Movie Review: Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023)

While Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania isn’t the worst movie in the MCU, it isn’t worth watching either. I am glad I didn’t watch this in theaters, but I can’t justify streaming it either. The movie just feels lazy, uninspired, and anticlimactic.

An accident sends the Ant family into the quantum realm where they find another universe and a unique culture to go with it. But an evil tyrant has taken over the quantum realm and has set his sights on the Ant family. Can they beat the tyrant and save the universe?

There isn’t anything spectacular about this movie. I struggle to remember what happened, and its plot will probably fade into obscurity as soon as I publish this review. The acting feels muted, the writing isn’t good, and the action is boring. The biggest issue with this movie is the silly tone it carries throughout. Instead of building proper tension and suspense, it cuts it with a joke or gag that doesn’t always work. There are characters in this movie that exist to be a joke, never contributing anything meaningful to the plot. Even the lazy sequel bait is riddled with overused jokes that don’t land.

Another issue I have with this film is that they underutilize the villain. Instead of developing the villain and giving him a proper presence, they waste on the pointless drama that no one cares about. The villain only exists when he becomes convenient. Outside of these moments, he doesn’t exist. The tension in this movie comes from poorly written family issues, and King feels like an afterthought. We are told he is powerful and evil, and then he is easily beaten by ex-Machina. King could have been an interesting character if everything about him wasn’t so vague and he showed up to do anything meaningful. 

The action of this movie feels like a generic attempt to emulate the rest of the MCU. The build-up to the climax is muddied by the silly tone this movie insists on having. As fun, as this movie tries to be, it never is. The big fight at the end feels like every super hero last-stand fight, so I stopped caring.

I don’t recommend you watch Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. Everything takes too long to happen, the action isn’t fun, and the story is boring. It isn’t the worst MCU movie, but it is going to be one of the forgettable ones. Don’t pay for it. If you end up streaming it, throw it in the background so you can ignore all the boring bits. I recommend you skip this one unless you are super invested in the MCU. Even then, it is going to be a hard sell. 

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