Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania - 4K Digital Review

Movie
Watching Phase 4 Marvel movies is sort of fascinating. It’s like watching a company try to create products that appeal to the buyers after they have gotten rid of the all the old management and all the old products, replacing them with newer, shinier, “same, but different” products to purchase. Some of the company diehards are enthusiastically going forward to the future, while many of the general masses aren’t sure what to do with the new products. The MCU was probably one of the most innovative and creative things to happen to post 20th Century cinema in a LONG time. It was bold, and aggressive, and very few people thought it would work out. They brought in shunned actor Robert Downey Jr. in case the first Iron Man flopped, but found they hit gold. A way to create a cohesive comic book universe that wasn’t just a few sequels later before rebooting the entire world, retelling the same origins stories over and over again. Instead we had a comic book universe that thrived, created good movies, some bad movies, and some truly legendary movies on a path to one final goal. Thanos, the Mad Titan that needed earth’s mightiest heroes to band together in what would become some of the highest grossing summer blockbusters of all times. Then came Phase 4. The post Thanos world where most of the big name actors had sort of fallen away and were being retired (not that I blame them. It’s a long time for an actor to play the same role over and over and over again without wanting to do something new) and Marvel was left with huge shoes to fill. Audiences loves the characters that they had built up, but one by one those characters were going away, leaving the studios scrambling to try and recreate the same momentum with new characters. Like many attempts, the original MCU was lightning in a bottle. It was created with nothing almost, but somehow gained a life of it’s own. But now that Marvel executives had a taste for that lightning, they wanted more of it, and fast. But fast is almost always not the way to do something (look at DC’s attempts for the DCEU and how they tried to rush straight towards The Justice League instead of taking their time) and what we have is Phase 4. A slightly jumbled, over bloated and problematic attempt at recapturing that same lightning that was so close to their touch. There have been a few hits (Spiderman: No Way Home), and a few moderately well done films (Black Panther 2), but mostly Phase 4 has been an awkward attempt at creating the next big baddie, just without the steam and momentum, or the characters that audiences wanted to see.

Out of all the Phase 4 films, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania was the one I was most interested in seeing. The last of the “main” characters still standing, Ant-man has been a fun addition to the MCU. Paul Rudd has done a great job of making Scott Lang an incredibly likable character, and the first two films were just lighthearted good fun. Cheeky, witty, and just enough super duper science magic to make things exciting. And while it certainly sort of “splats” in comparison to previous Phase 1-3 films, Quantumania actually isn’t that bad. It just is the curse of trying to be too much of a leaping point for the Kang dynasty story and has trouble with being over bloated and “odd man out” in terms of comparison to the previous two films. Not bad, but not great either.

Directed by Peyton Reed, the film opens up with a sort of bubbly “Ant-Man” esque opening with Scott Lang walking happily down the street giving obvious foreshadowing that SOMETHING is going to happen. That something just so happens to be a BIG oopsie on our heroes parts. It seems that Cassie Lang (Kathryn Newton) has been working on something with Hank Pym (Michael Douglas, who is FANTASTIC as ever) that may change the world forever. They’ve been looking at tapping into the Quantum realm that Janet (Michelle Pfeiffer) escaped from before the blip, and looking at mapping it from the outside using a sort of “quantum hubble telescope” (according to Hank) to do so. Unknowingly they have just opened up the quantum real to finding THEM as well, and it seems that Janet was not really that forthcoming about her time spent in the quantum realm. Zapped back to the realm through some form of technology they find themselves face to face someone else who was trapped in the realm as well. A variant of Kang himself (Jonathan Majors) who Janet had left stranded in the Quantum realm so that he could not escape and destroy humanity.

The bloodthirsty time traveler has been waiting YEARS to get out, and he believes that the Pym Particles that power Scott’s, Hope’s (Evangeline Lilly) and Cassie’s suits will get him the power source he so desperately needs to leave this universe. Naturally that’s not going to be something that our heroes are willing to do, and now it’s a full on war to keep a monster from escaping his cage and hopefully getting out alive.

