“Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,” directed by Peyton Reed and written by Jeff Loveness, marks the third entry in Scott Lang’s story. As a result of tech created by Cassie, Lang’s daughter, the family gets sucked into the quantum realm ruled by Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors) in the MCU’s phase five opener. 

“Quantumania” feels like a mixed bag in terms of Marvel entries. There’s a lot to offer for fans of the franchise, yet it often suffers from an inconsistent tone. From the start, it embraces the ridiculousness of a comedy meant to take viewers on a whacky adventure with a man who fights evil by shrinking to the size of an ant. However, as the movie goes on, it quickly becomes a gritty prologue about the MCU’s newest threat, Kang the Conqueror, and the havoc he enacted on multiple realities across the multiverse. The film jumps from a comedic scene of an alien talking about the human body’s holes to a devastating backstory of Kang incinerating millions of people across the multiverse. While both tones are written quite well, the movie never decides on one path, leaving audiences with whiplash.

A lack of focus on Ant-Man himself rears its ant pincers into another issue for the film. Rather than crafting a launch pad for future Marvel projects, “Quantumania” should have centered around the third saga of the Ant-Man story. In total, the movie spends around 20 of its 125-minute runtime on the emotional journey of Scott as he comes to terms with life after ‘The Blip’ and raising his daughter Cassie. The movie ends up feeling like a puzzle piece in Marvel’s fifth phase rather than a satisfying solo hero movie like the original “Ant-Man.”

The best elements of the movie come down to the visuals and performances. “Quantumania” builds the Quantum Realm through extravagant landscape shots filled with beautiful purples and pinks, as well as people crafted with unique designs, from the broccoli-headed humanoid to the jelly creature. Entertaining performances across the board won’t leave viewers cringing, even with occasionally inane dialogue. Majors delivers a standout performance as Kang, who fully realizes his power in “Quantumania,” resulting in a villain who feels even more threatening than Thanos. Majors plays Kang as a manipulative, cold-blooded time traveler who slowly reveals his intentions as the movie progresses. Audiences will fear the power and malice on display with Majors’ take on Kang, and the performance will leave them eager to see his story continue through phase five.

While entertaining, “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” fails at what it sets out to do, from wasted character potential to a lack of dedication to a set tone. That being said, the gorgeous visual style and performance of Majors as Kang the Conqueror alongside hilarious and expertly crafted dialogue keep this movie from being rotten. It might have served the film’s creators well to take a move from Ant-Man’s playbook and shrink the runtime to create a much more consumable MCU movie for the masses.

3 Pym Particle Discs out of 5