Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania Divides the Fanbase
April 5, 2023
With Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania kicking off phase five of the MCU, the film has split the fanbase fairly evenly. While some think it was a pretty good film, others felt the movie was weak overall. It has also become the second lowest-rated MCU movie according to Rotten Tomatoes critics, giving the movie a 47% rating.
The movie opens with Scott Lang bailing out his daughter, Cassie, from jail pretty early on in the film. Shortly after they get home, Scott, Cassie, Hope, Hank, and Janet end up getting sucked into the quantum realm by a device Cassie had been working on with the help of Hope and Hank. In the process, the group is split up, with Scott and Cassie landing together in one area, with the others landing elsewhere.
During their time down there, it is learned that Janet had met Kang the Conqueror when she was previously trapped in the Quantum Realm. Shortly after, Kang ends up capturing both Scott and Cassie. After threatening Cassie’s life, Scott agrees to help Kang retrieve the object Kang needs in order to escape the Quantum realm.
After battles between several groups, the protagonists attempt to escape through a portal to go into the larger world, however, Kang appears, attempting to get through as well. To stop Kang from getting through, Scott stays behind, with Hope coming back through and kicking Kang into the multiverse engine, which results in his demise. This leads to the portal closing, but the rest of the group is able to reopen the portal shortly after from the other side, and Scott and Hope are able to return safely.
While the latest Ant-Man film is one of the lowest-rated MCU movies according to RottenTomatoes critics, it seems to have truly divided the fanbase pretty evenly. Between some loving it, some thinking it was disappointing, and others thinking it was somewhere in between and decent, it’s certainly been a controversial film. Kang is expected to be the primary villain at the end of the Multiverse saga that began with phase 4, which is expected to wrap up with Avengers: Secret Wars.
Christian Truong’s Thoughts
Junior Christian Truong’s thoughts on the movie was that it was “underwhelming, and [they] could have done a lot better with what they had been pushing out with other movies.”
Truong said that he was surprised by how different MODOK was in the movie compared to how he was in the comics.
Truong also said he felt that Kang shouldn’t have been able to be beaten so easily.
To Truong, the lowest points of the movie were “where they’re just exploring the quantum zone… I felt like they were trying to dump a lot of info.”
Truong did, however, have some scenes that were his favorite.
“My favorite scenes were when Ant-Man drinks that weird substance so he could understand the people, and the last scene where he contemplates on what Kang said at the end and then just forgets about it,” he said.
Ken Lerdahl’s Thoughts
Technical Support Supervisor Ken Lerdahl thought that the movie was fairly decent.
“It was pretty ‘Star Wars’-y. It wasn’t that I was disappointed that I saw it, I just didn’t think it was a necessary thing for me to go and pay money to see,” Lerdahl said. “But after giving it a little time to sit, I thought it was a pretty necessary movie. It sets up phase five of the MCU pretty strong.”
In regards to the notion that Kang was portrayed as weak, Lerdahl disagreed.
Lurdahl said that he felt they “could’ve done a better job of building up the-we’ll call it the ‘Rebel Alliance’ in the Quantum realm, because it is so ‘Star Wars’-y.”
He also said that they “introduced MODOK in a pretty absurd way… honestly, MODOK was kind of a low point [because of] just how absurd the character was.”
Lerdahl did say, however, that his favorite moment was “probably the ‘cantina scene’ with Bill Murray. It was pulled right out of Star Wars, but at the same time it’s freaking Bill Murray.”