Marvel Comics’ tallest as well as tiniest Avenger dove into another live-action movie earlier this year and now moves to the ultra-high definition disc format to offer audiences a chance to witness a sci-fi war epic with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania: Cinematic Universe Edition (Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment, rated PG-13, 2.39:1 aspect ratio, 124 minutes, $39.99).
Jeff Loveness’ story finds Scott Lang aka Ant Man (Paul Rudd) taking a break from being a superhero to enjoy life with his girlfriend Hope Van Dyne aka the Wasp (Evangeline Lilly) and promote his new biography.
It’s short-lived after his daughter Cassie (Kathryn Newton) and mentor Hank Pym’s (Michael Douglas) dangerous science project goes awry and sucks the entire family, including the former Wasp aka Hank’s wife Janet (Michelle Pfeiffer), into the Quantum Realm, a place outside time and space filled with bizarre lands, beings and creatures.
There, they find the realm ruled by the multiverse time traveler Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors) who had been trapped and exiled due to war-mongering plans to reshape universes.
Kang forces the help of Ant-Man by kidnapping Cassie to attempt to retrieve a power core altered by Hank’s famed Pym Particles (a subject that can expand and shrink objects) that can fuel his spaceship and allow the madman’s potential escape.
Director Peyton Reed’s effort often numbs and overwhelms with too-flashy effects, an abundance of characters and head-shaking, multi-army battles that will require frame-by-frame analysis to ever possibly appreciate the visual complexities.
Comic book fans may appreciate the live-action introduction of the bulbous-headed and spindly appendaged M.O.D.O.K. (Mechanized Organism Designed Only for Killing) whose alter ego fits nicely into the Ant-Man movie trilogy and the reinvention of a very minor sequential art character Lord Krylar played by a familiar Ghostbuster.
As the 31st film of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” reveals a superhero film genre well beyond showing signs of stagnation.
The film has a few laugh-out-loud moments, some stunning visuals and Kang chews up plenty of scenery, but audiences will feel like they have been to the Quantum Realm many times before.
4K in action: A crisp and colorful 2160p transfer from a 4K master source give viewers quite an early moment of Scott and Janet, in costume, sitting atop the Golden Gate Bridge and admiring the San Francisco Bay at sunlight.
However, for this UHD release bathed with high dynamic range color enhancements, audiences will be drawn into the Quantum Realm, a bustling celestial wasteland spotlighting details of a massive cracking desert, floating rock islands, a gelatinous forest, living buildings and high-tech spacecraft and architectures.
Everything is worth an extended look including a multistory purplish amoeba outlined with cilia, a fiery jellyfish floating down to attack Ant-Man and an orangish-red manta ray-shaped trilobite used to fly Hank, Janet and Hope to the city of Axia.
And, many a set piece or creature is often immersed or highlighted in purples, pinks, yellows, greens and oranges with lots of neon and lots of glowing gelatinous stuff highlighted by the plasma supernova blasts from freedom fighter Xolum’s head or the transparent, undulating and oozing blob named Veb.
Best extras: A lively optional commentary track from Mr. Reed and Mr. Loveness leads the way of digital goodies, only available on the included Blu-ray version of the movie, and the pair are more than happy to appreciate the finished movie.
They often focus on building and populating the Quantum Realm taking inspiration from many pop culture sources such as “The Herculoids,” “Rick and Morty,” Heavy Metal magazine and the Flash Gordon serials. They also just as often comment on the screen-specific action covering the story, comic book origins, characters and production challenges.
Fun nuggets plucked from the track include having the actors working on a soundstage full of manure, learning Bill Murray once did the voice of the Human Torch in a 1975 Fantastic Four radio show, and finding out that Corey Stoll, the actor who played M.O.D.O.K., is a die-hard Marvel Comics’ nerd.
Viewers may also dive into a pair of promotional featurettes offering roughly 19 minutes on the production as well as a spotlight on the new villains.