Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania

 So, where do The Avengers go after they finally blipped away Thanos? Who can possibly top the Mad Titan? Who's more dangerous than someone who wanted half the universe dead?

The answer was gleamed at during the Disney Plus series Loki, and fully appeared in Marvel's newest movie, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. He is Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors), a villain who's been everywhere in the multiverse and left numerous alternate selves in his wake. That's going to be a problem. But how does that affect Ant-Man?

This time, Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) is no longer a fugitive, but is instead the celebrated superhero Ant-Man and author. His daughter, Cassie (Kathryn Newton), is a political activist and aspiring scientist. She's built a signaling device to the subatomic quantum realm, where the former superheroine Wasp, Janet van Dyne (Michelle Pheiffer) was found in the last movie. She's not happy with this development, but too late, as the device sucks her, daughter Hope (Evangeline Lily), husband Hank (Michael Douglas) and the Langs into the realm.

It turns out that Janet met Kang during her time in the Quantum Realm. They were allies until she realized how evil he was. She hid away Kang's power core, a MacGuffin for multiversal travel, but he took over the realm in her absence. Meanwhile, the Langs get involved with the Quantum rebels. Their trek home is disrupted when they're captured by Kang's henchman MODOK, previously Darren Cross (Corey Stoll). Kang enlists him to retrieve the core, or else. Scott's not that keen on getting involved in subatomic politics. But Kang's underhandedness leaves him no choice.

Director Peyton Reed and writer Jeff Loveness quickly get to the Quantamania within a half-hour. That's when the plot gets really busy on both fronts. On the Pym side, they meet Lord Krylar (Bill Murray), an old friend of Janet's, and a very swell guy. That makes it unnerving when he reveals himself to be a sellout to Kang. The Lang side gives them the bonding time Thanos denied them. Him teaching her how to use her special suit to fight is a nice example. Amongst the rebels, the standouts include the leader, Jentorra (Katy O'Brian), the blob Veb (David Dastmalchian) and the telepath Quaz (William Jackson Harper). Everyone else is a visually appealing redshirt. That includes the broccoli guy.

Hope, the deuteragonist of the last film, is basically demoted to extra here. But she still gets a few good moments with Scott. The standout is when she helps him secure the core. How hard is it? Anyone in its center runs into another of them every few seconds. The sheer volume of Scott, and later Hope variants, is nothing short of impressive visually. Her saving Scott from Kang in the climax comes at a close second. Her parents, meanwhile, get the lion's share of focus. Both of them, well past their prime as superheroes, still put up a good fight against Kang. Hank himself calls out the cavalry, a whole ant colony that evolved off-screen, for the climax. And they hurt Kang.

Now for Kang himself. What other villains would call affability ("Have I killed you before?" he asks Scott once) is what he'd call a veiled threat. He makes good on those threats when he tortures Cassie in front of Scott. He later makes redshirts out of some rebels in the climax. He maybe a standard conquering bad guy, but Majors's charisma makes him a formidable villain. Costume Designer Sammy Sheldon dresses him and his variants in a good approximation of their comic counterparts' attire. A few of them appear in the mid-credit and post-credit scenes (the second of which ties into Loki). They're fine, even if I found the variant Immortus's raspy voice a bit much, and I hope the upcoming Avengers films give them plenty to do.

Let's discuss some other stuff. MODOK is quite hard to take seriously unmasked; after all, he's a big head with a little body. Even his character arc is played for laughs. The Quantum Realm is as visually appealing as its denizens. Kang's stormtroopers are neat and not even their modulated voices detracted from their threat. Veb is fine, though his fascination with holes is odd. He still shines when he steamrolls through a few stormtroopers in the climax after a fake-out death. Dastmalchian previously played one of Scott's prison buddies in the first few Ant-Man films. Where did they go? Their presence was sorely missed.

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania isn't the best Marvel film, but it was still entertaining. A few tweaks to the storyline could have made it a quick crowd-pleaser until Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 hits us in May. It's still nice to see our hero treated with the respect he fought for those previous films. Why do I crave a Baskin-Robbins cake all of a sudden? You can probably find out why when you see it in theaters.