The MCU’s most eager fans are already feasting their eyes on Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, and most are emerging unimpressed.
Now that audience scores are starting to join critic scores on sites like Rotten Tomatoes, things are looking a bit better for the film, but that creeping “rotten” score still haunts the latest MCU release. Audiences are enjoying the film far more than most critics did, providing it with a cozy 84 percent audience score, but its largely the Marvel die-hards who’ve seen the film thus far. Once less enthusiastic viewers get a chance to see the third Ant-Man film, we could see the audience score dip closer to the 48 percent it has on the Tomatometer.
Despite complaints of uneven pacing and too little humor, audiences are raving about Jonathan Majors’ Kang, who finally delivered the next Avengers-level threat through the course of the movie. The character is clearly poised to become a terrifying foe in future releases, and Majors proved in Quantumania that he’s more than up to the task.
A far more surprising development, in this viewer’s mind, at least, was Michael Douglas‘ Hank Pym. The character has been a staple of every Ant-Man release, but this film feels like the one he enjoyed the most. The beloved actor always brought a certain gruff humor to his scenes, but in Quantumania, he finally let his weird flag fly, and it enhanced the film immensely.
Douglas’ Hank in Quantumania largely carried the same frantic, chaotic energy he channeled into that weird promo for the first Ant-Man film. Yep, you’re remembering right — the one where he and Paul Rudd shouted “ants” at us while clapping and snapping their oddball little hearts out. Douglas comes across in a similarly unhinged — but utterly delightful — manner in Quantumania, filling the background with ant references and surprisingly funny one liners.
Rudd is clearly the funnyman of these films, so it was a genuine surprise to see Douglas carry so much of Quantumania‘s humor. What was even more surprising was how often he nailed it. Douglas is a broadly talented actor, of course, but when you put him in a scene with the likes of Rudd or Bill Murray, you don’t expect him to be the humorous one. Yet, through almost all of his time in Quantumania, he was.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not blasting Rudd, Murray, or anyone else’s performances or comedic timing. I’m just fixated on the fact that nine out of 10 laughs the movie wrung from me were sparked by Douglas, and I find that endlessly charming. He took Hank Pym, a character that I could largely care less about in the MCU, and made him one of my favorite parts of Quantumania.
The film still has its flaws, of course, not the least of which is the deeply horrific — but, if you view him right, also hilarious — M.O.D.O.K, but I would argue that it’s not nearly so bad as some people want you to believe. Even if you don’t enjoy the pacing or lack of consistent, familiar humor, Quantumania feels worth a watch if only for Michael Douglas and his wacky, ant-loving Hank Pym.