I'm sharing my thoughts about Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. Please share yours.

I saw Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania this weekend. It was an exciting and fun-filled adventure, and I think I enjoyed it as much if not more than the other Ant-Man films. I also need to remind myself not to overthink the show too much. That usually happens with any story that messes with time, and if I find myself following the different threads to suss out how everything relates to everything else, then I butt my head against paradoxes and things that cannot happen. That being said, I do want to discuss it. So here is a minor spoiler alert to anyone who has not seen it but may be planning to do so in the future.

The first thing that this movie seems to pull into focus (more than it was when it was a "stand-alone" product) is the series Loki. In that show, we ended up seeing that 1) other multiverses do indeed exist, and 2) that they exist in the timeline controlled by He Who Remains (who is a variant of Kang), and 3) that they all have to follow the basic beats in order to not deviate from "The Sacred Timeline." So, the Time Variance Authority where Owen Wilson's character worked and where they enforced the Sacred Timeline appears to be just a timeline that is allowed to exist as long as it doesn't pose a threat to whatever the Kangs are doing. So, as long as other multiverses are the kind that don't rock the boat in a way that bothers the Kangs, they're allowed to go on existing. Is that right?

So, when Sylvie (the Loki variant) killed He Who Remains, it re-set the multiverse. Before that point, there really was only the Sacred timeline. However, since He Who Remains was eliminated outside of time, it made it like there were always infinite multiverses forever. Although the Sacred timeline still played out the same way, it's as though the other universes were never pruned, and they all played out on their own simultaneously. Hence, the return of a ton of Kangs that we see in the post-credit scene in Quantumania. Does any of that make sense? I'm actually not sure it makes sense to me, but that's what I'm thinking is going on.

Regarding a thing that doesn't require me to do mental gymnastics in trying to figure anything out, I enjoyed MODOK. I was not expecting Yellow Jacket (Daren) to make an appearance after he was the villain in the first Ant-Man movie. And he made a suitably creepy MODOK, which has always been a really weird creature in the comics. And MODOK is supposed to look ridiculous. There's no way not to make him look ridiculous, because he's a giant head with little arms and legs in a floating murder chair. 

Finally, Jonathan Majors as Kang is electrifying. Thanos was one kind of villain. He was bulky, strong, towering, and nearly always in control. He was like an irresistible force. However, going with another villain like that would have felt too much like a retread. So, I think that Marvel studios made a really good choice post-Thanos. This time around, Kang is much pettier, much more emotional, but also a brilliant scientist and warrior. He's someone who can manipulate the very fabric of time and space with his advanced technology. And all of his variants seem to be evil, with maybe "The Conqueror" being the worst of the bunch. He says, "Do I look like a liar?" But he is. He's a liar, a cheater, a megalomaniac, and a psychopath. It was exciting to see the ways in which Majors brings this character to life, and I look forward to more. And that pretty much sums up all my thoughts that I have on Quantumania. It felt like I was reading a comic book, and comic books too often leave me a little bit confused until I see the entire story laid out.