‘Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania’ Review: Paul Rudd Is Back In Action But Has He Met His Match In Jonathan Majors‘ Kang & What Does It Mean For MCU’s Phase 5 Start?

With the Avengers: Endgame now history for a few years, and its place in the boxoffice realm currently challenged more by Avatars than any one Marvel character, the MCU, under orders from Marvel Chief Kevin Feige is now entering Phase 5, and using the third cinematic incarnation of Ant-Man and the full-blooded emergence of multi-villain Kang The Conqueror to carry it forward in what is essentially a stand-alone transition movie. As such Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania is a mixed bag, still containing the lighter comedy of the 2015 original and 2018 followup, both set in San Francisco, but now taking us deep into a subatomic universe where the familial characters will experience both good and evil forces, some wacky new creatures that look like they are straight out of a Star Wars bar, and a mission to save this dizzying community of colorful beings who are being terroized by another comic book legend now embodied by the imposing and talented Jonathan Majors, clearly aiming to be the next major player in the MCU.

As it gets rolling, we see Hope Van Dyne aka The Wasp ( Evangeline Lilly back in style) has managed to help free her mother Janet (Michelle Pfeiffer in a welcome major role here) who has been stuck in the Quantum Realm for 30 years, and like a soldier returning from the sheer hell of war is reluctant to share her experiences. We meet her back on Earth in San Francisco, and also there is Scott Lang (Paul Rudd in happy-go-lucky mode) now strutting down the streets to the tune of John Sebastian’s catch Kotter theme “Welcome Back”. It is five years past his world-saving efforts as an Avenger with no discernible superpower other than shrinking down and communicating with Ants, he has written a best selling book,