Ant-man and the Wasp: Quantumania
An underwhelming installment into the Marvel Universe
By Cheyney McKinney
In the over-saturated market of superhero movies, especially in Marvel’s era of mass production, “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” was definitely… underwhelming, to say the least. Going into this movie, I did not expect much, mainly since they’ve written Ant-Man poorly from the beginning, attempting to create the “quirky and different” morally gray superhero. And it did not exceed those expectations… at all.
With light conceptual themes of the white savior, daddy issues, and last-ditch romances, “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” follows the journey of the Pym and Lang families as they delve into the secrets and mysteries of the Quantum realm and aid in the war against Kang the Conqueror, a villain who you’re actually rooting for.
According to LA Times, Kang the Conqueror, the villain introduced in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, is the next big bad of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. To keep it vague, he is a time-traveling, genocidal maniac striving to save the universe. Very conflicting, I know. However, he is a total badass, and if you love Johnathan Majors as much as I do, the cringe writing is worth bearing for his phenomenal performance.
As for the protagonists, not much can be said about their quality of writing or character development. We witness Scott Lang become an ignorant, unhelpful superhero; a last-ditch effort to hurriedly display a romance between the two superheroes; and an unwanted cameo of Bill Murray. And they didn’t even include the fan-favorite Luis, portrayed by Michael Peña.