Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania Is Another Phase 4 Disappointment Pretending To Be Phase 5

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania has officially kicked off the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Phase 5, but unfortunately, it feels more like yet another Phase 4 disappointment. The MCU is currently exploring its multiverse and the many mysteries and dangers that live in it, and now that Phase 5 has officially begun, the studio has also started properly setting up the upcoming crossover events Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and Avengers: Secret Wars – and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania was key for that, but it was mostly a failure.

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania reunites viewers with Scott Lang (Paul Rudd), Hope van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly), Cassie (Kathryn Newton), Hank Pym (Michael Douglas), and Janet van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer) as they accidentally travel to the Quantum Realm, where they learn more about Janet’s time there and what really happens in this unique universe, but they also come face to face with Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors), a time-traveling, multiversal adversary exiled to the Quantum Realm by his variants. Quantumania is important to the Multiverse Saga as it’s the official introduction of Kang, and while his apparent death will trigger the conflict of the upcoming fifth Avengers movie, Ant-Man’s third movie is just another Phase 4 disappointment disguised as a Phase 5 movie.

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania Is Another Divisive Movie – Like Much Of Phase 4

The Infinity Saga ended on a high note with Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, with Spider-Man: Far From Home closing the MCU’s Phase 3, so expectations were higher than ever when Phase 4 began – unfortunately, the MCU’s Phase 4 is home to some of the biggest disappointments in this connected universe so far, becoming the most divisive MCU Phase to date. Phase 4 feels disconnected from the rest of the MCU, including the Multiverse Saga, and saw the first MCU Rotten score on Rotten Tomatoes (Eternals, with 47%), and not even the introduction of TV shows connected to the movies was able to save Phase 4.

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania continues the overall feeling of Phase 4 with a story that, even though sets up the upcoming Avengers movies, doesn’t do much for its main characters. Quantumania is currently the second lowest-rated MCU movie on Rotten Tomatoes, and while Ant-Man himself has never been a lead character in the MCU, Quantumania failed at making him a key player in the Multiverse Saga, which is what the marketing for it seemed to promise given his encounter with Kang the Conqueror. Surely, Quantumania has its strengths, such as Kang himself and Janet’s story along with Pfeiffer’s performance, but these weren’t enough to call it a success (to MCU standards). Quantumania is the beginning of Phase 5, but it repeated Phase 4’s biggest mistakes and continued its trend of messy stories, a bit too many subplots, and underdeveloped characters.

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’s Critics & Audience Split Is A Phase 4 Phenomenon

Although Phases 1, 2, and 3 had their flaws and their not-so-successful movies, there was an even tone between all of them that, in turn, led to critics and viewers often coinciding in whether an MCU movie was a hit or not. All of that ended in Phase 4, with critics and audiences split on their opinions of most of the movies. Eternals is another good example of this, holding a 47% critics score Rotten Tomatoes and a 77% audience score, the latter as viewers embraced the different tone and style of Chloé Zhao’s first Marvel movie more than critics did. Other Phase 4 examples of the critics and audience split are Black Widow, with 79% and 91%, respectively, and Thor: Love and Thunder though with a smaller difference, with 64% and 77%.

At the time of writing, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is the MCU movie with the biggest critic/audience split. Quantumania holds a 48% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes and an 84% score from audiences, so while critics led to Scott Lang’s new adventure earning a “rotten” certification, audiences believe it deserved a “fresh” one. This difference between critics and viewers has grown with each MCU Phase, and it was more evident throughout Phase 4, so it’s yet another trend that Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania has carried into Phase 5, showing that critics and viewers have very different expectations of what the MCU should be like post-Infinity Saga.

Avengers 5 & 6 Set Up Isn’t Pulling People In Yet

The MCU’s Phase 4 was mostly about giving closure to some characters from the Infinity Saga, introducing new ones (in both movies and TV shows), and introducing the multiverse and concepts like variants, all of which will be useful when Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and Avengers: Secret Wars arrive… but it hasn’t been enough to pull people in yet. The most important aspect of Quantumania is that it officially introduces Kang the Conqueror after his presence was teased at the end of Loki season 1, but not even Kang’s arrival and how it sets up the main conflict in the upcoming Avengers movies have been enough to regain interest after the mess of Phase 4, mostly as the setup for these has also been inconsistent.

MCU Phase 5 Will Be More Connected To the Overarching Story

Even if Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is a weak start to Phase 5 that feels more like a continuation of Phase 4, Phase 5 will be more connected to the overarching story. Quantumania not only introduced Kang and explained how he ended up in the Quantum Realm, but it also introduced the Council of Kangs, giving a whole new meaning to Avengers: The Kang Dynasty. With Avengers 5 and 6 coming at the end of Phase 6, Phase 5 has to continue the setup for these crossover events and thus be more connected to the overarching story of the Multiverse Saga, setting it apart from Phase 4 and, hopefully, avoiding its mistakes from now on. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is not that different from the movies from Phase 4, but Phase 5 is on its way to being, at least, more cohesive than the previous one.