The new Marvel phase looks great and stunning and starts with a superhero as small as an ant, but still amazing. When Ant-Man was released in 2015, the superhero was not the most famous, unknown to those who were not passionate comics readers, but the film captured the public and the character became famous and important in the narrative, arriving to save the universe from Thanos. This February, he becomes even more relevant, opening the fifth phase of the Marvel cinematic universe in cinemas.
Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania has got everything fans loved about the previous films in the trilogy and is everything the MCU has ever promised to be. There is the inevitable and characteristic humour, but less intrusive and forced than Thor: Love and Thunder. There is sadness, it is not the tribute to the late Chadwick Boseman of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, but the eyes still become teary in some scenes. There are so many special effects, numerous companies have worked on it and are mentioned in the credits. There are twists and turns, some implications are predictable by paying attention to what happens, but until the end, the situation evolves, surprising the viewer.
After phase four which hadn’t convinced all the fans, Disney is betting a lot on this new phase: it’s really publishing the book written by Scott Lang in the film, Look Out For The Little Guy.
By being the opener of the new phase, there was the risk that the plot and the characterization of the characters would be sacrificed to lay the foundations. However, this danger is avoided: the film suffers from some long moments of info-dump, but manages to remain conclusive for the characters and their situation. Absolute knowledge of all previous Marvel products is not even required to appreciate the vision. It might be useful to have seen Loki for the return of actor Jonathan Majors, who reprises the role of a variant of the character played in the series with Tom Hiddleston, but it is not vital to understand the new character in the film.
While the film takes its time in certain respects, it is much quicker in others. The Quantum Realm is reminiscent of Star Wars for the planets with numerous peoples and histories and characters (and also for the colours in some scenes) but all this variety is little exploited. The natural question that arises is whether DisneyPlus is already planning some series to better explore this new immense world.
One of the strengths of the first Ant-Man was the varied and entertaining supporting cast and secondary characters, in this new chapter some of them are seen for a while and someone does not reappear, the focus is all on the five superheroes, the characters introduced are not successful to be just as incisive, but that’s not a terribly bad thing because the new ones don’t steal the show and there’s the space to carefully explore the relationships within the Lang/Pym family.
Despite the very small protagonist, Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania is a sensational experience to see on the big screen. As a famous writer of modern America would say: «look out for the little guy» and the new Marvel phase.
Read: La nuova grande fase della Marvel inizia con le formiche
Marvel Studios’ ANT-MAN AND THE WASP: QUANTUMANIA. Photo courtesy of Marvel Studios. © 2022 MARVEL.
