“Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” is far from the best movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but it is not the worst. Although it did better than the other two films in the “Ant-Man” trilogy on its opening weekend, it has worse reviews on sites like Rotten Tomatoes and Letterboxd. The storyline felt complicated but boring at the same time. It felt like they were trying to pack too many ideas into a two-hour movie, and they didn’t execute it well.

The film was released in theaters on Feb. 17. This movie marks not only the third movie in the “Ant-Man” trilogy but the beginning of the fifth phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. On its opening weekend, the film made approximately $225 million at the box office globally.

The movie was initially announced on July 23, 2022, by Kevin Feige along with “Loki” season two, a fourth “Captain America” movie and a “Daredevil” reboot. Future projects that are planned to release during Phase Six were also announced. 

The movie starts out with Scott Lang, his daughter Cassie, his significant other Hope van Dyne and Hope’s parents, Hank and Janet, all being sucked into the Quantum Realm due to Cassie accidentally sending a signal there. Four out of the five of them were greeted by an unfamiliar world unlike their own, filled with strange organisms and species. Janet, however, seemed to have a reputation among the Quantum Realm’s residents.

The group gets split up when they first get to the Quantum Realm. Cassie and Scott are attacked by a jellyfish-like creature, while Janet guides Hope and Hank. They have to find each other before a villain that the residents call Kang the Conquerer finds them first.

In “Avengers: Endgame”, Scott was one of the Avengers that survived Thanos’ snap. Hope, however, was a part of the 50% of the population that didn’t. Before the blip happened, Scott and Hope were doing an experiment with the Quantum Realm. Hope was supposed to pull Scott out, but since she was blipped, he was stuck there. For what felt like five hours to him, Scott ended up being stuck in the Quantum Realm for five years. This was not acknowledged in “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” because Scott didn’t recognize most of the Quantum Realm, and there wasn’t a big-time skip on Earth when they got back.

Although many of the main characters maintained the same actors, Cassandra Lang was recasted as Kathryn Newton instead of Emma Fuhrmann, who appeared briefly at the end of “Avengers: Endgame.” I believe that this was not a good choice. Although Newton is a more well-known actress than Fuhrmann, she and Paul Rudd didn’t seem to have as much chemistry on screen, and Cassie’s character came off as bland.

None of the characters had good character development, either. It felt like they just stood around and relied on coincidences and miracles to save them from their situation. For example, even though the Wasp is in the title of the movie, Hope’s character doesn’t really add anything to the story earlier on. However, she does have her moment near the end of the film.

The film sets up more projects in the future, primarily “Avengers: The Kang Dynasty.” Kang was first introduced in “Loki” as “He Who Remains,” but the person shown in “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” is not necessarily the same character. The after-credits scene implies that there are many more versions of him, leaving the viewer with a feeling of excitement for what’s about to come.