Ant-Man

Renee Zellweger dancing in a large apartment with city skyline in the bathroom and moon illuminated. Renée Zellweger stars in the director Peyton Reed's stylish ...

This high-toned style is further displayed in the trim and sharp-outlined fashions pressed and starched to the stiffness of armor, the hair sprayed and baked and pomaded to a helmet-like solidity. This glossily artificial stylization of personality most clearly embodies the substance of the movie’s style and brings to life Reed’s big idea—the power and the fragility of social masks, the painful effort of sustaining them, and the ordeal of their collapse. At the center of this dazzling dynamism of industrial design, the movie’s central quartet, of Barbara and Vikki and Catcher and Peter, stand out as exemplars of style and flair. Meanwhile, Vikki and the hyper-neurotic publisher of Know, Peter MacMannus (David Hyde Pierce, channelling Tony Randall, who also has a cameo—one of his last screen roles), fall for each other, but the insecure Peter, something of a forty-year-old virgin, turns to his best employee and best friend, Catcher, for advice on surefire seduction, with antic results. Reed presents this clattery, amped-up game of ruses and deceptions in the form of highly decorative and giddily stylized hyper-unrealism. When she publicly calls out the serial user Catcher, he decides to investigate Barbara, in the hope of proving her a hypocrite who would all too readily fall in love with a man—and he’s going to be that man. Harburg, from 1937) on “The Ed Sullivan Show”—which turns the book into a best-seller and makes Barbara a celebrity. Renée Zellweger plays an author named Barbara Novak, whose book—also titled “Down with Love”—offers a multi-step program for liberating women from the lopsided demands of romantic relationships with men. [Down With Love](https://www.newyorker.com/video/watch/down-with-love),” from 2003. Reed was already a young veteran of television and music videos when he made his first feature, “Bring It On,” released in 2000, an instant classic of high-school cheerleading. Instead, Vikki scores an even greater coup—getting Judy Garland to sing “Down with Love” (a real song, by Harold Arlen and E. As distinctive as that big-budget, studio-tailored franchise film is, it hardly holds a candle in inspiration or thematic depth to several of the movies that he made earlier in his career.

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania has received a 'Rotten' score on Rotten Tomatoes.

[Empire](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/ant-man-and-the-wasp-quantumania/) Who better understands the benefits, after all, of keeping it small?" "Marvel, with all their resources, have made a film set in a universe where time and space are not as we know them, yet have ended up with something that looks surreal, but feels shackled. [Entertainment Weekly](https://ew.com/movies/movie-reviews/ant-man-and-the-wasp-quantumania-review/) But that doesn’t mean it’s not fun." "At this point in history, the idea of attracting new fans to the MCU is probably moot; most viewers are either on board for this ongoing saga, or they checked out long ago. [Wakanda Forever](https://www.digitalspy.com/movies/a41885369/black-panther-wakanda-forever-review/) or [Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness](https://www.digitalspy.com/movies/a39839375/doctor-strange-2-review-multiverse-of-madness/), but it does take the wildly disparate tones and plot threads that are seemingly endemic to this series and turn them into an entertainingly cohesive whole. Too bad that, for all its amusing jokes, the world onscreen mostly looks like a Marvel screen-saver." [TheWrap](https://www.thewrap.com/ant-man-and-the-wasp-quantumania-review-paul-rudd-jonathan-majors-mcu/) [Washington Post](https://www.washingtonpost.com/movies/2023/02/14/ant-man-and-the-wasp-quantumania-movie-review/) [RogerEbert](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/ant-man-and-the-wasp-quantumania-movie-review-2023) [Polygon](https://www.polygon.com/reviews/23597532/ant-man-wasp-quantumania-review-mcu)

But the Quantum Realm, the dangerous realm from where the gang rescued Janet Van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer), still poses a significant threat, especially after ...

Newton is a smart casting choice and we can only assume Cassie, who has her own superhero suit already, will be a huge part of the MCU in the future. At least Quantumania has one of the best casts in a Marvel film. Visually, the film is messy and flat; the CGI is shockingly poor and the action looks muddled. In Quantumania, by making it a place where laws of physics seem to apply and where several different tribes live, it just feels pretty safe. The Quantum Realm has always been presented to us as a hugely dangerous, abstract space that should be avoided at all costs and that no life could exist there. It officially kickstarts Marvel’s Phase V of films and gives us its next big bad: Jonathan Majors’ Kang the Conqueror.

If there's one thing that characterised Ant-Man's little corner of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), it's that it's small.

