Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania Works Best When It's Janet And Kang: Dramamania
This post contains spoilers for "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania."
The two most interesting characters in "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania" aren't the ones in the title — unless you take "the Wasp" to mean the grey-haired Janet van Dyne version of the character, played by Michelle Pfeiffer. Her daughter, Hope van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly), is nominally the Wasp now, having inherited the mantle from Janet while she was trapped in the Quantum Realm in 2018's "Ant-Man and the Wasp." However, despite an early montage that shows Hope walking the red carpet and winning awards, she doesn't have much to do in this threequel until she steps back through the portal at the end to save the day.
As the other half of the title, Paul Rudd is still affable as Scott Lang, a.k.a. Ant-Man, but with Scott, what you see is what you get. Janet is a more enigmatic and take-charge kind of hero because she knows her way around the Quantum Realm, but we don't know our way around her secret history there. Janet was more of a MacGuffin than a character in "Ant-Man and the Wasp." Rescuing her from the Quantum Realm was something to drive the plot, and she only really came in as a physical presence about twenty minutes before the closing credits rolled.
Pfeiffer is already superhero film royalty, and in "Quantumania," she gets enough screen time that her supporting role finally feels worthy of an actress of her caliber (even if it's still just a Marvel Studios paycheck). Sure, she's still saddled with lines like, "I'm here for Krylar," but by withholding the specifics of her history in the Quantum Realm, the movie piques our curiosity about her and presents her as the rare secondary Marvel character with some layers to peel back, scene-by-scene.
Drama-mania
"Quantumania" actually gets pretty adult when you consider the implications of Janet's relationship with her onetime freedom fighting partner, Krylar (Bill Murray). As she says, a woman has needs. It's even possible Janet and Kang did the wild thang, though there's no overt indication of that besides the intimate moment they share where she sees into his mind and leaves him obsessing over her for the next thirty years.
We've explored how Jonathan Majors' Kang performance is the best part of "Quantumania," and I don't have too much more to add except to say that one of the best scenes in the movie is the flashback where it's just Janet and Kang and the drama of what happened with them. Give me more of that drama-mania and less of Michael Douglas sticking his hands down two squishy alien throats to fly a ship.
Another solid dramatic scene in "Quantumania" is the one where Kang first meets Scott and threatens to kill his daughter Cassie (Kathryn Newton). All the generic Marvel music and wild and crazy VFX action quiets down ... and Kang proves genuinely scary. The Marvel Cinematic Universe has long since left earth and any pretense of plausible, tech-based sci-fi, but it could use more down-to-earth moments like this to anchor the audience to something relatable: the human face. And no, not one that's stretched out like CG silly putty in the manner of MODOK (Corey Stoll).
In "Quantumania," Michelle Pfeiffer and Jonathan Majors elevate their scenes and take the material seriously, which is more than you can say for the filmmakers as they make a mockery of MODOK. We've seen the MCU dabble in genres like horror and conspiracy thrillers; how about some good old-fashioned drama next time?
"Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania" is in theaters now.