First Take: Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania - Phase 5 starts with a small whimper, not a big bang

Spoiler free as usual. Because the Quantum Realm is pretty complex.

SYNOPSIS: Scott Lang and Hope Van Dyne, along with Hank Pym and Janet Van Dyne, explore the Quantum Realm, where they interact with strange creatures and embark on an adventure that goes beyond the limits of what they thought was possible.

With Wakanda Forever bringing Phase 4 to a close back in November, there were understandably a lot of high expectations (and a Super Bowl ad) for the latest entry into the MCU. At a box office level, it has hit those expectations already, £8.8million on opening weekend here in the UK is nothing to be surprised at for Mr Feige and his team- but how and why is a film this flawed doing these kinds of numbers?

This is nothing on director Peyton Reed, who returns to the franchise after helming the 2015 original (which of course was started by Edgar Wright), and 2018′s sequel in Phases 1 and 3 respectively, and his direction is OK this time- coming in at 2 hours 5 minutes,   The real problem is the script. Jeff Loveness, best known for writing 6 episodes of Rick and Morty (as well as material for Jimmy Kimmel) just isn’t the right fit for a Marvel movie- lots of repeated dialogue, barely anything that makes Marvel, well, Marvel and literally nothing major aside from the introduction of our new big villain. There’s been a lot said of the production team using the Covid shutdown to ‘do something new and weird’ for this film, but if this is indeed the writer for Avengers: Kang Dynasty, then god help us. It is, luckily, shot very well by Bill Pope, and Christophe Beck returns to provide the music.

On the cast front, Paul Rudd continues some fine form within the MCU, Evangeline Lilly gets more character development now she is firmly established as the Wasp, Michael Douglas has some good moments, and joining the Marvel fold as Cassie is Kathryn Newton (of Detective Pikachu and Big Little Lies) fame as well as a lovely little bit part for Bill Murray - who has historically said no to these kinds of films. But arguably this film belongs to Michelle Pfieffer and Jonathan Majors. We will be seeing Majors a lot over the next few years as Kang, and he absolutely bossed it, even with the writing issues of this film, and as for Pfieffer, she is the emotional core of this one - something we don’t get much of in recent Marvel output on the big screen. Yes, there are a lot of clear nods to the future, but as a wise person once said, you never get a second chance to make a first impression - and Phase 5 simply hasn’t opened too well.

THE VERDICT

Quantumania is, to put it simply, a mixed bag. The casual audiences will enjoy it, those who also follow the Disney+ series will get full enjoyment out of it (with some big post credits scenes). But as the opening film of Phase 5, and the official start of the road to Avengers: Kang Dynasty, I’m not angry. I’m just very, very disappointed.

RATING: 3/5