There is always room to grow’, was one of the most famous lines uttered by Ant-Man in the latest film Ant-man and the Wasp: Quantamania film. The movie, which begins the fifth phase of Marvel movies, did have some room to grow. The team visits another realm, encounters a brand-new bad guy, and adds a new member to its fighting squad.

The story begins when in an attempt to create a link with Quantum Realm, the entire family, with Hope and her parents, and Scott Lang and his daughter were dragged into the Realm itself.

The movie, the first in the MCU fifth phase, has an environment that reminds one of Avatar movies, a team of clueless superheroes fighting together like the ones in Guardians of the Galaxy and a magnificent and undefeated villain that reminds one of the antagonists of the last two Avengers’ flick.

The performances of all actors are engrossing, but Jonathan Majors as Kang and Michelle Pfeiffer as Janet steal the show. Majors has earlier appeared as Kang in Loki TV series, but no one was expecting him to turn out like Thanos. There are rebels, some humans and some weird aliens, but it was Janet’s brief meeting with old acquaintance Krylar (Bill Murray in a cameo) that makes things clear.

The Realm is itself fighting a war and is ruled by chilling new villain Kang, whose rise is directly linked to the escape of Hope’s mother Janet van Dyne’s escape years ago. In Ant-man’s third solo outing, the audience surprisingly gets to see more of Janet van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer) and Cassie Lang (Kathryn Newton), than the Wasp played by Evangeline Lilly, who plays the title role of Wasp. Similarly, Michael Douglass’ Hank Pym has a smaller role, unlike his wife who can be termed as the Wasp of this flick.

Director Peyton Reed, who had also directed the first two instalments of Ant-man succeeds in creating a scenario, where Kang is shown to have an upper hand throughout.

The bad guy of the first Ant-man movie, Darren Cross/Yellow jacket, makes a comeback, this time around as MODOK, the killing machine, but the CGI used to resurrect him isn’t something worth mentioning because it’s badly done.

The 120-minute movie has entertaining moments and a heartfelt family story, perfect for MCU’s Phase 5 to get into motion. Paul Rudd’s charm and Ant-man’s size-shifting steal the show and, although the film doesn’t have Michael Pena as Luis, Kang is here to keep you busy.

Published in Dawn, Young World, February 25th, 2023