Ant-Man and The Wasp Quantumania Movie Review : Ant-Man is part of the larger chess board of the MCU

STAR RATING: 3.5/5

STAR CAST: Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Michelle Pfeiffer

The "Ant-Man" movies by Peyton Reed typically act as a sort of palate cleanser to the potentially world-ending stakes of the bigger Marvel Cinematic Universe. They keep assuring us that Paul Rudd's Scott Lang is just a regular guy who still finds it hard to comprehend that he is a member of the Avengers. He gets to play the group's wide-eyed, middle-aged fanboy in those movies. In his movies, he plays a friendly single father who has once been fired from Baskin-Robbins and an ex-con who just wants to live a simple life in San Francisco while occasionally facing off against foes.

These early scenes feature Hope Van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly), Janet Van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer), and Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) as his temporary family, gathering around the table for takeout pizza. They blast up the little pie using their particle technology.

But, Ant-Man is a piece of the bigger MCU chess board, thus he is inevitably destined to be swept into the chaos of the multiverse, setting up elements for future Avengers movies with the introduction of a new antagonist, Kang (played with a maniacal sorrow by the great Jonathan Majors). And the outcomes are unreliable. Reed has resumed directing with Jeff Loveness, a new writer who has also been selected to pen "Avengers: Infinity War."

We, Hank, hopefully, learn a little more about Janet's 30 years in the Quantum Realm and the various sacrifices and allegiances she made to survive in "Quantumania," which also gives Pfeiffer a lot more to do. Contrary to what the title might imply, Pfeiffer is an unquestionable delight and the true protagonist of the film. Ant-Man simply finds himself in the middle of the disaster, which drags on in a jumble of sci-fi décor that, although presumably highly inventive and interesting individually, merely blends into a gloomy mass as a whole.

But, "Quantumania" keeps its conclusion. We'll just say that Reed and Rudd get to return to their sweet spot with a little twist without giving anything more away.

The Motion Picture Association has given Walt Disney's "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania," which hits cinemas on Thursday, a PG-13 rating for "some sci-fi action violence."