Rudd has always been a charismatic performer, the kind of actor you always want to root for, and he creates tangible onscreen bonds with his co-stars. He is to the Multiverse Saga what Thanos was to the Infinity Saga. It is so bogged down in excessive CGI action sequences, its extravagance dissipates into a numbing nothingness. So, you want to see Scott pull through, and you want everyone around him to pull through because, while those characters all have their own arcs, they’re important to Scott. It was briefly shown in the first two Ant-Man movies, and Janet was trapped there for 30 years. After the events of Avengers: Endgame, Scott (Paul Rudd) has almost gone into superhero hibernation.

Ant-Man is a somewhat ironic choice for a very, very big job: Kicking off the next phase of Marvel movies. "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania" works on one ...

But it is, at best, a small step, and like much of Marvel’s recent output, only makes “Endgame” loom that much larger in the rearview mirror. If Kang is destined to become the central antagonist as the next batch of movies again build toward an Avengers-sized showdown, Majors is the one thing to emerge from “Quantumania” on which anyone could hang their hat. It’s a point overtly made by Kang himself, who sneers at Ant-Man, “You’re out of your league.” Yet with its plunge into inner space, “Ant-Man” comes up short in almost every other way that matters. What ensues is an especially psychedelic trip, with precious little grounding in anything that resembles recognizable reality. Ant-Man is a somewhat ironic choice for a very, very big job: Kicking off the next phase of Marvel movies.

Scott Lang, aka Ant-Man, and his allies return to the big screen on Friday, years after the origin story in 2015's Ant-Man cameos in other Marvel films, ...

For star Paul Rudd, this also included one of the most challenging sequences so far in his history with the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

In addition to Kang the Conqueror, fan-favorite Marvel villain M.O.D.O.K will be making his live-action debut in the film. [Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania](https://www.comingsoon.net/movie/ant-man-and-the-wasp-quantumania-2022), Paul Rudd and Evangeline Lilly once again share top billing as Scott Lang/Ant-Man and Hope van Dyne/Wasp, respectively. For star Paul Rudd, this also included one of the most challenging sequences so far in his history with the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Phase 5 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is going big with its tiniest heroes, as Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania opens in theaters on February 17.

If it’s a shame the rest of the film is lacking that, there is at least enough of it to hang on to, and enough goofiness to have a laugh with, including some pretty cool ant shenanigans. To even wonder about the answer is to miss that the only real conqueror in “Quantumania” is the MCU. There's a fascinating world to explore here, and Ant-Man finally gets close to the full realization of the potential of his character and this concept, but it all, unfortunately, gets overtaken by the Conquerer. Even so, Quantumania works as a culmination of the Ant-Man series, a way to start things in motion for Phase 5, and a promising roadmap of where the Multiverse Saga is going. It's not a bad movie, per se, which is on some level probably a credit to the Marvel machine. Phase 5 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is going big with its tiniest heroes, as Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania opens in theaters on February 17.

The 31st film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe has scored only 53 per cent on the review aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes. It has now become only the second MCU ...

CNN.com's Brian Lowry wrote, "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania works on one key level, establishing Kang the Conqueror as a truly formidable and worthy villain. Joining him are Evangeline Lilly as Hope van Dyne, Kathryn Newton as the adult version of Cassie Lang, Michael Douglas as Hank Pym, and Michelle Pfeiffer as Janet van Dyne. The critical consensus reads, "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania mostly lacks the spark of fun that elevated earlier adventures, but Jonathan Majors' Kang is a thrilling villain poised to alter the course of the MCU."

Uh oh. That was my first thought when I saw the review scores rolling in for Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania, the third Ant-Man movie, but a seemingly ...

I do wonder if a few more reviews may sink Quantumania below Eternals, though I will say in the middle to bottom ranking order of MCU movies by critic scores, I think they got a long wrong. That’s obviously something DC can’t say, as the DCEU boasts a number of films under that mark, and early on often split between high audience scores for Snyder-era films and low critic scores. Taking place almost entirely in the Quantum Zone, the film is in turn almost completely CGI, and even in the trailers it looked like that could be a problem. Second, since the movie is actually out now, user scores are in and they are not just higher than critics, which you might expect, but much higher, currently at an 84%. That’s a dismal score for an MCU feature, and marks only the second time that an MCU movie has had a “rotten” (below 60%) score on the site, the first time being Eternals in 2021. The thrill isn't just gone, it's been buried beneath a swarm of plot contrivances and truly hideous CGI.” [Whynow](https://whynow.co.uk/read/ant-man-and-the-wasp-quantumania-review): “Visually, the film is messy and flat; the CGI is shockingly poor and the action looks muddled. It says something that out of 30+ MCU features in a decade and a half, that there are literally only two with sub 60% scores. Of course, many MCU fans may wait and see what audience scores are like. But I would be surprised if this was a huge disparity as this always seemed like a pretty risky film. What’s wrong with the movie? We know there’s currently a visual effects shortage in Hollywood, in part because of the demands of places like Marvel, and perhaps this was too much work given not enough time and the end result is just…not very good. They were never really considered top-tier Marvel movies but this is a huge drop.

