In this FandomWire Video Essay, we explore what went wrong with Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania.
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Why Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania Was A Miss For Marvel
Antman and the Wasp: Quantumania was supposed to be the palette-cleansing opening to the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Phase Five. A highly anticipated entry in the long-running franchise that could elevate Paul Rudd’s status within the Avengers while introducing an intimidating new foe worthy of assembling the Avengers once again…. That’s what it was SUPPOSED to be. Instead, it may have acted more like Thanos and snapped away half of the MCU’s fanbase. Admittedly the film has its defenders. In fact, it may be the most divisive Marvel film in the shared universe to date. But divisive was the last thing Marvel needed following a string of lackluster entries in Phase Four and waning excitement among viewers. So where did the film go wrong? What could Marvel have done to ensure that Quantumania was the powerhouse jump start that the MCU needed? Well, there are lots of things. So, let’s grab a handful of Pym Particles and launch ourselves in the Quantum Realm to explore WHAT went wrong with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.
To understand where Quantumania went wrong we need to take a look back at the behemoth of quality that is the Infinity Saga, with special focus on Phase Three. This was the culmination of every little nod, hint, fan service, and Easter egg the previous two phases had left us, and with Avengers: Endgame brilliantly tying up nearly every loose thread, fans were wondering where the MCU could go and how it could top ten years of storytelling. Many thought it had peaked, and maybe they were right because by and large the output from Marvel Studios has been closer to the quality of Thor: The Dark World than it has been Captain America: The Winter Soldier. With Quantumania being a perfect example.
Phase Three had hit after hit, and years later the majority of those films still hold up. Phase Four, and seemingly Phase Five, do signal a major shift from the cookie-cutter formula Marvel Studios employed during the Infinity Saga, both with the style, direction, and content of the films. And the introduction of Disney Plus and its MCU series highlights a completely different brand of entertainment for Marvel to master. For instance, the biggest deviation from everything that came before was the divisive She-Hulk. Not only was it incredibly different from every other property thus far, it was a vehicle for the MCU to address many of the criticisms thrown at it with any regularity, and it did it all in a tongue-in-cheek, ‘you’ll either love it hate this’ style. From the way it handled the reintroduction of Daredevil, shifting him from the dark, mysterious, broody, and bloody character of the Netflix series to the much more joking and family-friendly gymnast we now have; to the way it broke the fourth wall to rewrite the ending in front of our very eyes, it can’t be argued that Marvel isn’t trying new things… not always successfully, but they’re trying.
Prior to the introduction of the Disney Plus series we were accustomed to repeated and consistent connections. Story beats from previous films became centerpieces of other films that followed, like the overarching storyline of The Winter Soldier. Now… we have islands. The MCU succeeds in many areas, but the biggest is the connectivity of the universe. The film and television strands snaking their way through properties connecting previously unconnected ideas and stories in the exact same way comics do on the written page. It’s something that seemed impossible prior to 2012’s ‘The Avengers.’ These islands we’re currently left with feature far less connectivity, and a direction that, while seemingly clear with regards to Kang, has an execution leaving plenty to be desired, and Quantumania is one of the primary offenders.
And perhaps one of the most glaring issues with Quantumania is in its presentation and visual style. At a time when the MCU is facing harsh critique for an overreliance on CGI, we’re presented with a two-hour story that is nearly all computer generated. Nearly the entirety of the film, with the exception of opening and closing bookends, takes place within the Quantum Realm: A cartoonish world of various hues and shades of purple that more closely resembles something out of a Spy Kids movie than the MCU. Even stranger, the civilization that exists within the realm is a far cry from the vacant and baren space we’ve seen within the Quantum Realm in previous installments.
Still, this may have worked if the film delivered a pitch-perfect villain. After all, a hero is only as strong as the foe they face. This should have been a slam dunk in Quantumania’s favor. The film was intended to be the first real look at the ethereal, time-traveling villain Kang the Conqueror. Touted to be the next big bad. Bigger, badder, more imposing, and more violent than Thanos. A man that had defeated more of the Avengers than time itself could keep track of.
This presents an amazing opportunity for the MCU. Anyone that has even a passing knowledge of Marvel Comics knows of the very real damage Kang the Conqueror has unleashed on Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. A complicated character with an even more complicated history. By using Kang as the next big bad, Marvel have afforded itself a wealth of interesting and exciting stories. A man with so many variants you’ll never really be sure exactly which Kang you’re meeting. Or when and where this Kang is from.
The season finale of Loki’s Season One introduced us to one such variant, the exposition-loving “He Who Remains”, who explained to Loki and Sylvie everything they, and we the audience, needed to know about what to expect from the upcoming villain.
Curtains open on Quantumania and although Jonathan Majors tries his best and puts in a solid performance as the enigmatic villain, the film does little more than showing the general audience how neutered Kang really is. Variants of the character have appeared in two properties of the Multiverse Saga at this point, Loki and Quantumania. And in both appearances, he’s been bested, defeated, and killed. First by Sylvie and then by Ant-Man. No disrespect to either, but these characters are not the big hitters within the MCU. They’re not Thor or even the Hulk, and yet they’ve both defeated, with relevant ease, the next big bad? It doesn’t paint Kang in the same unnerving light that Thanos was afforded.
Unfortunately for us, Marvel has long suffered a problem with villains, which many thought solved during the golden era of Phase Three. Long accused of using characters that are little more than clones of the protagonist – see 2008’s Iron Man versus Iron Monger, a larger, more cumbersome version of the titular hero. Or even as recently as 2018’s in Black Panther with Killmonger, who, although much more fleshed out with realistic motivations and a compelling backstory, was little more than a gun-toting version of Black Panther.
