The smallest member of the Avengers returns in a 3e component that looks like a micro space opera Z. An asset: the excellent Jonathan Majors in the role of the ugly Kang.
By Philippe Guedj
“Ant-Man and the Wasp. Quantumania”, by Peyton Reed, in theaters this Wednesday.© Marvel Studios/Disney
Published on
Subscriber-only audio playback
Ihe times are tough for Marvel Studios. Since the pandemic, Disney’s superhero subsidiary has had more or less acute disenchantments with fans, despite still more than respectable sparks at the box office. started with Black Widow and closed by Black Panther. Wakanda Foreverphase 4 leaves a bitter taste in the mouths of first-day addicts: apart from the notable exception of Spiderman. No Way Home, none of the seven films of this fourth section really created the event. Some, such The Eternals and the terrible Thor. Love and Thunder, have even drawn the ire of the faithful, confirming a persistent “bad buzz” in the Marvel hive. First title of the brand new phase 5, Ant-Man and the Wasp. Quantumania will he give the salutary kick in the anthill to reverse the trend? Alas…
Much more spectacular than the first two, this third installment rich in adventures struggles however to pique our attention. The plot takes place after Avengers. Endgame and the Super Team’s victory over Thanos, which Ant-Man/Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) was a big part of. The ex-burglar turned superhero relishes his newfound popularity by publishing a best-selling book about his exploits and enjoys happy days with his partner Hope van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly), his teenage daughter Cassie (Kathryn Newton) and the parents of Hope, Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) and Janet van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer). Accidentally, one evening after the family pizza, the clan is sucked inside the Quantum Realm, from which Janet had been delivered in Ant Man 2 after having wandered there for thirty years (cf. the first opus). There, they discover the reign of the overpowered Kang (Jonathan Majors), also trapped in the infinitely small and who shares with Janet a secret with serious consequences for the future of the world.
A promising new villain
Less catastrophic and a bit more rhythmic than the atrocious Thor. Love and Thunder (no, we really don’t like that one), this third Ant Man pulls towards the pocket space opera and this is one of its rare qualities: the surreal fauna encountered by the heroes in the quantum realm evokes an atmosphere at the crossroads of Star Wars and Guardians of the Galaxywith a sequence straight out of the cantina of Star Wars and where a Bill Murray on minimum duty passes a head. Fun, provided you enjoy at 15e degree the character at the edge of the nanar of all this subatomic smala.
Another asset – very real this one – of the film: the excellent Jonathan Majors (also soon to be shown in Creed 3), in the role of Kang, new mammouchi of the apocalypse brought to haunt phases 5 and especially 6 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Lucky good pick, Majors embodies this new villain, totally unknown to the general public, as Thanos was before him, but who will certainly soon be on everyone’s lips too.
Discovered in the last episode of the series Loki on Disney+, Kang is a bold bet for Marvel given its complex concept: a scientist from 31e century, from an alternate Earth and which exists in several versions of itself – called variants, all focused on conquering and/or destroying all possible worlds for reasons at this point a little hazy. In Quantumania, Kang is therefore a prisoner of the quantum kingdom, which he rules with an iron fist and, to escape from it and continue to ravage the multiverse as he sees fit, he needs the help of Scott Lang, whose prisoner girl. Don’t ask us to explain more: that’s about all we understood.
In expert mode
Director Peyton Reed and his screenwriter Jeff Loveness (ex-writer on the SF animated series rick and morty) receive the difficult task of linking the plot to many past and future sons of the Marvel universe, in particular by numerous borrowings from Kang’s origins in the comics. Consequence: only experts (who will have, at least, entirely seen the series Loki) will be able to find their way around and savor the increasingly numerous transmedia interconnections in an MCU similar to a gasworks.
The impious, poor of themselves, will do their best to follow the story but will be condemned to undergo the usual dose of rococo and flashy digital effects, the interchangeable staging of Peyton Reed, the half-hearted gags, the beaches razor-sharp dialogues and a feeling of indifference relative to the stakes of the show despite the pedal pushed hard on the pyrotechnics. The two post-credits scenes, rich in concrete clues about the future, set the unbeatable addicts on Kang in awe (again: hats off to Jonathan Majors, a real bonus for the film), but will that be enough to make Quantumania a kick off event for phase 5? Response at the end of the next weekend, where this third Ant Man will leave with its small legs and muscular antennae to attack the American box office.