to the Buzz?
A Bug’s Life has never been seen quite like this one’s.
Relying on the classic Disney-grade humor and a countless amount of colorful sequences, Ant-Man: Quantumania, directed by Peyton Reed and starring ageless heartthrob Paul Rudd, truly highlights the new direction that Marvel Studios is embarking on— one that is visually unique and riveting but ultimately fails to hold up as a solid franchise on its own.
As Marvel continues to produce more and more sequels out of the big mouse’s stuttering machine, the quality of screenwriting has diminished significantly. I’ve spoken to several friends and movie-goers in the past weeks, many of whom have either walked out of the recent superhero films or regretted their experiences. Today, we’re going to dive into what went wrong for the bug that always seems to get away. Like always, watch out for spoilers ahead, and if you haven’t seen the movie, well, I don’t recommend seeing it anyway (unless you’re a diehard Paul Rudd fan like myself).
“When we set out to do a third, I talked to Kevin Feige and I said, ‘I want to put Ant-Man and Wasp up against a really formidable villain.’”
-Director Peyton Reed, Ant-Man: Quantumania
The Ant-Man films tend to nail the world-building elements without a hitch every single release. Cinematographer Bill Pope, known for his collaborations with the infamous Sam Raimi (director of Toby Maguire’s Spiderman), has an excellent sense of identifying what the audience is looking for versus what angles and colors can compliment the movie’s plot. Throughout the film, we see several beautiful shots of the world “Quantumania”, a dystopian interpretation of a sector of the universe where time does not exist. Specifically, there’s one incredible moment where the skyline of the main city is panned out, directly juxtaposing the San Francisco skyline which Russ’s character, Scott Lang, is accustomed to. These details, in addition to the plethora of new alien-like characters introduced to Marvel fans, aren’t just attributed to an amazing use of cinematography. Ant-Man’s VFX team, overviewed by Jesse James Chisholm and Dave Hodgins, did an immensely successful job at bringing well-known comic characters to life such as M.O.D.O.K. and the notorious Kang the Conqueror, truly embodying what Marvel intended on creating all those years ago with Iron Man (2008). As much as I wish these elements carried the entirety of the film, the buzz eventually died out when it came to Ant-Man’s writing.
Ant-Man: Quantumania’s plot is simple and underdeveloped at best. The use of Lang’s daughter Cassie as somewhat of an anti-hero had enormous potential, but had the audience yawning at her every appearance. Her heroic “switching up the female narrative” alliance with MODOK at the end of the film was lackluster— not only did actor Corey Stoll single-“headidly” carry that performance, but the cringiness of Cassie’s forced character development ruined the epic (but temporary) defeat of Kang the Conqueror.
“It's not what you think it is. It's a cage; it does everything it can to break you.”
-Kang the Conqueror
Additionally, I want to point out a notable script success: Kang. His transition as someone I felt like pitying, to an evil being I end up resenting, was absolutely magnificent; in fact, it made me extremely thrilled for what is to come with his role in Avengers: the Kang Dynasty. However, this feat was essentially overshadowed by the writers’ lack of attention to detail when writing the movie.
There were many obvious “ant holes” in regards to gaps in logic throughout the movie. It was made very clear in Avengers: Endgame that Scott Lang was in the Quantum Realm for approximately 5 hours, and when he returned to Earth by the power of the mouse (ironic, I know), 5 years had passed in Earth-time.
The movie places a large emphasis on Michelle Pfieffer’s character in this film, Janet Van Dyne. A veteran at the ol’ timeline-hopping adventure, Van Dyne is put on trial for her contribution to the genocide of a large number of species in the Quantum Realm, specifically in helping Kang the Conqueror. It’s revealed that she ultimately tried stopping the villain rather than the image bestowed upon her by the locals, but there is a much larger question that comes to play here. In a scene about halfway through the movie where the gang is at an alien bar discussing Janet’s time in the quantum realm, the mother reveals that she’d been down there for 30 years, QUANTUM time. Based on the data Marvel has put forth in other movies, this logic wouldn’t be plausible; this, along with several other loopholes in the film, made for an overall unpleasant movie-going experience in terms of following along with the plot.
Ant-Man: Quantumania, while visually stunning, felt like watching an SNL skit with your favorite cast members. It was thoroughly entertaining, but only for those who actually care about Marvel films and the build up to eventual crossover films. For a non-superhero fan who simply enjoys watching movies, this film is certainly not for you; for comic book lovers that take pride in Marvel’s extensive collection of superhero films, this take on the underrated comic has fans buzzed off and enraged.
The future of our favorite superheroes has been predetermined, not by factors like fan service and critics’ opinions, but rather, by a quantity-over-quality system prioritizing profits over story-building. Ant-Man is just one of many recent Marvel films of the past year to bug audiences, and this trend doesn’t seem to be stopping. So, that begs the question that’s been swarming the minds of Marvel fans across the globe: did it live up to the buzz? To that, I’ll leave you with a quote from Scott Lang himself:
“So... does anyone have any orange slices?”
Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed, check out my latest articles below: