Ant-Man Quantumania

The latest film about the minuscule superhero sets up Marvel's next big villain but other than that, it has nothing to offer beyond drab-looking action, ...

Marvel has created the vibrant, majestic worlds of [Thor](https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20220705-thor-love-and-thunder-review-a-romcom-with-epic-battles)'s Asgard and [Black Panther](https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20221115-wakanda-forever-and-the-black-panther-effect-on-hollywood)'s Wakanda. But the action is stiff and the characters and one-note plot are crushed beneath the overload of CGI and dull special effects. William Jackson Harper is wry as a sympathetic telepath, who unfortunately disappears for much of the film. The forces of good and evil go back and forth – Kang employs hordes of soldiers with glowing blue helmets, like an army with blue lightbulbs for faces. [une](https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20210903-four-stars-for-dune). She knows the Quantum Realm, is infamous there, and is being hunted by someone so terrifying that his name isn't even mentioned for half the film. Creating Quantumania to get there was a waste. Scott and his family need to stop Kang as well as save themselves, but there is no question about the villain's survival because he has his own film, Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, scheduled for 2025. Scott and his daughter, Cassie (Kathryn Newton), have become part of Hope's family, which includes her genius parents, Hank Pym, (Michael Douglas) and Janet van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer), who at the end of Ant-Man and The Wasp was rescued after 30 years in the Quantum Realm, the subatomic place where the rules of time and space don't apply. Cassie, who was eight in the last Ant-Man film five years ago (when she was played by Abby Ryder Fortson), is now 18, so she is obviously ageing in movie-sequel years, which like the Quantum Realm itself treats time as something optional. The heart of Ant-Man (2015) and Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018) was Paul Rudd as everyman Scott Lang, who puts on his special suit and shrinks into the minuscule Ant-Man – or as I like to think of him, The Littlest Avenger. There you have Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, the latest and possibly lamest instalment in the usually reliable Marvel Cinematic Universe.

You have to work pretty hard to suck the life out of a movie starring Paul Rudd and Jonathan Majors, but the latest MCU sequel is evidence that it can be ...

The disconnect is particularly obvious watching Rudd — a brilliant comic actor and hugely appealing leading man — spending most of “Quantumania” running and yelling amid green-screen fakery and CGI filler. On-trend subjects like the multiverse and hegemonic tyranny come in for comment and critique; the production design grabs snippets from the “Star Wars” cantina scene and reaches back to Ray Harryhausen, Japanese kaiju and “King Kong” for inspo in the final showdowns. The endearing sweetness of the early “Ant-Man” movies, which tapped Rudd’s ineffable charm, has been bigfooted into a noisy, smash-and-grab extravaganza that, for all its self-conscious bigness, feels smaller and less ambitious than its predecessors. In “Quantumania,” sprightly pacing and lighthearted humor have succumbed to the turgid seriousness that plagues so much of the comic book canon. The plot — which is very plotty — is beside the point in “Quantumania,” which pulls from a variety of sources for both its themes and its visuals. [Avengers: Endgame](https://www.washingtonpost.com/goingoutguide/movies/with-humor-and-heart-avengers-endgame-is-a-fitting-send-off-for-marvels-superheroes/2019/04/23/539f3890-6391-11e9-9412-daf3d2e67c6d_story.html?itid=lk_inline_manual_6),” the new installments have sought to introduce new storylines and characters to keep the vibe alive (also known as maintaining billion-dollar profits), with mixed success.

Disney's third standalone “Ant-Man” movie is expected to collect $95 million to $100 million in North America over the traditional weekend and $110 through ...

3,” “The Marvels,” “Captain America: New World Order,” “Thunderbolts” and “Blade.” Yet, the movie only kind of fulfills that responsibility, according to Fear isn’t the only critic who left “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” with mixed feelings; the film holds a 60% average on Rotten Tomatoes. “You hang on his every word; he makes vengeance and genocide sound like the most hypnotically casual of propositions.” Based on domestic box office estimates, the newest “Ant-Man” is buzzing below recent Marvel titles such as “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” ($185 million), “Thor: Love and Thunder” ($144 million) and “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” ($181 million). Encouragingly, it’s getting a huge jump on its predecessors, 2015’s “Ant-Man” ($57 million) and 2018’s sequel “Ant-Man and the Wasp” ($76 million domestically and $161 million globally). China, where “Quantumania” is projected to bring in $35 million to $55 million, will be key in the final weekend tally.

High-stakes threequel "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania" pumps up the chaos but loses quirky charm of Paul Rudd's previous Marvel superhero films.

One day, though, we'll probably be talking about the multifaceted Kang in the same breath as [Heath Ledger's Joker](https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/movies/oscars/2020/02/05/oscars-best-joker-joaquin-phoenix-or-heath-ledger/4657717002/): Majors brings an innate and understandable humanity to a king in his own mind who's all about manipulation and winning but not without weakness. While rolling out the ubiquitous kitchen-sink finale, “Quantumania” lets Scott and Kang duke it out in a rousing slugfest that’s the highlight of this dizzying adventure. Bill Murray drops in as the eccentric Krylar, a shady character Janet knows well, while Scott and Cassie even meet a Guardians of the Galaxy-type misfit crew, including telepath Quaz (William Jackson Harper) and warrior Jentorra (Katy O’Brian). (In fact, let’s give out some homework: The Disney+ “Loki” series is an extremely helpful watch to understanding the Kang business.) Like “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness,” “Quantumania” crams a ton in so it can shape a piece of a larger story. Yet these interesting new players get limited screen time thanks to a busy narrative with endless Ant-Men, a guy with broccoli for a head and forced callbacks. But it does complicate matters for the more casual viewer (assuming those still exist). His 18-year-old daughter, Cassie (Kathryn Newton), who shares her ex-con father’s tendency to get in trouble with the law, thinks he should be less complacent with the heroing and still be looking out for the little guy. Exiled to the Quantum Realm, These days, nothing is safe from becoming an all-out Marvel epic, and so goes “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” (★★½ out of four; rated PG-13; in theaters Friday). Janet’s not too pleased, since she was stuck there for 30 years and has been keeping secrets since, and a mishap sends them all down there “Wizard of Oz” style. Meanwhile, Scott and Cassie meet an oddball group of freedom fighters and ultimately the scarred face that runs the place. Cassie has been getting a crash course in superhero science and experimenting with sending a signal to the subatomic Quantum Realm.

Ant-Man is part of the larger chess board of the MCU, so he's doomed to be sucked into the multiverse mess.

"Quantumania" also gives Pfeiffer a lot more to do as we, and Hank and Hope, learn a little bit more about Janet's 30 years in the Quantum Realm and the various compromises and allegiances she made to stay alive. It's both a nod to the fun of the ridiculousness in sci-fi and a reminder that Serious Superhero Films are sometimes just one crazy special effect away from being Silly Superhero Films. The villain's a killing machine, M.O.D.O.K., that looks (knowingly) straight out of a "Mystery Science Theater 3000" movie and it is quite entertaining. But Ant-Man is part of the larger chess board of the MCU, so naturally he's doomed to be sucked into the multiverse mess, setting up pieces for more Avengers films to come with the introduction of a new villain, Kang (played with a maniacal sorrow by the great Jonathan Majors). One thing it is not is a Wasp movie, though. "Quantumania" shines when it is keeping things light and quippy. Majors is certainly chilling and captivating, but Kang seems like a mismatched foe for a standalone Ant-Man film and the result is a "Quantumania" that is trying to be too many things. Reed has returned to direct with a new writer, Jeff Loveness, who has also been tapped to write "Avengers: The Kang Dynasty" and it's hard not to empathize with both for the logic gymnastics required to back Ant-Man and his gang into this conflict. Peyton Reed's 'Ant-Man' films have generally served as a kind of palate cleanser to the world-ending stakes of the larger Marvel Cinematic Universe. But Kang, for what we can assume are bigger story needs, needs to be more serious. They use their particle technology to blow up the tiny pie. He gets to be the wide-eyed middle-aged fanboy of the group in those films.

Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania (PG). 125 minutes, opens on Thursday. 2 stars. The story: Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) and Hope van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly) ...

The story: Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) and Hope van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly), known as Ant-Man and The Wasp, are in a relationship and celebrated as heroes. The Quantum Realm, where most of the film takes place, is not where scale-of-reference fun can be had, because nothing there resembles life as we know it. Lang took the audience along with him when he had fun with his powers of shrinking and growing.

But the Quantum Realm, the dangerous realm from where the gang rescued Janet Van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer), still poses a significant threat, especially after ...

Newton is a smart casting choice and we can only assume Cassie, who has her own superhero suit already, will be a huge part of the MCU in the future. At least Quantumania has one of the best casts in a Marvel film. Visually, the film is messy and flat; the CGI is shockingly poor and the action looks muddled. In Quantumania, by making it a place where laws of physics seem to apply and where several different tribes live, it just feels pretty safe. The Quantum Realm has always been presented to us as a hugely dangerous, abstract space that should be avoided at all costs and that no life could exist there. It officially kickstarts Marvel’s Phase V of films and gives us its next big bad: Jonathan Majors’ Kang the Conqueror.

Next to Thor, Iron Man, and Captain America, Paul Rudd's Scott Lang, a.k.a. Ant-Man, brings an everyman quality to the MCU that makes the typically snarky humor ...

It’s clear that Quantumania is setting Kang up as the new Thanos, a uniquely powerful and evil villain who will require an expanded team of superheroes to defeat. A large part of that stems from the film’s villain, Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors), and his particularly formidable powers and designs on destroying entire timelines in the metaverse—something that he’d already done before being banished to the Quantum Realm. Sure, the filmmakers throw in what amounts to an extended cameo for Bill Murray as Lord Krylar, and Gregg Turkington’s return as Scott’s former Baskin Robbins manager is a diverting enough reminder that the Ant-Man films have featured both stars of On Cinema at the Cinema.

Uh oh. That was my first thought when I saw the review scores rolling in for Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania, the third Ant-Man movie, but a seemingly ...

I do wonder if a few more reviews may sink Quantumania below Eternals, though I will say in the middle to bottom ranking order of MCU movies by critic scores, I think they got a long wrong. That’s obviously something DC can’t say, as the DCEU boasts a number of films under that mark, and early on often split between high audience scores for Snyder-era films and low critic scores. Taking place almost entirely in the Quantum Zone, the film is in turn almost completely CGI, and even in the trailers it looked like that could be a problem. Second, since the movie is actually out now, user scores are in and they are not just higher than critics, which you might expect, but much higher, currently at an 84%. That’s a dismal score for an MCU feature, and marks only the second time that an MCU movie has had a “rotten” (below 60%) score on the site, the first time being Eternals in 2021. The thrill isn't just gone, it's been buried beneath a swarm of plot contrivances and truly hideous CGI.” [Whynow](https://whynow.co.uk/read/ant-man-and-the-wasp-quantumania-review): “Visually, the film is messy and flat; the CGI is shockingly poor and the action looks muddled. It says something that out of 30+ MCU features in a decade and a half, that there are literally only two with sub 60% scores. Of course, many MCU fans may wait and see what audience scores are like. But I would be surprised if this was a huge disparity as this always seemed like a pretty risky film. What’s wrong with the movie? We know there’s currently a visual effects shortage in Hollywood, in part because of the demands of places like Marvel, and perhaps this was too much work given not enough time and the end result is just…not very good. They were never really considered top-tier Marvel movies but this is a huge drop.

