Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania
The whole point of Ant-Man was that less was indeed more, but the third outing has opted to go bigger than ever – to dispiriting results.
The first five minutes of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania are a treat. It allows the engaging personality of Paul Rudd to shine through and reminds us of the comedy roots of its director, Peyton Reed. Everybody is now well aware that Scott Lang – aka Ant-Man – has saved the planet and is a hero of the people, in a city (San Francisco) where he can’t even pay for his own coffee. Furthermore, he’s just brought out his autobiography, Look Out for the Little Guy!, and reckons, “it’s a really good world – I’m glad I saved it.”
The reason the first two Ant-Man films were so much fun was that the human beings – and Paul Rudd in particular – were given centre stage, along with the hilarious one-liners, the mind-stretching concepts, ‘giant’ insects and the belief that less is more. The movies’ combined income at the global box-office was one billion, 142 million dollars. So of course there’s a third chapter and, depressingly, it’s hopped onto the multiversal bandwagon, where anything is possible, however unbelievable. This time, Scott’s 18-year-old daughter Cassie (Kathryn Newton, from Big Little Lies), has been tampering with the quantum realm and inadvertently propels herself, Scott, Scott’s girlfriend Hope (Evangeline Lilly) and her grandparents (Michael Douglas and Michelle Pfeiffer) into a parallel reality. It is, according to Michelle Pfeiffer’s Janet – aka The Wasp – a subatomica, “a secret universe beneath our own, beyond time and space.” And here the fun stops.
A smorgasbord of CGI pyrotechnics, Quantumania flits all over the place, introducing more and more outrageous creations, which are presumably designed to either amuse or to terrify. The Star Wars cantina scene would seem to be a jumping off point, where we are introduced to a ‘broccoli’ being and a jelly mould desperate for a hole (don’t ask). This bizarre combo of Gulliver’s Travels, Fantastic Voyage and Disney’s vastly superior Strange World, fails to captivate by throwing out the rules with the bathwater. When anything goes, and nothing makes sense, the result is pointless and more disorientating than a Lewis Carroll tea party.
Some of this may have been salvaged had the originality of the concept – that size, like time, is an illusion – been better served. So here we have a villain who not only destroys ants, but destroys entire worlds and entire time lines. Such is his capacity for evil that it is actually inconceivable and consequently implausible. Furthermore, the film is clogged with visual and audio clichés, while the endless gravity-defying combat becomes wearisome. We’ve seen it all before and the skipping through portals is now more likely to engender a groan than a gasp of awe.
JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
Cast: Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Jonathan Majors, Kathryn Newton, David Dastmalchian, Katy O'Brian, William Jackson Harper, Bill Murray, Michelle Pfeiffer, Corey Stoll, Michael Douglas, Randall Park, Tom Hiddleston, Owen Wilson.
Dir Peyton Reed, Pro Kevin Feige and Stephen Broussard, Screenplay Jeff Loveness, Ph William Pope, Pro Des Will Htay, Ed Adam Gerstel and Laura Jennings, Music Christophe Beck, Costumes Sammy Sheldon, Sound Kimberly Patrick.
Marvel Studios-Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.
124 mins. USA. 2023. UK and US Rel: 17 February 2023. Cert. 12A.