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania started off rough with a low Rotten Tomatoes score.

Only time will tell what happens though with the MCU's next major addition to the story. [Early reviews for Ant-Man 3](https://thedirect.com/article/ant-man-3-quantumania-reviews-critics) brought a wide range of reactions from critics, with some praising it as the best Ant-Man film yet while others thought it was too jam-packed and didn't serve as much more than a filler movie. The movie itself is merely killing time." "The problem with 'Quantumania' is that it’s not a movie, it’s a building block. The result is an undercooked, overstuffed action movie that feels like a shadow of better pulpy adventure sendups before it." "‘Quantumania’ is not all dud, per se.

It's a real indictment of any movie as unrelentingly loud, bombastic and big when you turn to your plus one in the screening room and find them asleep.

The post-Endgame era of Marvel has been crying out for some kindling, something to throw the afterburners on; this is just more ugly cement. In the meantime, daughter Cassie (Kathryn Newton), who has seen no end of shit and is presumably in desperate need of a therapist, has been getting herself in heaps of trouble, protesting the crisis of homelessness in the wake of the snap. The object, then, is to get back to Big Earth: fortunately, Janet knows a guy from her own 30-year marooning down on the Quantum side, who they meet up with in a jovial (again, It's a shame he's given so much of that aforementioned, dawdling exposition to deal with. It's around an hour in that we're properly acquainted with Majors' Kang, by far the most compelling element at play: he emanates movie star gravitas, helped by the fact that he's the only guy who really seems committed to the bit. It's a real indictment of any movie as unrelentingly loud, bombastic and big when you turn to your plus one in the screening room and find them asleep.

Domestically, the superhero threequel is expected to make between $95 million and $100 million in its first three days, according to Variety, with the number ...

[Peyton Reed](https://collider.com/the-mandalorian-volume-technology-peyton-reed-comments/), who also helmed Ant-Man 1 and 2, declared heading into this one that he no longer wanted his films to be perceived as counter-programming within the MCU, and made it a point to craft a more epic narrative. Reviews for Ant-Man 3 have been generally muted, otherwise; this is only the second MCU film ever, for instance, to get a “rotten” score on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. The first Ant-Man tapped out with $519 million globally, while the second film finished with a little more than $620 million worldwide. Ant-Man 3 also happens to be only the second MCU film since 2019’s Avengers: Endgame to score a China release. [Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania](https://collider.com/tag/ant-man-and-the-wasp-quantumania/) have been lowered heading into its opening weekend. Domestically, the superhero threequel is expected to make between $95 million and $100 million in its first three days, according to [Variety](https://variety.com/2023/film/box-office/box-office-preview-ant-man-and-the-wasp-quantumania-opening-weekend-1235522559/), with the number increasing to $110 million across the four-day extended President’s Day weekend.

The reviews are in for Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, and they are...kinda meh. The movie is fun (if you can get past the bad stuff).