It's a real indictment of any movie as unrelentingly loud, bombastic and big when you turn to your plus one in the screening room and find them asleep.

The post-Endgame era of Marvel has been crying out for some kindling, something to throw the afterburners on; this is just more ugly cement. In the meantime, daughter Cassie (Kathryn Newton), who has seen no end of shit and is presumably in desperate need of a therapist, has been getting herself in heaps of trouble, protesting the crisis of homelessness in the wake of the snap. The object, then, is to get back to Big Earth: fortunately, Janet knows a guy from her own 30-year marooning down on the Quantum side, who they meet up with in a jovial (again, It's a shame he's given so much of that aforementioned, dawdling exposition to deal with. It's around an hour in that we're properly acquainted with Majors' Kang, by far the most compelling element at play: he emanates movie star gravitas, helped by the fact that he's the only guy who really seems committed to the bit. It's a real indictment of any movie as unrelentingly loud, bombastic and big when you turn to your plus one in the screening room and find them asleep.

Domestically, the superhero threequel is expected to make between $95 million and $100 million in its first three days, according to Variety, with the number ...

[Peyton Reed](https://collider.com/the-mandalorian-volume-technology-peyton-reed-comments/), who also helmed Ant-Man 1 and 2, declared heading into this one that he no longer wanted his films to be perceived as counter-programming within the MCU, and made it a point to craft a more epic narrative. Reviews for Ant-Man 3 have been generally muted, otherwise; this is only the second MCU film ever, for instance, to get a “rotten” score on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. The first Ant-Man tapped out with $519 million globally, while the second film finished with a little more than $620 million worldwide. Ant-Man 3 also happens to be only the second MCU film since 2019’s Avengers: Endgame to score a China release. [Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania](https://collider.com/tag/ant-man-and-the-wasp-quantumania/) have been lowered heading into its opening weekend. Domestically, the superhero threequel is expected to make between $95 million and $100 million in its first three days, according to [Variety](https://variety.com/2023/film/box-office/box-office-preview-ant-man-and-the-wasp-quantumania-opening-weekend-1235522559/), with the number increasing to $110 million across the four-day extended President’s Day weekend.

The third film in Marvel's Ant-Man trilogy sends the MCU's tinest titans into a subatomic universe, where they — and we the viewers — get stuck.

The characters of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, at least, are flat. Just look at the standard line item in the budget for, say, the Mysterious Glowing Object That's Terribly Terribly Important To Everyone In Whichever Marvel Movie This Happens To Be — in this case, that yellow orb thingy with all those metal rings flying around inside it that Kang wants, for reasons I can't remember now. ... Oh and also throw in a few bucks on coconut oil while you're at it. The voice actors record their tracks in separate sound booths at separate times. In previous Ant-Man films, we may all have looked past the thinness of his characterization, because the charming Ruddishness of the performance blinded us to it. She might as well be one of the CGI barstools.) But as I sat there watching Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, I started to wonder if perhaps, back when we as nerdy little kids wished for it, all those long years ago, someone snuck a monkey's paw into the whole affair. But in absolutely no way does it look like they did, and it sure as hell doesn't feel like they did. They could have made a film together at any time during that period and now, finally, here they are and here it is. When we eventually get a The Making Of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, we might well learn that those three actors actually filmed that scene together. Even more mind-boggling: This third Ant-Man film posits the purple, time-traveling despot Kang the Conqueror as a bad guy to take seriously. This time out, it's the entire Ant-Family that gets sucked down into the MCU's own microscopic Whoville, with its sunless, surreal, slimy Color Out of Space production design.

Jonathan Majors is the main event as Kang the Conqueror, but there's another villain that delights in "Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania."

Which is fitting for a villain with such a big head. Kang the Conqueror is, without a doubt, the gravest threat of them all, so grave, in fact, the fourth Avengers film has his name in the title (Avengers: The Kang Dynasty). (now that the MCU has begun meddling with the multiverse, these sorts of things are possible), the Mechanized Organism Designed Only for Killing. is a floating menace with the canon-correct colossal head. Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania arrives in theaters on February 17, and the reviews are already calling it a mind-melting, psychedelic sci-fi extravaganza and a stellar way to kick off Marvel’s Phase 5. You hang on his every word; he makes vengeance and genocide sound like the most hypnotically casual of propositions.” Over at [The Hollywood Reporter](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/ant-man-and-the-wasp-quantumania-review-paul-rudd-evangeline-lilly-jonathan-majors-1235319646/), critic Frank Scheck said Majors “invests his performance with such an arrestingly quiet stillness and ambivalence that you’re on edge every moment he’s on screen.” won’t have the same origin story as the one from the comics, of course, but he’s got a big role to play. M.O.D.O.K. The Quantum Realm is filled with bizarre creatures, wild tribes, and all sorts of dangers. If you don’t want to know anything more about Quantuamania, now’s a great time to stop reading. Ant-Man defeated Yellowjacket in the first film (obviously), sabotaging his suit and shrinking him to bits. If you’ve been keeping up with director Peyton Reed’s film, you know by now it introduces the next Big Bad in the MCU—Jonathan Majors’ Kang the Conqueror.

When shrinking superhero Scott Lang (Rudd) meets Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors) in the subatomic Quantum Realm in the first scenes the actors filmed ...

In 2018’s “Ant-Man and the Wasp,” Hank and Janet were reunited after she spent 30 years stuck in the Quantum Realm. Every time she reprises the role, "I feel like I have to start from scratch because she's so different,” Lilly says. [Jonathan Majors](https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/movies/2022/11/21/devotion-jonathan-majors-creed-marvel-kang/10718390002/)) in the subatomic Quantum Realm in the first scenes the actors filmed together, “the beats per minute felt different,” Rudd says. We also know what it is wear our failure or when we hide our failure,” Majors adds. Just like the Avengers' nemesis Thanos, Kang is a complex guy Marvel movie fans will spend a lot of time wi over the next few years. “Some people might have been involved with (Janet) when she was down there in the realm.” “I love that we have this very intense history together,” Pfeiffer says. “Our story in the Quantum Realm was really like we were in kind of a time warp.” “I want to go to that place.” “It's really easy when things are tough to just let it take you down and she didn't. "If you were to ask Scott Lang, it's a dad before a superhero.” Did you like the good guys' time-traveling escapades in "Avengers: Endgame"?

This is only the second Marvel Cinematic Universe film to earn a Rotten rating. Jonathan Majors shines as Kang the Conqueror, but the film is an overstuffed ...

"Michael Pena's absence should have been a warning," wrote Kristy Puchko in her review of "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania" for Mashable. "Ant-Man and the Wasp in Quantumania" held a 53% "rotten" rating from 148 reviews, as of Wednesday afternoon. "The result is an undercooked, overstuffed action movie that feels like a shadow of better pulpy adventure sendups before it." to buckle at the knees," O'Sullivan wrote. "Ultimately, 'Quantumania' does a middling job of both. The film itself is anything but light. There, they face off against Kang, a dimension-hopping tyrant who is trying to escape from the realm after being exiled there for his rampages across time and space. (Majors will also appear as the antagonist in next month's "Creed III." Critics praised Majors' performance in the film, as the actor was able to bring gravitas to the the role and exude the kind of menace that made previous big bad Thanos (Josh Brolin) such a compelling, and threatening, villain. He was introduced in the Disney+ show "Loki." However, Kang's larger-than-life presence overshadowed the quirky and charming narrative that fans have come to expect from Ant-Man side quests, critics say. Peyton Reed's previous Ant-Man installments offered the MCU a smaller-than-life look at what it means to be a hero.

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is a sci-fi adventure in the mold of Thor: Ragnarok.

The bigger, more general theme is the strength of the little guy, even in the face of overwhelming power. Cassie (Newton) is the heart of the film, Hank (Douglas) does the science and Janet (Pfeiffer) is the plot powerhouse whose worst nightmare catches up to her. Quantumania sets up the future of the MCU, and also manages to pack in some other bigger themes. Still, the number of times characters refuse to divulge crucial information to string out the supposed suspense ("No time to explain!" If Quantumania doesn't quite know what to do with Ant-Man, it really doesn't know what to do with the other title character. Fans have been prepped for the arrival of Kang, who was first seen in the Disney Plus series Loki, and the movie does a fine job introducing the villainous characters to fresh viewers. It's a breezy, bizarro sci-fi adventure in the mold of Thor: Ragnarok, as familiar faces from the Marvel roster drop into an alien realm for fun and fighting before inspiring the locals to rise up and overthrow a hateful dictator. The weirdness of the micro-Mad Max setting gives rise to some entertaining jokes, arresting visuals and one or two mind-bending set pieces. Old enemies come looking for her and her fam, forcing her to face up to what she did during exile. Having rescued Janet van Dyne from the quantum realm in the previous Ant-Man and the Wasp film (and you'd be forgiven for remembering basically nothing about that movie), the Ant-gang is sucked back into the itty-bitty universe layered below the atoms of our full-size world. Kathryn Newton plays the now-teenaged Cassie Lang, Scott's daughter, and in the quantum realm they encounter William Jackson Harper, Katy O'Brian and Bill Murray (yes, that Bill Murray). [Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania](https://www.cnet.com/culture/entertainment/ant-man-and-the-wasp-quantumania-trailer-plot-cast-release-date/) is in theaters Friday, Feb.

The loopy humor and style of the first two “Ant-Man” movies have been flattened by the M.C.U.'s franchise formatting.

The feeling of giddy wonder is what distinguishes the first two “Ant-Man” films; they help to restore the brand name of Marvel to a common noun and to a verb, and they do so starting from the top, with a sense of the filmmaker’s own experience—his ardent curiosity, free-ranging inventiveness, and imaginative sympathy. What’s absent is a sense of experience—conveying to viewers the extraordinary and quasi-miraculous aspects of what the characters are undergoing, observing, and doing. The best thing about “Quantumania” is, surprisingly, its script (by Jeff Loveness), which is like saying that the best thing about a building is its blueprint. The occasional spectacular idea—such as the weirdness unleashed when Scott is caught in a “probability storm”—gets submerged in a sludge of imagery that offers little but the concept itself, unmoored from its surroundings, its implications, and, above all, the perspective of the characters. It’s sadly appropriate for the degree zero of superhero-franchise synthetics to have been reached, or asymptotically approximated, in the infinitesimal realm in which “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” is set. The scant grounding and bare inner life of the characters give the remarkable actors little to work with. (The MacGuffin is a “multiversal engine core” that Kang needs.) They also encounter the principled underground leader Jentorra (Katy M. The second film in the cycle, “ [Ant-Man and the Wasp](https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-front-row/ant-man-and-the-wasp-should-have-been-the-godfather-part-ii-of-superhero-movies),” felt tethered—Reed unleashed intermittent flourishes of inspiration, but now they were completely bound by the M.C.U.’s gravitational field, pulled down to the franchise’s established map, and sent forth to do their duty. Its modelling on the “Star Wars” template is made all too explicit by a scene (the liveliest in the film) that’s a parody of the celebrated cantina set piece. (As one of the newly arrived fivesome exclaims, “There’s quantum people in the Quantum Realm.”) It’s not just humans but also a humanoid who can read minds (William Jackson Harper), plus vaguely human-shaped beings with glowing blue heads, others with green floret-topped heads that Hank likens to broccoli, lizardy hybrids, jellyfish-like floaters, gigantic flying stingrays, and buildings that are alive. Hank Pym (Michael Douglas), who devised the technology with which they shrink down to bug size yet exert colossal force; and Janet van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer), Hank’s wife and Hope’s mother (and the original Wasp), who was trapped for thirty years in the infinitesimal, subatomic Quantum Realm. Just as the trouble with Bible-thumping is the thumping, not the Bible, the problem with superhero-franchise movies isn’t the source material but the uses to which it’s put.

With the third movie in its shrinking superhero series, Marvel Studios tries its best to turn what has thus far been its silliest franchise into a proper ...

Even so, Quantumania works as a culmination of the Ant-Man series, a way to start things in motion for Phase 5, and a promising roadmap of where the Multiverse Saga is going. Cassie is driven by the desire to stand up to those in power, and Kang just happens to be a power-mad dictator for everyone to resist, but Quantumania doesn’t stop to explore any of those ideas. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania has just enough entertaining moments and a heartfelt family story, plus knockout performances in Michelle Pfeiffer’s Janet van Dyne and Jonathan Majors’ Kang the Conqueror, to make up for its more underdeveloped aspects. Similarly, we meet a band of characters in the Quantum Realm, but much like their home they don’t add much to Quantumania beyond a few jokes and a way to move the plot forward. [a variant of this infamous Marvel Comics villain in the Loki Disney+ show](/feature/163708/kang-the-conqueror-explained-who-is-the-rumored-villain-of-ant-man-3), but whereas He Who Remains was flamboyant and wild-eyed, Kang is steely and sinister. No time is wasted in establishing the drama between the various members of the Pym/Lang family unit, which is good because there’s not much of it before they’re whisked off to the wondrous-yet-dangerous Quantum Realm and must sort it all out while in the midst of an action-packed adventure.

Marvel's tiniest Avenger works on a much larger scale as Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania launches the MCU's next big bad.

[also played by Majors](https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/kang-the-conqueror-he-who-remains-different-in-the-mcu/), at the end of the first season of Loki—is complex, quietly malevolent, and imbued with a great sense of frightening power. In the case of the third Ant-Man movie, bigger does mean better, but not without a few growing pains. The Realm itself is a roiling, psychedelic, cosmic playground right out of the best sci-fi pulp magazine covers of the ’50s and ‘60s. Admittedly, it would be hard for someone to walk into Quantumania stone cold, although not impossible (you really only have to see the previous Ant-Man movies and maybe Endgame to truly get the gist). There are some mind-blowing visual set pieces as well, including one involving a multiplying army of Ant-Men that dive deep into the imagery and lore of classic science fiction, while the central drama has already garnered comparisons to the space opera of Star Wars. On the other hand, the first act also introduces us to the wonders of the Quantum Realm. Those themes also find their way into the character dynamics of Scott, Cassie, and the rest of the Ant-Family, with the relationship between father and daughter central to the movie and the source of most of its emotional pull. Thus the build-up to Kang is unnecessarily drawn out, and padded even more by a pointless [Phase 4 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe](https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/the-best-and-worst-moments-of-mcu-phase-4/) now in the rearview mirror, Marvel Studios has chosen its arguably most peripheral sub-franchise to officially launch its next big supervillain and overarching storyline. It’s exemplified by Lang and what some are already calling the Ant-Family: his daughter Cassie (Kathryn Newton), his partner in crime-fighting and romance, Hope Van Dyne/the Wasp (Evangeline Lilly), and the parental figures of Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) and Janet Van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer). In fact, it’s Pfeiffer’s Janet who provides the trigger for this story, which makes the elder Wasp one of its true main characters (arguably at the expense of Lilly’s Hope, who is present throughout but does not get a noticeable arc of her own). While the movie gets off to a creaky start and incorporates a few elements that don’t quite land, the heart that has made the previous Ant-Man movies so endearing in their own way is still there.

Marvel Studios' Phase Five official kicks off with the big-screen introduction of the Avengers' next arch enemy.

The bigger Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania lands at the box office, the better the future looks for the rest of the MCU through 2023 and into the rest of Marvel’s Phase Five. Last year, the MCU was in the same boat as the rest of Hollywood, watching as theatrical revenue slowly improved and got to far better and profitable levels, but still not yet at pre-pandemic levels. If mainstream public interest is “settling” downward to something more in the $700-900+ million range as the average and $1+ billion reserved for breakout franchises and team-up event films, then it speaks to the sustainability of interest in superhero genre films. So the “inevitability” of Marvel’s box office dominance has been shaken through the pandemic and things still haven’t returned fully to the level of audience embrace seen during Marvel’s pre-pandemic Infinity Saga era. This is the Ant-Man franchise’s attempt to swing for the fences. Internationally, I expect an even bigger result to the tune of at least $150+ million and potentially — albeit unlikely — as high as $200 million across the same four-day period, depending on how hungry for Marvel content audiences are in China.

In the last eight years, Marvel has released more than two dozen films and TV series (that's just counting the official MCU titles) and breezed through two ...

[Spider-Man: No Way Home](https://www.avclub.com/film/reviews/spider-man-no-way-home-2021) and [Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness](https://www.avclub.com/film/reviews/doctor-strange-in-the-multiverse-of-madness-2022) both deal with the concept of the multiverse, which will come into play a bit in Quantumania. When Sylvie and Loki confront him in the Citadel at the End of Time, he tells them about the other, far more nasty, variants of himself that fought a multiversal war. He may not realize it, but he has Ant-Man to thank for propelling the case with the Tesseract right into his path. Scott is the one who suggests they pull off a time heist, retrieving all of the infinity stones from the past and bringing everyone back. In search of a more permanent solution, Hope, Hank, and Janet build a smaller version of the quantum tunnel and load it into the back of Luis’ van. They help break him out of house arrest anyway (by replacing him with a giant ant) when they suspect that he may be the key to bringing Janet back. Impressed, Hank gives Scott a suit of his own loaded with Pym particles, which can change the distance between atoms, allowing the person wearing the suit to shrink down to the size of an ant (and also grow to the size of a building, but Scott doesn’t know that yet). Without the three of them to bring him out, Scott is trapped in the Quantum Realm indefinitely. Scott winds up in prison again, but this time he’s sent to a high-security floating prison known as the Raft. There’s also a hint that Hope’s mother, Janet, who Hank believed to be lost in the Quantum Realm, may still be alive. The important thing is that the warehouse turns out to be the Avengers compound. Hank has an estranged daughter of his own, Hope van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly), chairman of the board at Pym Technologies, who was the deciding vote in kicking him out of his own company.

Surely, someone made a bet on this, so pay up: They've really made three “Ant-Man” movies now. Here's what you need to know about the next MCU flick.

It’s almost a parody of the much-derided MCU style of humor, at times, with characters cocking their heads to the side and a literal “Well, that happened” moment. “Quantumania” has the goods. Worth noting: “Quantumania” was scripted by Jeff Loveness, while the first two “Ant-Man” movies were written by teams that included Edgar Wright (on the first film) and Rudd himself. “Quantumania” feels like a “Star Wars”-esque space opera, even if the setting is far below us instead of way above. (Disney owns both Marvel and the “Star Wars” franchise; there’s a weirder alternate timeline where they just said “eff it” and did some shameless I.P. Try as you might, it’s impossible to separate a movie like “Quantumania” from its larger franchise. The improbability of an “Ant-Man” franchise is made even more surreal by the presence of screen legends Pfeiffer and Douglas. Without getting too into the weeds, the MCU’s Hope van Dyne is a hodgepodge of various comic book characters. As it turns out, more happened down there than a horrified Janet has let on, which becomes apparent when the whole family is sucked down to the Quantum Realm and into the clutches of the mad despot Kang (Jonathan Majors). She’s almost entirely lost in “Quantumania,” relegated to saving Ant-Man’s hide a few times while the script tells us how much they love each other, even though you’d be hard pressed to recall a single Hope van Dyne line. — with director Peyton Reed’s “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.” In this installment of the franchise, Ant-Man, aka Scott Lang (Rudd), has settled into his life as a world-renowned, Thanos-quashing Avenger, which is a far cry from his previous life as an ex-con ne’er-do-well.

Like all Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) movies, there's always a nice treat at the end and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is no different.

Either way, it looks like we would be dealing with a lot of Kang variants, not just in major movies, but on the small screen too. If you consider that Kang is a time traveller from the future, Immortus is the future, older version of Kang from another universe. In that scene, we see Loki and Mobius (Owen Wilson) attending a carnival show led by that's right — another variant of Kang! Now that Kang the Conqueror is gone and the variants liberated and unafraid, who knows what they'll be up to? Hey, it's time travel, the multiverse and from the comics. The trio are seemingly the ones who banished Kang into the Quantum Realm, and it looks like Immortus is their leader here.

The latest installment in the Marvel franchise never takes flight despite its hard-working cast, led by Paul Rudd and a new villain played by Jonathan ...

It’s there that Hope’s mother, Janet (Michelle Pfeiffer), as you’re laboriously reminded, spent many enigmatic years and where, after the some narrative delay, the mysteries of that adventure are revealed. It isn’t pretty; the palette runs toward dun and dull red with slashes of marine blue. Directed by Peyton Reed from Scott Loveness’s barely-there script (the first movies each had multiple writers), “Quantumania” bops along innocuously at first, buoyed by the charm and professionalism of its performers and by your narrative expectations. the Wasp (Evangeline Lilly), suit up, flying high and zipping low to save their family and the world amid quips, the usual obstacles and household drama. Three years later, the agreeably buoyant sequel “ [Ant-Man and the Wasp](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/04/movies/ant-man-and-the-wasp-review-marvel-paul-rudd.html)” followed, and was an even greater success. A hash of recycled ideas and schtick, it borrows from Frank Herbert’s “Dune,” the “Star Wars” cycle and Marvel’s own annals and largely serves as a launching pad for a new villain, Kang (Jonathan Majors).

The likeable actor stars alongside Michelle Pfeiffer, Michael Douglas and Kathryn Newton in a multiverse extravaganza.

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Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania has two end-credits scenes, and they are both essential to understand the future of the MCU.

