ANT-MAN AND THE WASP: QUANTUMANIA

In ANT-MAN AND THE WASP: QUANTUMANIA, Scott Lang, the Ant-Man, must rescue his daughter from Kang, a powerful time-traveling human who transports Scott, his daughter and his girlfriend, The Wasp, and her parents into the Quantum Realm so he can return to the Macro Realm and resume his career of destroying and conquering whole planets. QUANTUMANIA is an action-packed science fiction adventure, laced with some winsome comedy and strong pro-family and pro-freedom messages, but the threats from the villain could use a little more gravitas, and the movie’s positive content is marred by too much foul language and some brief references to evolution, socialism and two past extra-marital affairs when a married couple are separated accidentally for 30 years.

The movie opens with Scott Lang humorously enjoying his life as an Avenger superhero who saved the universe. He’s even written a book about his experiences, which encourages people to be heroic. However, he has to bail his daughter, Cassie, out of jail after she shrunk a police car during a protest about homeless people.

Back at home, their family, including Scott’s fiancée, Hope, and her parents, Hank Pym and Janet, are enjoying a nice dinner. Scott learns that this wasn’t Cassie’s only time being arrested for getting in trouble during a protest. That first time, Cassie asked Hope to bail her out of jail. The family gets into a “discussion” about how best to make a difference in the world, with Scott saying there are better ways than getting arrested, and Cassie complaining that her father has become a little lazy about helping other people.

At that point, Cassie reveals that she and Hank are working on a project in the lab about the Quantum Realm, where Hank’s wife, Janet, was trapped for 30 years before they rescued her in the last movie. They all retire to the lab, where Cassie reveals that she’s created a device that lets them look into the Quantum Realm to study it from afar, rather than endangering a person’s life by having to travel there to explore the world.

When Cassie, however, mentions that she and Hank have been sending signals into the Quantum realm, Janet becomes extremely upset. She says that’s a stupid, dangerous thing to do. Sure enough, Cassie’s little device starts pulsating; and, suddenly, everyone is being shrunk and dragged into the Quantum Realm. As they fall into that world, Scott enlarges himself so he can protect Cassie from the fall. However, when they land, they realize they’ve become separated from Hank’s family.

It turns out that Hank’s wife, Janet, has some secrets about her 30-year history of being stranded in the Quantum Realm. She made friends with a time-traveling human from the future named Kang. He promised to take her back to the macro world if she helped him fix his time ship’s power core. However, she learned that Kang is a murderous megalomaniac who’s been banished deliberately to the Quantum Realm because of his crimes. Kang wants to escape the Quantum realm so he can resume his career of conquering and destroying planets.

Janet was able to steal the rebuilt power core and destroy it, however. Sadly, though, Kang decided to conquer and oppress the other intelligent people and creatures in the Quantum Realm. Before Janet was rescued by Scott, her daughter and her husband, Janet helped the beings in the Quantum Realm fight back against Kang. Now, however, Kang has used Cassie’s device to drag Scott back to the Quantum Realm so he can use Scott’s Ant-Man tech to rebuild his time ship’s power core and resume his infamous career throughout the multiverse.

Eventually, after some fighting and plotting against Kang, Kang captures Scott and Cassie. He threatens to kill Cassie unless Scott helps him rebuild his time ship’s power core.

QUANTUMANIA is packed with action. It’s also laced with some winsome, goofy comedy and strong pro-family and pro-freedom messages. Scott has to save both his daughter and the people and creatures in the Quantum Real from the villain’s tyranny and his faceless minions. In addition, both Scott and his daughter have a strong family bond between them, as do Hope and her parents. QUANTUMANIA also has a redemptive element of repentance. For example, Janet feels guilty about helping Kang and wants to set things right.

This positive content is mitigated, however, by a few negative elements. For example, QUANTUMANIA has lots of foul language, including “h” obscenities, “s” obscenities and two GD profanities. In addition, Hank makes a verbal reference to evolution. Also, some of the ants that Hank loves show a degree of evolution as they grow into more aware, technologically advanced creatures in the story. Hank also makes a positive remark about the alleged “socialism” expressed by ant society. In another scene, Hank and his wife admit that, during their accidental 30-year separation, they had romantic affairs with two other people. Finally, the people and creatures in the Quantum Realm don’t have any transcendent religious values or beliefs.

Therefore, MOVIEGUIDE® advises extreme caution for ANT-MAN AND THE WASP: QUANTUMANIA.