“Quantumania” actually gets pretty adult when you consider the implications of Janet’s relationship with her onetime freedom fighting partner, Krylar (Bill Murray). As she says, a woman has needs. It’s even possible Janet and Kang did the wild thang, though there’s no overt indication of that besides the intimate moment they share where she sees into his mind and leaves him obsessing over her for the next thirty years.
We’ve explored how Jonathan Majors’ Kang performance is the best part of “Quantumania,” and I don’t have too much more to add except to say that one of the best scenes in the movie is the flashback where it’s just Janet and Kang and the drama of what happened with them. Give me more of that drama-mania and less of Michael Douglas sticking his hands down two squishy alien throats to fly a ship.
Another solid dramatic scene in “Quantumania” is the one where Kang first meets Scott and threatens to kill his daughter Cassie (Kathryn Newton). All the generic Marvel music and wild and crazy VFX action quiets down … and Kang proves genuinely scary. The Marvel Cinematic Universe has long since left earth and any pretense of plausible, tech-based sci-fi, but it could use more down-to-earth moments like this to anchor the audience to something relatable: the human face. And no, not one that’s stretched out like CG silly putty in the manner of MODOK (Corey Stoll).
In “Quantumania,” Michelle Pfeiffer and Jonathan Majors elevate their scenes and take the material seriously, which is more than you can say for the filmmakers as they make a mockery of MODOK. We’ve seen the MCU dabble in genres like horror and conspiracy thrillers; how about some good old-fashioned drama next time?
“Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” is in theaters now.