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

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania might be essential viewing for diehard Marvel fans, but it holds little allure outside of that. It features new villain Kang the Conqueror, who seems poised to be the next overarching bad guy across multiple Marvel films, so it’s a shame that this movie is the character’s grand introduction.

The Ant-Man films are known for their humour, but aside from a few funny cutaways, where a dramatic moment quickly shifts to a comedic one, there’s very little to laugh at. It’s the film’s lack of tension or stakes that makes the absence of humour that much more noticeable. Ultimately, it feels as if nothing of consequence happens in Quantumania.

The side characters are generic and impossible to root for in the absence of any interesting developments, and even the plot itself feels like a side quest in a grander story. If all of this is happening in the quantum realm, what’s the point of any of it? It reminds me more of the Rick and Morty episode The Rick’s Must be Crazy than a Marvel film. Besides, Quantumania sorely lacks any of that show’s humour (which is especially unfortunate give that the film’s screenwriter, Jeff Loveness, is also a writer for the series).

That’s not to say that the movie is a complete failure. Although there are some jarring moments where it feels like the…