“Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” launches Phase 5 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and these phases are starting to feel like variants in a pandemic.
The storylines in every MCU phase depend on leaders heading in the wrong direction, unintentionally, and then fighting their way back to a new normal that may no longer exist (is everything a pandemic metaphor?). But it’s discouraging to see the friskiest MCU franchise swell up like a tick in terms of its reported $200 million production budget and its universe-destroying threat levels while shrinking in effectiveness.
“Ant-Man” (2015) was fun; “Ant-Man and the Wasp” (2018) was fun, too. “Quantumania,” again directed by Peyton Reed, is less fun, and blandly garish visually. The earlier films’ throwaway jokes and welcome aversion to brutal solemnity have largely been ditched in favor of endless endgame stuff and weirdly cheesy digital world-building in the Quantum Realm.
