One of the biggest recurring criticisms of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania – of which there are many, to be perfectly honest – is that it doesn’t really feel like an Ant-Man movie at all.
The previous two installments were light and breezy heist capers full of witty asides and a sense of fun that permeated the action from start to finish, whereas the third chapter in the series feels like little more than table-setting for the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s latest expansion, with Quantumania‘s entire existence doing nothing but pointing towards things are heading in the future.
As a result, it’s become one of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s lowest-rated features on Rotten Tomatoes, but if a fourth entry in the tiny tales of Scott Lang and his cohorts does materialize in the future, Paul Rudd revealed to Yahoo that he wants to return to its smaller-scale roots.
“I do think this is a guy who really just wants to spend some time with his daughter. That would be nice. Maybe a nice quiet road movie. Just Scott and Cassie taking in a coastal city and just spending time. Maybe like The Trip with [Steve] Coogan and just those where there’s no threat. There’s nothing wanting to kill them. I don’t know if Marvel would want to make that movie but it would be fun to shoot.”
Even co-star Evangeline Lilly thinks that a return to basics is the right way forward after a trip to the Quantum Realm.
“Ant-Man, the original, is still my favorite. I think I would [dial Ant-Man 4 down] if I was the director, or the writer, or Kevin Feige.”
Perhaps most tellingly of all, director Peyton Reed also threw his weight behind a much more minuscule Ant-Man 4.
“I think there’s more story to tell down there as well. But I also think that you can’t lose sight of those family dynamics and the idea of this ‘street-level’ quality of Ant-Man, of the Wasp, in the first couple of movies.”
With Quantumania proving to be such a disappointment, maybe Ant-Man simply isn’t suited to Avengers-level epic adventures, so heading back to the streets of San Francisco could turn out to be just the tonic.