Official promotional material released by Disney/Marvel Studios.

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania happens to be the thirty-first movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe Timeline, and first movie in the “Phase Five” MCU movie plan, with the previous movie Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, being the last of “Phase Four.”

This movie is a very well-rounded Action-Comedy with a lot of suspenseful yet emotional moments to keep the audience glued to their seats.

Jumping straight into the action, we see our heroes along with a grown-up Cassie Lang, now played by Actress, Kathryn Newton, confront the unknown head-on after being transported to the Quantum Realm. Paul Rudd delivers his perfected and charming deadpan humor as he battles with the inner-conflict of his past and present. What really works well for this film is the chemistry between all the actors, every piece of interaction feels genuine and emotional. New characters found in this new world are instantly loveable and do not have an annoying factor that takes from the charm of the movie as most MCU side characters do.

What makes this film so suspenseful during the first act is Michelle Pfeiffer’s performance as Janet Van Dyne, displaying pure dread and distaste for the Quantum Realm leaving the audience worried that there is something nefarious waiting and lurking about. Unfortunately, Michael Douglas‘s, Hank Pym does not have much of a role in this movie, but he steals every scene he is in.

The pacing of this film was perfect, with certain reveals hitting the mark and delivering to the audience before they start getting impatient or bored. For an Ant-Man movie, this felt more like an Avengers-level movie, with the visual effects being better than the most recent MCU films to come out these past couple of years. The ambiance and design of the Quantum Realm feel straight out of a sci-fi flick but does not feel cheesy with cool creature designs and concepts.

Now it is time for the best part of the film, Jonathan Majors. Major’s portrayal of “Kang the Conqueror” was brilliant. The number of layers that were put into playing the character should earn him some awards, being able to show the psychotic yet calm nature of Kang to then showing pure rage within seconds without it looking goofy is a feat only the best character actors can do. With his performance in Loki: Season 1 as “He Who Remains”, Majors shows that he is the perfect casting for this gigantic role he will be playing for this current decade.

As a Marvel film designed to fit in the MCU, it is a brilliant movie. It is able to tie in with previous movies like Avengers: Endgame that had world changing consequences, without taking the movie out of pace. One problem that recent MCU films have had is the comedy can wash over serious points in the movie that can, in turn, water them down and have less of an effect. Ant-Man does this differently, when there is a serious scene, the score is pulled back and the focus is on the characters reactions to emphasize how important it is.

The MCU has had a very bad streak of bad visual effects, with reports of artists being overworked with crunch deadlines. This film has had the best visual effects in an MCU film in a while. The suits have updated designs that do not look like it is straight out of a videogame, unlike most films they have done. 

This film is a 8.8 on a scale of 10.

Official promotional material released by Disney/Marvel Studios.

One aspect of this film that was not the best was the score, at times it felt lackluster and did not have much personality. A weird place like the Quantum realm should have a score that stands out to highlight the weird. 

This would be a better film if they included more screen time for the extra side characters like William Jackson Harper’s character, Quaz. For someone with powers like mind-reading, he would have been more useful throughout this whole movie. Harper steals every scene he is in, with his fun humor reminiscent of his time on “The Good Place”, he has great chemistry with the main cast and I hope MCU uses him more in the future.

I feel like M.O.D.O.K, “Mechanized Organism Designed Only for Killing,” could have had more scenes where it emphasized the fact he is a dangerous being not to be trifled with. It was a little upsetting for what they did to his character in the end of the film, he is given an entire character arc with the little screen time he is given. 

Overall this was a great film for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with really good messages and insights for the audience to take home with them. Every acting performance was excellent along with good VFX and writing. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania has saved the dying, soulless MCU that was starting to head downhill for the worst.