Victor uses Timely town to hide Chronopolis, the city from which Kang the Conqueror can access any point in the timeline and pursue his conquering endeavors. Scarlet Centurion is a version of Kang who wears battle armor to fight his enemies, using technology to defeat the heroes that kicked him out of Ancient Egypt. So, the man on stage could be the same Kang that Scott Lang thinks he killed in the Quantum Realm. In the scene, the trio of Kanga discusses how the Exiled One was killed by an Avenger. The second end credits scene takes us to a science presentation in the early 19th century. The first end credits scene takes us to a place beyond space and time, where three Variants of Kang look at the myriad of timelines before their eyes. The classic Scarlet Centurion uniform wouldn’t translate well to live-action, which gives Marvel Studios a great reason to redesign it. So, Kang uses his genius-level intellect to slow down his aging and use his powers to fight his Conqueror Variant. [Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania](https://collider.com/tag/ant-man-and-the-wasp-quantumania/) has the ambitious task of reigniting fans’ excitement, introducing Cassie Lang (Kathryn Newton) to the superhero life, and explaining why Kang the Conqueror ( [Jonathan Majors](https://collider.com/ant-man-and-the-wasp-quantumania-poster-jonathan-majors/)) was chosen as the main villain of the MCU's Multiversal Saga. In Marvel Comics, once Kang got bored with his life in the future, he traveled to Ancient Egypt, where he used advanced technology to become pharaoh and rule the country’s people with an iron fist. Rama-Tut was eventually dethroned by time-traveling Avengers and other Marvel heroes, leading Kang to more adventures across the timeline where he assumed many different identities. In the end-credits scenes, we also see Immortus, a different Variant of Kang.

Wondering how to watch Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania? We have all of the details on the latest MCU movie, from showtimes to streaming info.

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is the MCU's third Ant-Man movie and the first of Phase 5. Ultimately, to save the world that he is in and return to the future that he knows, Barry’s only hope is to race for his life. [Vault Comics' NSFW Sci-Fi Series Money Shot Gets a Sequel2h ago - The XXX-plorers embark on a new interstellar adventure.](/articles/money-shot-comes-again-revives-the-sexy-sci-fi-comic-series) [Loki and Secret Invasion Are Reportedly the Only Two Marvel Shows Coming in 20234h ago - Marvel initially announced up to six shows would be released this year.](/articles/loki-and-secret-invasion-are-reportedly-the-only-two-mcu-shows-definitely-coming-in-2023) [ISSUE NO. Super-Hero partners Scott Lang and Hope Van Dyne return to continue their adventures as Ant-Man and the Wasp. The film runs for a total of 2 hours and 5 minutes including credits. Children of the Corn, written and directed by Kurt Wimmer, opens in theaters on March 3, 2023, and will be available on Demand and digital on March 21, 2023.](/videos/children-of-the-corn-2023-official-red-band-trailer) Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania will be available in most theaters with early showtimes this afternoon and a wider U.S. Wondering where you can stream the first 2 Ant-Man movies online in 2023? To find when and where you can watch the movie near you, check the local showtime listings at the links below: Marvel is kicking off Phase 5 of the MCU with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. The franchise's last three films came to Disney Plus 83, 63, and 78 days after their theatrical debuts — that's The MCU's third Ant-Man movie, Quantumania is the foundational film for Marvel's latest phase, which continues The Multiverse Saga that began with Phase 4.

Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania has two credits scenes, and one of them sets the tone for the next phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The other brings us ...

You can’t get in unless you shrink to the tiniest size, and you can’t get out unless you have the tech to navigate it. They don’t like that someone who can kill a Kang is out there in the multiverse with the power to ruin their plans. Given how powerful Kang the Conqueror of the quantum realm was, the scene sets up the Kang variants as the big villains of the MCU. It opens in what appears to be the 1910s or 1920s on a man named Victor Timely. While the Kangs are indeed happy that the Kang they considered a major threat is now dead, they’re worried about the power that Ant-Man possesses. Right before the scene ends, Loki tells Mobius that Timely is the most fearsome and powerful man he’s ever encountered. And the credits scenes do just that, possibly setting up the MCU for years to come (thanks in large part to Majors, who will most definitely be back in a big, bad way). One would think the Kangs would be pleased by this news since they’re the ones who sent him away. Our heroes escaped the quantum realm and reunited with Hope’s dad and original Ant-Man Hank Pym (Michael Douglas), Hope’s mom and the original Wasp Janet Van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer), and Scott’s daughter Cassie Lang (Kathryn Newton). The other brings us back to a beloved Marvel antihero. Together they defeated Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors), a powerful villain who sees all parallel universes as threats and has the power to eliminate them. The Wasp (Evangeline Lilly) saved the day.

Between Kang and the Quantum Realm, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania's ending promises to bend the MCU's timeline.

In the end-credits scene, hundreds of Kangs are summoned to discuss how the Avengers of Earth-616 are messing with the Multiverse and might prove dangerous to their plans. Kang tries to jump through the portal himself, in an attempt to finally regain his freedom, but Scott stays back to fight the villain and stop him from getting out of the Quantum Realm. And once Hope returns to the Quantum Realm to help with the fight, they manage to destroy the Multiverse Core by throwing Pym particles at it. Well, almost, as Kang emerges from the wreckage of his citadel and uses the last blast of his armor to stop Scott from returning too. But Cassie manages to track her father down with her Quantum radar and reopens the portal, saving everyone. Hope also comes to Scott’s help at the very last second, and together they manage to reshrink the Multiverse Core, fixing it and allowing Kang to use it to escape the Quantum Realm. All hope seems lost, but our heroes decide to fight back with the help of Hank’s ants that got sucked into the Quantum Realm. It’s then that MODOK throws himself against Kang, using his body to disrupt the energy field, allowing the ants to rip off the villain’s armor and drag him away. As much as Janet wishes to go back to her family, she cannot allow Kang to escape and return to his conquering ways. When they finally manage to do the impossible, and Kang’s ship is restored, Kang’s neurotech is powered up again, giving him control of his combat armor. The movie introduces Cassie Lang ( [Kathryn Newton](https://collider.com/tag/kathryn-newton/)) to the superhero life, the main attraction of Quantumania is undoubtedly Kang the Conqueror ( [Jonathan Majors](https://collider.com/tag/jonathan-majors/)), the villain of the next big MCU crossover, Avengers: The Kang Dynasty. Janet and Kang become friends, working together to fix the core.