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is a bit of a jumbled mess. The film can’t seem to find it’s tone, leaving between witty and cheeky, and dark serious drama before you can really get comfortable with either tone. Then back again just as fast. Then there’s the barely there story that is only a framework for setting up Kang and the incursions of his other variants that were explained in the Loki Disney+ show. Seemingly invincible (even though it’s heavily intimated that THIS Kang variant is actually heavily weakened when he was exiled to the Quantum Realm), very little is explained about HOW he is so powerful. Veteran comic book readers will know that his suit is simply hundreds of years in the future tech and gives him an advantage in this time line, but first time viewers who are just watching the movies only know that he seems to have near magical powers with only a throw away line to clue them in to the technological marvel that is his tech.

There’s also a glut of characters that no one cares about on the planet, and the actual story about the typical uprising feels like it’s taken straight out of John Carpenter of Mars rather than the rest of the MCU. Peyton Reed does many things wrong here, but I did notice he was rather clever with his inclusion of MODOK. MODOK has always been an oddball character that really shouldn’t have been included on paper, but somehow Reed makes him WORK hilarious well (despite the incredibly awful CGI they used for the visible head….which brings up another question. Why is everyone taking off their helmets every 10 seconds in the film, only to put it back on again and then take it straight off?).




Rating:

Rated PG-13 for violence, action, and language




Video:

Taken from an upscaled master, Quantumania looks great in 4K 2160p for sure. It’s a color bombardment, with just about every neon shade of blue, green, pink, red, yellow etc just blasting you in the face. Fine details appear to be great most of the time, though with some of the wonky CGI that this film suffers from (word on the street is that the visual effects people are over worked and under staffed with too many projects going on at once) being the only thing to mar the image really. Blacks are deep and inky, and the HDR/DV application is stunning. I noticed some banding near the end of the film with the giant battle, but since I’m watching on a bandwidth dependent stream, I don’t want to say that it is a part of the master as bitrates and streaming speeds can affect that quite a bit. Overall, a VERY nice looking 4K image.








Audio:

Like most Marvel Atmos tracks (especially streaming ones) this one was good, but not super duper great. It’s a bit dialed down on the volume level, and needs to be adjusted up several decibels, but once done so it’s a very satisfying track. Surround activity is pretty wild with all of the battles and explosions, but dynamic range is sort of flat. Things happen roughly around the same volume level, with only a few explosions and sharp “bwaps” as the characters change size to really create that wide sonic changes. Bass is a bit anemic, but not overly so, and dialog is above reproach as usual. To bring this home, this is a typical Atmouse Atmos track with some good, some bad, and some generally great moments.







Extras:

• Gag Reel: Take a look at some of the fun outtakes on set with the cast and crew of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.
• Audio Commentary: Watch the film with audio commentary by director Peyton Reed and writer Jeff Loveness.
• Featurettes
-- All in the Family – Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly and Michelle Pfeiffer discuss the complex layers and secrets – yet incredibly strong bond of this heroic family.
-- Formidable Foes – Discover how Jonathan Majors, Bill Murray and Corey Stoll bring gravitas to the villains of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. Learn more about how Kang brings a Thanos-level threat to this adventure and the larger MCU.
• Deleted Scenes















Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is the weakest of the 3 Ant-Man films by far, but surprisingly, not the weakest of the Phase 4 films. Maybe it’s because Paul Rudd does an amazing job as Scott (a very off Ant-Man facing Kang was actually the highlight of the film), or maybe it was because so many other weak Phase 4 films have been out to offset the fall from grace. Either way, Quantumania is a decent popcorn film that sits right in the middle of the pack of the latest MCU adventures. Reasonable entertainment.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Michael Douglas, Jonathan Majors, Michelle Pfeiffer, Kathryn Newton
Directed by: Peyton Reed
Written by: Jeff Loveness, Jack Kirby, Larry Lieber, Ernest Hart
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1
Audio: English: Dolby Atmos
Subtitles: English
Studio: Disney/Fox
Rated: PG-13
Runtime: 125 Minutes
Digital Release Date: April 16th, 2022