[The Guardian](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/feb/14/ant-man-and-the-wasp-quantumania-review-paul-rudd-kang-the-conqueror?CMP=twt_a-culture_b-gdnculture): “Does Kang bang? [Get HBO, Starz, Showtime and MORE for FREE with a no-risk, 7-day free trial of Amazon Channels](https://www.amazon.com/b/?rh=i:instant-video,n:2858778011&ie=UTF8&filterId=OFFER_FILTER=SUBSCRIPTIONS&node=2858778011&ref_=assoc_tag_ph_1465430649312&_encoding=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=pf4&tag=fs-livedrops1-20&linkId=90b2815fb79ba0e403137c68e139db16%E2%80%9D) [Jonathan Majors](https://winteriscoming.net/2023/02/09/ant-man-3-star-jonathan-majors-inspired-heath-ledger-joker/) does a good job as Kang the Conqueror, who’s being set up as the new Thanos-level threat to the MCU. Club](https://www.avclub.com/a-review-of-ant-man-and-the-wasp-quantumania-1850111199): “Quantumania’s tone is sure to be polarizing, but if you can surrender yourself to its bonkers A Bug’s Life-meets-Return of the Jedi antics, the two hours (already short for a Marvel film) will fly by.” [Evening Standard](https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/film/antman-and-the-wasp-quantumania-review-kang-jonathan-majors-paul-rudd-b1060245.html): “If you can ignore the convoluted plot – not, sadly, a rarity in the increasingly complex Marvel Cinematic Universe – you’ll have a blast with these characters.” [Moviebob](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbdgYSGE744): “Delivers (however disjointedly) on ‘B-lister in over his head’ cosmic adventure romp despite obvious post-Pandemic schedule-retooling into a big franchise place-setter; buoyed by a scene-stealing heavy turn from Johnathan Majors” [Consequence Film](https://consequence.net/2023/02/ant-man-and-the-wasp-quantumania-review/): “Quantumania might be key to kicking off the big arcs to come in the MCU Phase 5, but it doesn’t forget to have a good time.” [Empire:](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/ant-man-and-the-wasp-quantumania/)“Marvel, with all their resources, have made a film set in a universe where time and space are not as we know them, yet have ended up with something that looks surreal, but feels shackled. [The Globe and Mail](https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/film/reviews/article-ugly-and-interminable-marvels-ant-man-and-the-wasp-quantumania-is-fit/) put it like this: “[Ant-Man 3 is both] a dispiriting reminder that the MCU has abandoned wit and that even the most clever and idiosyncratic of filmmakers can be steamrolled by the unstoppable obligations of corporate storytelling.” “Majors thankfully rights the ship every time he pops up with his deliciously disconcerting presence,” writes [USA Today](https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/movies/2023/02/14/ant-man-quantumania-review-marvel/11222578002/). And many didn’t like the somber tone, which is at odds with the first two Ant-Man films, which were breezier affairs. The note about bad CGI comes up several times in the reviews, which is surprising; whatever you think of Marvel movies, you can usually depend on them to look good. “The thrill isn’t just gone, it’s been buried beneath a swarm of plot contrivances and truly hideous CGI.” [split](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/ant_man_and_the_wasp_quantumania/reviews?type=top_critics) at best, with the lot of critics dinging the movie for a host of issues. Is this one worth your time and money?

The third film in Marvel's Ant-Man trilogy sends the MCU's tinest titans into a subatomic universe, where they — and we the viewers — get stuck.

The characters of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, at least, are flat. Just look at the standard line item in the budget for, say, the Mysterious Glowing Object That's Terribly Terribly Important To Everyone In Whichever Marvel Movie This Happens To Be — in this case, that yellow orb thingy with all those metal rings flying around inside it that Kang wants, for reasons I can't remember now. ... Oh and also throw in a few bucks on coconut oil while you're at it. The voice actors record their tracks in separate sound booths at separate times. In previous Ant-Man films, we may all have looked past the thinness of his characterization, because the charming Ruddishness of the performance blinded us to it. She might as well be one of the CGI barstools.) But as I sat there watching Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, I started to wonder if perhaps, back when we as nerdy little kids wished for it, all those long years ago, someone snuck a monkey's paw into the whole affair. But in absolutely no way does it look like they did, and it sure as hell doesn't feel like they did. They could have made a film together at any time during that period and now, finally, here they are and here it is. When we eventually get a The Making Of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, we might well learn that those three actors actually filmed that scene together. Even more mind-boggling: This third Ant-Man film posits the purple, time-traveling despot Kang the Conqueror as a bad guy to take seriously. This time out, it's the entire Ant-Family that gets sucked down into the MCU's own microscopic Whoville, with its sunless, surreal, slimy Color Out of Space production design.

Before seeing "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania," here's everything you should know from the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

He is devastated to learn that Hank, Hope and Janet are gone, but he discovers that Cassie survived the snap — and has aged into a teenager (although her exact age is Hank and Hope create a way to safely travel into the Quantum Realm using an invention called the Quantum tunnel. Hank believes that once a person goes subatomic, they irrevocably enter the Quantum Realm, a dimension that exists outside of our concepts of space and time. Despite the assurances of [Marvel Studios](https://variety.com/t/marvel-studios/) chief Kevin Feige that every Marvel title can exist on its own terms, the third “Ant-Man” film is neck deep in series lore as it launches Phase 5 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe — and the second act of the Multiverse Saga. [Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania](https://variety.com/t/ant-man-and-the-wasp-quantumania/)” is a different beast entirely. And yeah, the introduction of the Quantum Realm in the 2018 sequel lays the groundwork for the time travel shenanigans in “Avengers: Endgame.” But generally speaking, audiences could take in Scott’s size-shifting adventures alongside scientist Hank Pym (Michael Douglas), his daughter Hope van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly) and Hank’s wife and Hope’s mother Janet van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer), without needing to be steeped within the larger Marvel Cinematic Universe.

This is only the second Marvel Cinematic Universe film to earn a Rotten rating. Jonathan Majors shines as Kang the Conqueror, but the film is an overstuffed ...

"Michael Pena's absence should have been a warning," wrote Kristy Puchko in her review of "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania" for Mashable. "Ant-Man and the Wasp in Quantumania" held a 53% "rotten" rating from 148 reviews, as of Wednesday afternoon. "The result is an undercooked, overstuffed action movie that feels like a shadow of better pulpy adventure sendups before it." to buckle at the knees," O'Sullivan wrote. "Ultimately, 'Quantumania' does a middling job of both. The film itself is anything but light. There, they face off against Kang, a dimension-hopping tyrant who is trying to escape from the realm after being exiled there for his rampages across time and space. (Majors will also appear as the antagonist in next month's "Creed III." Critics praised Majors' performance in the film, as the actor was able to bring gravitas to the the role and exude the kind of menace that made previous big bad Thanos (Josh Brolin) such a compelling, and threatening, villain. He was introduced in the Disney+ show "Loki." However, Kang's larger-than-life presence overshadowed the quirky and charming narrative that fans have come to expect from Ant-Man side quests, critics say. Peyton Reed's previous Ant-Man installments offered the MCU a smaller-than-life look at what it means to be a hero.

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is a sci-fi adventure in the mold of Thor: Ragnarok.

The bigger, more general theme is the strength of the little guy, even in the face of overwhelming power. Cassie (Newton) is the heart of the film, Hank (Douglas) does the science and Janet (Pfeiffer) is the plot powerhouse whose worst nightmare catches up to her. Quantumania sets up the future of the MCU, and also manages to pack in some other bigger themes. Still, the number of times characters refuse to divulge crucial information to string out the supposed suspense ("No time to explain!" If Quantumania doesn't quite know what to do with Ant-Man, it really doesn't know what to do with the other title character. Fans have been prepped for the arrival of Kang, who was first seen in the Disney Plus series Loki, and the movie does a fine job introducing the villainous characters to fresh viewers. It's a breezy, bizarro sci-fi adventure in the mold of Thor: Ragnarok, as familiar faces from the Marvel roster drop into an alien realm for fun and fighting before inspiring the locals to rise up and overthrow a hateful dictator. The weirdness of the micro-Mad Max setting gives rise to some entertaining jokes, arresting visuals and one or two mind-bending set pieces. Old enemies come looking for her and her fam, forcing her to face up to what she did during exile. Having rescued Janet van Dyne from the quantum realm in the previous Ant-Man and the Wasp film (and you'd be forgiven for remembering basically nothing about that movie), the Ant-gang is sucked back into the itty-bitty universe layered below the atoms of our full-size world. Kathryn Newton plays the now-teenaged Cassie Lang, Scott's daughter, and in the quantum realm they encounter William Jackson Harper, Katy O'Brian and Bill Murray (yes, that Bill Murray). [Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania](https://www.cnet.com/culture/entertainment/ant-man-and-the-wasp-quantumania-trailer-plot-cast-release-date/) is in theaters Friday, Feb.

Ant-Man and the Wasp Quantumania goes big with ambitious world building and an epic villain, but leans too far into the weird and wonderful.

But when you expand so much it’s easy to lose focus, and that’s where the movie feels uneven and a little disconnected from its emotionality. It feels like a case of the right villain in the wrong movie. It really swings for the fences in terms of its stakes and world-building, and that makes for a fun ride of a movie. The villains are just one instance of where Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania feels tonally muddled. But the MVP is, of course, Majors, who is simply electric. Newton and Rudd manage to ground the film with their relatable dynamic and also provide genuine comedic moments. The worldbuilding is more fantastical and much more ambitious than any prior Ant-Man film and it makes for a fun world to escape into. MODOK represents the extreme length of weird that Quantumania is daring to go. He’s a ridiculous villain in the comics and remains so in live-action, but actually ends up bringing a lot of humour and heart to the film. It’s hard to root for the heroes when the villain is this enjoyable to watch. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania begins with Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) riding high on his success as an Avenger. Cassie has good intentions when she and Hank (Michael Douglas) develop a high tech beacon to learn more about the Quantum Realm.