Jonathan Majors elevates what is otherwise a lower-tier Marvel movie, leaving enough intrigue for what's to come in the MCU.

That said, Kang's motivations are left pretty unclear, surely to be explored further in future appearances (with the upcoming "Avengers: The Kang Dynasty," Marvel has already dedicated a movie's subtitle to the character). It always seemed odd that Kang, the next big bad after Thanos, would make his theatrical debut in the third "Ant-Man" movie (his MCU debut was in the Disney+ series "Loki," a high point of phase four). Janet was previously stuck there for 30 years, leaving her to explain to the rest of the family what exactly the Quantum Realm is, the different civilizations living there and how Kang came to power. Majors as Kang the Conqueror is easily the best thing to happen in the MCU since the victory lap of a credits sequence rolled in "Avengers: Endgame." That was now almost four years ago, and so much since has felt like the Marvel machine spinning its wheels or just churning out content for the sake of content. "Is Jonathan Majors the greatest living actor?"

The latest movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is here, with Paul Rudd's Ant-Man back for a third outing. This time, the subatomic superhero dives into the ...

Scott brushes off his worries, and there is time for him to breathe; the rest of Phase Five won’t have Kang in any major way (with the exception of Loki Season 2). In the epilogue, everyone returns to San Francisco when Scott begins to worry that Kang is still alive. Telling Kang that they “both have to lose,” Scott blows up the gateway that seals Kang into a deeper dimension. Towards the climax of the movie, Kang prepares to activate his machine to finally escape the Quantum Realm. Naturally the conflict comes down to just Ant-Man and Kang beating each other up, both trying to stop the other from entering a gateway Cassie built connecting the Quantum Realm to their real world. Below, we break down the end of Quantumania and how Ant-Man’s battle with Kang might have longer, lasting repercussions to the MCU.

MODOK began his Marvel Comics life as a formidable foe of the Avengers, but his modern history is full comedy. The character debuts in the MCU in Ant-Man ...

And then there’s the joke of the MODOK variant. His original incarnation is all about playing up his grotesque look as being the consequence of his enhanced intelligence (he’s all brain and no brawn — you get it). It’s just hard getting around the fact that his design looks pretty silly in the art style of today’s comics. And, as MODOK himself bellowed at Captain America in his first appearance, the scientists did their work “too well.” MODOK subsequently took over AIM, and reigned the organization supreme for many years. It seems possible, even likely, that Stoll is still playing Darren Cross in Quantumania, and whatever’s happened to him in the Quantum Realm since last we saw him, it’s turned him into the MCU’s version of MODOK. But now, thanks to Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018), we know that if you shrink down far enough you make it to the Quantum Realm, a strange world hidden within the subatomic structures of the universe.

It's the beginning of a dynasty for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Here's what to know about the future of the MCU through the mid-credits of 'Quantumania.'

In the comics, the Council of Kangs are led by Prime Kang, but the MCU is tweaking things so that the Council of Kangs are ruled by some of Kang’s other known personas from the comics. The Council of Kangs also keep the multiverse in check to their benefit, erasing whole timelines and universes when it’s convenient to them. [Council of Ricks](https://rickandmorty.fandom.com/wiki/Council_of_Ricks)) and the DC TV series The Flash ( [Council of Wells](https://arrow.fandom.com/wiki/Council_of_Wells)), the Council of Kangs builds on the idea that the multiverse is vast and infinite, and that a supreme intellectual being like Kang exists in almost all of them. Behold, this is the Council of Kangs. Three strange beings who look just like Kang but aren’t Kang — at least, not the one who appears in the majority of Quantumania — discuss their ire that their grip on the multiverse is now close to being discovered. [Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania](https://www.inverse.com/entertainment/ant-man-the-wasp-quantumania-review) is now here, kicking off the beginning of Phase Five of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

The MCU's third Ant-Man movie, Quantumania is the foundational film for Marvel's latest phase, which continues The Multiverse Saga that began with Phase 4. It's ...

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is the MCU's third Ant-Man movie and the first of Phase 5. Super-Hero partners Scott Lang and Hope Van Dyne return to continue their adventures as Ant-Man and the Wasp. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania will be available in most theaters with early showtimes this afternoon and a wider U.S. Wondering where you can stream the first 2 Ant-Man movies online in 2023? The MCU's third Ant-Man movie, Quantumania is the foundational film for Marvel's latest phase, which continues The Multiverse Saga that began with Phase 4. Marvel is kicking off Phase 5 of the MCU with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.

Should you stay after the credits for the latest Marvel movie?

In the review, IGN's Joshua Yehl said, "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania has just enough heart, humor, and excellent performances to make up for its more underdeveloped aspects." [how to watch Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania](https://www.ign.com/articles/how-to-watch-ant-man-and-the-wasp-quantumania-paul-rudd), but if you're wondering whether or not it's on Disney+ yet the answer is simple: nope. Let's make this easy: Do you want to know if there’s a post-credits scene in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania?