Up and down the Quantum Realm with Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, and the rest of the cast of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantummania. The first film of Phase 5 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe arrives in Italian cinemas on February 15, 2023.

Don’t underestimate the little guy. And write down the date: February 17, 2023, the day on which Phase 5 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) begins in all respects, at the same time as the release in cinemas of Ant-Man 3. A distribution of The Walt Disney Company, third directed by Peyton Reed for the third chapter of the micro (!) saga dedicated to the famous superhero ant (here is a summary of the overseas comments on the film).

From the cast of the first two, Ant-Man (2015) and Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018), all stars return for Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. Which would be Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Michelle Pfeiffer (she was on board from the second), and Michael Douglas. 

Of note in positions that count two precious new entries such as Kathryn Newton and Jonathan Majors. William Jackson Harper and Katy M. O’Brian complete the cast, plus a few surprises that it is better not to spoil. 

We are well aware that concepts such as strategy and long-term constitute the ABC of Marvel thinking, so we must not underestimate the fact that this very film has been chosen to inaugurate a new chapter in the largest serial operation in the history of entertainment cinema. 

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania leans on a super-consolidated formula made of feeling, action, humor, and bold and colorful aesthetics. In addition, he cannot avoid integrating the narrative with themes and ideas that have value for the series, in general, while maintaining the appeal of the film. It works, overall. Again, don’t underestimate the little guy.

Ant-Man and the Wasp – Quantumania: all together passionately (in the Quantum Realm)

Do not underestimate the picoletto is in a nutshell the meaning of the book. What book, you say? Well, what Scott Lang/Ant-Man (Paul Rudd) wrote about himself. It’s called Look out for the little guy and it’s a fairly realistic snapshot of the state of affairs in Ant-Man’s life as the film begins. 

The time of history is synchronized with our present, therefore a few years after Avengers: Endgame, with all that follows. At this point, you guessed it, Scott Lang really has nothing heroic to do, other than trying to establish himself with the general public as an Avenger worthy of respect. Just a little’. Everyone mistakes him for Spider-Man.

And in the family? Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is a film with a family format, traction, and vocation. Hope/Wasp (Evangeline Lilly) does great at home and at work, has a good relationship with Cassie (Kathryn Newton), his daughter, stubborn, impulsive, and allergic to any form of injustice. 

Janet (Michelle Pfeiffer) has finally managed to return to her daughter, Hope, and her husband, Hank (Micheal Douglas), after thirty years spent in the Quantum Realm, far from anything even remotely resembling the word home. Janet wants to relax and make up for a lost time, logical that she doesn’t feel the need to go back to the difficult years with the memory. 

No one dares to ask her anything, in fact. Only Hope senses a sour note in her mother’s reticence, but she doesn’t investigate. On the other hand, there is no reason; all goes well, to the point that Scott has set about writing best-sellers. The truth is, Janet and the others sincerely believe they are done with the Quantum Realm.

The bad news for the protagonists, delight for the viewer, is that the Quantum Realm is not finished with them. They end up in it accidentally, due to an experiment conducted by Cassie; growing up she developed a prodigious passion (and expertise) for science and technology, with all the risks involved. 

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantum Mania is the story of Scott, Hope, Cassie, Hank, and Janet as they grapple with the weirdness and wonder of the Quantum Realm. Breathtaking landscapes, strange creatures, natives fighting against a mysterious oppressor, above all William Jackson Harper and Katy M. O’Brian; he with an incredible and a little embarrassing ability, she a tough warrior. 

The mysterious oppressor is played by Jonathan Majors. We saw him in the form of the One Who Remains in the television series Loki. Here he introduces himself as Kang the Conqueror. The character has the importance of him.

Phase 5 begins with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, very interesting characters arrive

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is a film cut with an axe. The first part takes a while to take the right turns, thanks to a certain lack of imagination in the exposition, in the preparation of the story, and also because the emotional dynamics that bind the protagonists know, inevitably, already seen. 

And a more explosive (in every sense) and calibrated second part, the moment in which the viewer realizes that the things that happen here and now have a resonance even beyond the experience of the film. 

This is MCU canon at its best; keep everything together, the big and the small, an apt image, to the extent that each film is a brick of a larger wall (of a narrative). Without, this reason, nothing decisive is sacrificed to the dignity of the brick. Everything good in the film inevitably passes through Jonathan Majors. Literally, the Passepartout undermines Phase 5. The word to keep in mind is still Multiverse.

Phase 5 is the moment in which we finally go out to see the stars again, the impression of a greater sense of history, a design that begins to clarify itself, at least in its essential elements. Jonathan Majors has charisma and physicality, a dramatic sense of things, and a perverse elegance. 

It makes the melancholic and traumatized emotionality of his (anti) hero tangible, without softening its dark charm. The Italian viewer should try, after having experienced the dubbed film in theaters, to recover Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania in the original language. 

If only to verify the splendid work on the voice of the character offered by Jonathan Majors: there is everything needed to grasp its psychology. Sophisticated, but not pretentious. Authoritative, with a not-too-disguised streak of madness. In one, indeed two words, extremely dangerous.

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is the right film to start Phase 5. The background is already defined and, really, there is no need to add much. The chemistry between Evangeline Lilly and Paul Rudd, and the conjunction of prestige and charisma of Michael Douglas and Michelle Pfeiffer; are all proven beyond a reasonable doubt. 

This helps Kathryn Newton get into the film with some ease. More generally, the familiarity of the operation makes it possible to adapt universal ideas to the body of the story, which are also valid for future films. There are also contraindications.

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, with self-irony not taken to the extreme consequences, reflects on the marginality of the hero of the same name in the heart of the Marvel universe, inviting us to take him more seriously (and rightly so). A film is full of ants, action, and humor. 

Obviously, the family is the engine of many (beautiful) things, while the moral of the story reminds us that being small does not mean not being able to make a difference. Herein lies the problem: even the most edifying message, obsessively repeated, film after film, loses its emotional bite. 

The work on the aesthetics of the film is very interesting, halfway between the classics of science fiction for children of the 60s (journey in the mysterious world) and a strong echo of Star Wars, the cumbersome ancestor of the Marvel Cinematic Universe in the big house of pop culture. There too, are complicated families and bad guys with a (broken) souls. A long time ago, in a Quantum Realm far, far away.