Looking back a few months to the equally maligned and disappointing Phase Four entry, Thor: Love and Thunder, and we can truly begin to see the downward spiral of it all. If you’ve read any of Jason Aaron’s excellent runs on Thor, you’ll realize more or less the film’s entire story has been cherry-picked, cannibalized, and left an unrecognizable, near blasphemous mess compared to the comics it originally featured. Ignoring the paper-thin motivations, character arcs, and one-note jokes from that film, take Christian Bale’s dark and broken villain Gorr the God Butcher. A man driven to the edge of insanity after losing his daughter ignored and forsaken by the very Gods he’d pledged his life to. He took it upon himself to spend the remainder of his years traveling and dispatching of those that dared call themselves Gods, in increasingly depraved, bloody, and brutal manners.
Now we’re told that the film version did all of this, but we’re not shown any of it – bar one lackluster ‘battle’ scene in the opening minutes. Every other God we’re shown that has lost their lives to Gorr is either already a corpse once we see them, or losing an arm and again, telling us of the devastation Gorr and his wrath are causing. For a butcher of Gods, we don’t actually see him kill many! This is compounded when you realize Thor kills more Gods on screen with his pantheon battle scene in the City of Gods…
Just like Gorr who came before him, the Kang we’re given on the big screen is a far weaker, more insignificant, and far easier beaten version of the character. He spends a lot of his time on screen monologuing and waxing lyrical about what’ll happen if he doesn’t get let out. Threatening that he’ll bring great destruction on the Lang’s and Van Dyne’s… and then he’s carried away by an ant. Albeit a technologically advanced ant, but an ant nonetheless. And yes, his suit was damaged and he was left more or less powerless, but it’s an ant.
The MCU is going to have jokes. That’s not a bad thing, as long as the jokes are within reason and don’t detract from the primary story at hand. And Ant-Man, more than any other Marvel character, is expected to bring a strong level of humor to the story. After all, this is Paul Rudd and Paul Rudd is known for his charismatic and charming delivery of comedy. Even still, the humor attempts in Quantumania, much like Love and Thunder but to a lesser degree, come at a cost. Many of the jokes don’t land and even the ones that do are dragged the mud and repeated until they’ve worn out their welcome. Look no further than Corey Stoll’s M.O.D.O.K.
Used as a punchline and a connective factor to the first entry in the trilogy MODOK admittedly got laughs in theaters, despite his horrid portrayal of CGI. He’s a villain who’s not meant to be taken seriously and who finally comes to terms with his heroic side to help the Pym’s and Lang’s defeat Kang. M.O.D.O.K’s inclusion was a surprise to many, especially with the change to the character to accommodate Darren Cross.
While M.O.D.O.K immediately jumps to the top of list for near-impossible comic characters to faithfully adapt on the big screen, the treatment of the character has become something of a primary criticism for many fans. From the cartoonish, stretched face look to the ridiculous, unneeded, and undeserved redemption in the final act, M.O.D.O.K is one of many of the characters present that either has an unlikely character arc or like Michael Douglas’ Hank Pym, has so little to do throughout that it’s hard to justify their inclusion because nothing really changes for them.
And that in itself is the biggest problem for Quantumania, in that nothing really changes, and ultimately that means nothing really matters. No one of significance dies, no one of importance is introduced. The status quo ultimately is the same come the film’s end as to when it opens, and just like 2020’s Black Widow, you could forgo the whole film and just watch the two post-credit scenes if you wanted to keep up with the greater MCU story. The previous two Ant-Man films were smaller-scale affairs, the first being right after the potential world-ending events of Age of Ultron, and the second being right after the catastrophic events of Infinity War, the third film changed tact and the smaller, family affairs no longer work on such a massive, yet simultaneously tiny scale.
Everything the previous films thrived upon seemed to be thrown away in this entry, with nonsensical decisions from the characters, none more baffling than Janet’s continual refusal to disclose her extensive and IMPORTANT history with Kang. Outside the Quantum Realm, it makes sense, whether it’s the compartmentalizing of a traumatic event or the fact it isn’t necessary to explain every facet of her time there once she was out, any mental gymnastics to explain her poor decisions can be thrown out. Just… tell them! Explain to your family exactly who this new threat everyone is talking about is and your connection to them. But let’s not lump all of the criticism on just poor Janet, with every character having ridiculous motivations and odd decisions throughout the film… Cassie with her new-founded tension with her father, Hank allowing and encouraging Cassie to experiment with the very technology and realm which cost him thirty years with the love of his life, or even Scott’s transition from the understandable everyman from the first two films to the fame-chasing, celebrity-lifestyle-loving version we now have. These aren’t the same characters from the previous films, and while characters have to evolve and change to stay relevant and interesting, those changes need to be organic and earned, not forced, be it for specific scenarios for the characters, or for moving on the overarching elements of a huge multi-movie-spanning story like the Multiverse Saga.
Perhaps in a few years, we’ll all look back a little more fondly on Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and perhaps it’s drawing the ire of many due to it being just another poor entry after two years of average entries and fans are getting tired… However, in a movie where everything is so infinitesimally small, Quantumania manages to make a multitude of mistakes that leaves the finished product in an uphill battle to be anything other than a mishmash of poorly executed ideas and failed fanservice. Will we see this version of Kang again? Possibly, after all, we’re not implicitly shown the character dying, but how fearsome will he be upon his return? Plus with the recent legal issues surrounding Jonathan Majors, will Marvel Studios pivot completely and recast, and then not return or mention anything related to Major’s Kang?
We don’t know. What we do know is Quantumania missed the mark and fell short of expectations. A lot went wrong and audiences were left feeling like the whole experience was a colossal misstep in the continuation of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
What do you think? Did Marvel mess up Quantumania or are fans making a mountain out of a molehill? Let us know in the comments and be sure to like and subscribe for more fantastic content!
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