Thinking he left his Ant-Man days behind him, Scott Lang enjoys his life with partner Hope van Dyne and teenage daughter Cassie. However, one day Cassie invents a device that can establish contact with the Quantum Realm in her basement, and the device turns into a wormhole that sucks Scott, Hope, Cassie, Janet and Hank Pym into the Quantum level. There, Janet admits she encountered Kang, a villain who was banished to the Quantum world and who was left trapped there. Kang in the meantime conquered entire lands with creatures living there. Kang captures Cassie and uses her to blackmail Scott into finding an orb that could activate a portal for Kang to escape back to the real world. Scott and Hope are able to knock Kang out and escape with Cassie, Janet and Hank back to the real world.
The 31st Marvel Cinematic Universe film received an uncharacteristically underwhelming reception compared to the overhyped reception 2/3 of their previous films received, even though it's nothing particularly better or worse than any other Marvel film, except that the viewers were probably oversaturated by the series after 15 years, and were rejecting any new attempts to start a rerun of a Thanos-copycat which worked like an event five years earlier in "Avengers: Infinity War" and "Avengers: Endgame". "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania" is a fun film, nonetheless, crafting a dynamic and imaginative world inside the Quantum Realm, while Paul Rudd is again equally as fresh as the sympathetic hero Scott Lang. The humanoid creatures inside the Quantum world are bizarre and surreal, a hit-or-miss-affair, since this entire Quantum segment is just one giant 90-minute special effect, and thus some ideas have spark (Bill Murray's character Lord Krylar enjoys eating a miniature live octopuss-like creature in his drink, but this comes full circle in a getaway scene when Hank uses his technology to enlarge the octopuss to a giant, so the octopuss now eats Krylar), though some forced attempts at jokes bring it down. The highlight is the new villain, Nathaniel Richards alias Kang (very good Jonathan Majors): while not so fully fascinating as, let's say, Thulsa Doom or Hannibal Lecter, Kang is still a very different, charismatic and intelligent adversary who has a way with words, and he grows on you. In one scene, Janet accidentally discovers his secret identity, so she has this exchange with Nathaniel: "Who is Kang?" - "The one I need to be." In another sequence, in the hallway, MODOK enters and says something, while Kang throws him away with a warning: "Do not speak while I am in the room". The final battle between Kang and Ant-Man also has a winning quote that is a blast: "You think you could win?" - "I don't have to win. We both just have to lose!" While overstuffed and too chaotic at times, "Quantumania" is still an energetic film that works. And the midcredits scene is extraordinary: suffice to say it is reminiscent of multiverse possibilities of "Rick & Morty" and manages to rejuvenate the faltered MCU mood by teasing with a very exciting concept that has potential to actually be awesome if done right in future films.
Grade:++
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