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'Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.'
Justin at the movies
Ant-Man and the Wasp

The Ant-Man franchise is somewhat like a lot of the phases of the MCU: The first one is standard but serviceable fare. The sequel expanded on what make the first one great. This third entry does have creativity but it also hints at taking a step back.
Paul Rudd returns as Scott Lang, who’s now a famous author and a recognizable celebrity everywhere he goes. The "Welcome Back, Kotter" theme plays every time he walks down the street.
Evangeline Lilly is also back as his girlfriend, Hope, who's now in charge of her father's company. Scott's daughter Cassie (Kathryn Newton) spends her time as an activist getting in and out of jail. She's a chip off the old block, like her ex-con dad.
The story picks up when the three of them visit Hope's parents, her dad Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) and her mom Janet (Michelle Pfeiffer), who tell them that she's been doing some research which will allow them to make contact with the Quantum Realm. Janet believes it to be dangerous after she was once trapped inside the Quantum Realm for 30 years.
While experimenting on it, a message gets received by the Realm which pulls all five of them into the Quantum Realm, where they discover an entire city filled with strange creatures that are in rebellion against their tyrannical leader. Some of them would seem right at home in either “Star Wars” or “Avatar.”
They try to get some help in the form of Lord Krylar (Bill Murray) but to no avail. Murray's role is mostly forgettable and amounts to nothing more than an extended cameo.

Jonathan Majors stars as Kang the Conqueror, the leader of the Realm who once befriended Janet and now wants to escape so he can get his powers back. This inevitably leads to a confrontation between he and Ant-Man as he holds Cassie for ransom.
There's a lot here for fans to appreciate and even some of the visuals are made with some degree of imagination, but others are no more impressive than other things the MCU has cooked up. That's how I felt about a lot of Quantumania.
There are some nifty surprises, including a character from the first film who reemerges and the movie does try to hint at further things in the Ant-Man universe, but other scenes don't have the emotional weight that it wants to have.
Quantumania doesn't have the coolness of the first film and there's no breezy, zippy pace like the sequel. Of anything, it plays like some of the more recent entries in the MCU: It just there to set up even bigger ideas that will hopefully be more engrossing.

Grade: B

(Rated PG-13 for violence/action, and language.)
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