Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023)

Movie Name/Year: Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023)
Genre: Action, Adventure, Comedy
Length: 2h 4min
Rating: PG-13
Production/Distribution: Marvel Studios, The South Australian Film Corporation, Walt Disney Pictures, Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, Disney+
Director: Peyton Reed
Writer: Jeff Loveness
Actors: Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Michael Douglas, Michelle Pfeiffer, Jonathan Majors, Kathryn Newton, Bill Murray, Katy M. O’Brian, William Jackson Harper, Jamie Andrew Cutler, David Dastmalchian, Randall Park
 
Blurb from IMDb: Scott Lang and Hope Van Dyne are dragged into the Quantum Realm, along with Hope's parents and Scott's daughter Cassie. Together they must find a way to escape, but what secrets is Hope's mother hiding? And who is the mysterious Kang?
 

Selina’s Point of View:
I’m a Marvel fan girl. That said, even I have to admit that the Phase 4 films were a bit lacking. Aside from Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021) the others all had something that brought them down.
 
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022) is the only one not to blame. The whole movie had to be rewritten after the tragic death of Chadwick Boseman, and I don’t think any of us were ready to move on without him. Black Widow (2021) was good, but it came way too late in the story to have the effect they were hoping for. On top of that, Taskmaster could have been done better. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021) had a great story, but some of the special effects were just bad. Disney has the money to put real effort into that sort of thing. There was no excuse for that. Eternals (2021) never drew me in. I wound up skipping it. (I’ll watch it eventually, though.) Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022) was fun, but it felt more like a Sam Raimi flick than something under the Marvel umbrella (which is not bad, just not what I was looking for).
 
And let’s just not discuss Thor: Love and Thunder (2022). The longer I sit on the memory of that film the more I resent it.
 
The Marvel teams put so much into the TV shows that I think they just figured the movies would skate by on the fame of the MCU. I’m guessing the higher ups were confused when people expressed their annoyance.
 

Going into Phase 5, I figured it’d be more of the same. I resigned myself to just not feeling the same when watching a Marvel movie. I even put off watching Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.
 
Imagine my surprise when I finally sat down to watch it and felt that spark.
 
Quantumania is the first movie since No Way Home that has felt like Marvel to me. It was very much in the same vein as the other two Ant-Man films. It was funny – without going too far (like Love and Thunder did). It affected me emotionally, but not to a place of exhaustion (like Wakanda Forever did). It did have a couple of minor graphic defects (like Legend of the Ten Rings), but it still showed a ton of effort.
 
It felt like visiting an old friend and catching up on their new life over dinner.
 
I’m not surprised that critics hated it. They’re like people looking for a Michelin star meal from a Kraft mac and cheese box. Of course, they’re not going to get it. Marvel isn’t meant to be high art; it’s meant to be a comfort. And Quantumania has all the comfort I hope to find in a Marvel flick.
 
There are some thinly veiled parallels to the social climate of today. I don’t think it goes too far, though. Personally, I support the messages that were being sold. People on the other side of the argument won’t be too happy though.
 
If you like the other Ant-Man films, you’re going to enjoy Quantumania.
 

Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score – 47%
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score – 83%
Metascore – 48%
Metacritic User Score – 5.8
IMDB Score –6.3/10
 
Trust the Dice: Selina’s Rating – 4.5/5
 
P.S. Mid credit scene and after credit scene.
 
Movie Trailer: