Ant-Man 3 sets the stage for the future of the MCU

Marvel’s collective Cinematic Universe just keeps on chugging, with film # 31 hitting this past weekend. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania starts their Phase 5, and after the bumpy septet of films of Phase 4 (highs such as Shang-Chi and the third Spider-Man, lows including Eternals and the fourth Thor), Marvel is trying to right the ship and give us a collective goal, i.e. the next Avengers team-up, and a new bad guy to root against. It also finally delivered a big vehicle for the Avenger’s tiniest member, and while some critics didn’t like the turn, I enjoyed seeing Ant-Man finally get his due.

Paul Rudd does comedy well, so he’s always been likable as the plucky crook-turned-superhero Scott Lang. In the beginning of the film, he’s enjoying the star life after helping to save the world from Thanos. He has his full family back together, but his daughter, Cassie, inadvertently sets up the future of the franchise when she sends signals down into the Quantum Realm for mapping. When Scott’s girlfriend (Evangeline Lilly as Hope, the Wasp)’s mom Janet (Michelle Pfeiffer) previously escaped the Quantum Realm, she left behind an evil man named Kang. A conqueror of worlds, Kang is nearly all powerful, but he is trapped there, and was supposed to have been forever trapped, until he hears Cassie’s signal. Kang (Jonathan Majors) pulls Scott, Hope, Janet, Hank (Michael Douglas), and Cassie into the Quantum Realm, in order to force one of them to use their shrinking powers to retrieve the device Janet had previously made inert, a device that will power his ship to continue ravaging the multiverse in his goal of destroying worlds. Whereas Thanos wanted to destroy whole populations in our universe, Kang has the ability to destroy whole worlds across the multiverse. Infinite possibilities and infinite numbers of people can be killed. In the Quantum Realm, Scott and his family and friends must find a way to stop him from escaping his prison, even as he uses the threat of Cassie’s death to force Scott to cooperate.

I always felt Scott Lang didn’t get enough attention in the films. Though this is his fifth appearance (2 solo films, plus Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Endgame), it seems like he never got his due. When he’s in with the Avengers, he seems to only be around for comic relief, and his solo films have been more of the small-time variety, where his actions don’t have big consequences. Don’t get me wrong, I like street level superheroes (loved the Netflix Marvel shows, even Iron Fist (second season anyway)), but Ant-Man’s been around long enough to finally do something with big ramifications. It doesn’t get any bigger so far than with Kang, who will be the “next Thanos.” This movie isn’t perfect; it glosses over how Janet left a vicious autocrat behind when she escaped the Quantum Realm, without even looking into going back or sending help for the beleaguered people living there under this thumb. And as is the norm these days, the CGI is heavy, though it is done well. Majors is fantastic as the evil Kang, and the film is just cryptic enough to finalize out this plot, while leaving options for the future in how they want to develop his character moving forward. There’s also some nice cameos, including a character from long ago. ★★★★