Quantumania introduces a major new villain but shrinks Ant-Man's appeal

Even drowning in aday glow colour scheme and overrun with acollection of creatures who look like rejects from Jim Henson's workshop there's a certain listless qualityAnt-Man and the Wasp: Quantumaniashares with too many Marvel movies.

Then Jonathan Majors strideson screen and rescues it fromthe morass of mediocrity.Cast as Kang the Conqueror, Majors is suited up in a green and purple costume, the now recognizable Marvel mixture of plastic and latex, his face marked with prosthetic scars.

The Kirbyeque colour scheme does him no favours.But when he speaks, you lean in a little closer. You feel the character's weariness.Even his pauses are riveting.This is the face of a man who has stared into the yawning maw of the infinite.

Thisisn't Majors' first film.Far from it.Hewas featured in the HBO series Lovecraft Countryand the highly underrated TheLast Black Man in San Francisco. Now he'shaving a moment.

Fresh from his appearance as a pilot in the film Devotion,he'salready earning raves for his performance in the buzzy Sundance film Magazine Dreamsand will go toe to toe with Michael B. Jordan next month in Creed III.

AsKang, Majors plays an ageless characterwho can skip across timelines and seeks to control everything.

Even with his face hidden behind a shimmering blue force field, he gives the despot a certain sense of vulnerability. There's a sad kindness in his gazebefore the inevitable energy bolts appear.

Quantumaniaasks:Now what?

So how did we get here? Quantumaniatakes placeafter the events of Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame. When we firstcatch up with Paul Rudd's character Scott Lang, a.k.a. shrinking hero Ant-Man, he's facing the same problem as Marvel Studios:Now what?

The first decade of the Marvel Cinematic Universe had a plan: A carefully laid out arc with Iron Man and the villain Thanosslowly building towarda blockbuster conclusion.In the post-Endgame era of Marvel movies it often feels we're still chasing the same high fromthe previous films as the magic ebbs away.

So what do you do after you've saved the Earth, the universe and everything? If you'reLang,you pose for selfies and write a book.Luckily for him and us in the audience, inventor Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) and Lang's teenage daughter, Cassie (Kathryn Newton),have been mucking around in the quantum realm.When their research project goes awry, all three of them, along withHank's wife and daughter, Janet andHopevan Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer and Evangeline Lilly, respectively),arepulled into the microverse.

Like Jodorowsky's Dune come to life, it's a wildand woolly realm filled with fungal-like forests, cotton candy skies and creatures thatresemble extras from the Mos Eisleycantina.

Director PeytonReed cranks the weird factorup to 11, but there's no unifying principal. Some characters are gritty freedom fighters such as Jentorra, awarrior womanwho spits out phrases like: "He built his citadel on the bones of our people." Then there's Veb, a fishbowl with fourlegs and a brain floating in drinkable ooze.

Majors makes you care

The only redeeming feature of the quantum misadventure is that it provides Scott and Cassie some much needed daddy-daughter time.Newton doesn'thave much to work with,but she shines asa teen trying to follow in her father's footsteps.

Although Quantumania is packed with wacky characters, including asquandered Bill Murray,it doesn't find its grooveuntilMajors arrives.Suddenly, thestory has clearly defined stakes and something to push against.Kang's ultimate aims may be run of the mill conquer the universe, obliterate the timelines, yada, yada, yadabut Majors makes you care.

Marvel fans knowQuantumaniais the beginning of a much larger storyline,the much hyped "Phase 5"of the MCU. If you don't know your Juggernauts from your Jokers that may not mean much, but all you really need to know is we'll be seeing a lot more of Majors, and that's a good thing.

WATCH | Eli Glasner talks to Ant-Man's Kathryn Newton about suiting up:

Ant-Man's Kathryn Newton on Paul Rudd's advice, acting with Jonathan Majors

2 years ago

Duration 6:10

With roles in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, as well as the next few Avengers films, it looks like Kathryn Newton has a big future in the MCU. CBC's Eli Glasner sits down to talk with Kathryn Newton, the actor who plays Ant-Man's daughter about laughing with Paul Rudd, trying on her super suit for the first time and sharing scenes with Kang the Conqueror.

As forthe tiny titular hero?When he first appeared in Ant-Man back in 2015,Rudd'sreal super power was his irreverence.Asan ex-con turned good guy, Lang's sense of wonder and amusement was infectious, complimented by a superbsupporting cast: Michael Douglas as the crotchety inventor and of course the hilarious off-kilter energy of Lang's pal Luis, played by Michael Pea.

I'm sorry to report Pea is MIA in Quatumania.That's unfortunate.The film could have used his hilarious flashbacks. Instead we get Rudd levelling up to be the stoic hero.

This is the Marvel way:The studiorecruitsactors anddirectors for their distinctive qualities, but over time the thing that stuck out about them gets filed down, untilthey're just part of the machine.WithAnt-Man and the Wasp: Quantumaniawe get more of the same, butalso apromising preview ofan actor who coulddefine the next era of cinema, for Marvel and beyond.