If you are looking for a fast-paced superhero movie, “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” might be worth checking out, but only if you can overlook its numerous flaws. “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” marks Marvel’s 31st movie and the third movie in the Ant-Man saga. The movie stars Paul Rudd as Scott Lang, or Ant-Man, trying to escape the Quantum Realm along with his family as they are forced to fight a god-like conqueror, played by Jonathan Majors. The characters’ journey through the Quantum Realm can be entertaining but has several elements that make the movie tedious.

The main issue that “Ant-Man” faces is its lack of interest.  Throughout the movie, the backstory is continuously over-explained. For example, the Wasp’s mother Janet, played by Michelle Pfeiffer, was trapped in the Quantum Realm for decades, and her experience in the realm is used to explain all the backstories involving the Quantum Realm. The long monologues Janet gives alternate between providing vague information about the world and leaving little mystery. Janet’s dialogue also makes her sound scripted rather than like an actual human being. The villain Kang the Conqueror also has a similar issue of monologuing, except instead of over-explaining the world’s backstory, he monologues about wanting to take over the world. These dialogues make Kang less threatening as a villain making him less frightening and his performance less impactful.

Besides the tedious dialogue, the movie’s visuals range from breathtaking to dull and banal. At points, the visual effects look gorgeous, like they were made to look like supernovas, and help to elevate the scene to feel more immersive. But, most of the time the scenes and backgrounds are dark and brown, making the action scenes hard to see. Other visuals of the film, specifically the character design of the inhabitants of the Quantum realm, look almost plagiarized from other movies. The clothing, body features, quirks, and languages of these characters are very similar to Star Wars. While the visuals can look stunning during scenes featuring the characters flying around the realm, the visuals are overall detrimental to the movie’s quality.

Despite its numerous flaws, the movie does have some redeeming qualities such as the relationship between Ant-Man and his daughter played by Kathryn Newton. Even though the characters start off the movie with different motives and goals, their relationship shows the audience that both of these characters still care very deeply about each other. Their dynamic never seems forced or unnatural and benefits from the movie’s fast-paced, which is another highlight of the movie. It is hard to feel bored during the movie because there is almost always a new threat for the characters to deal with. At times the pace of production can work against itself. When the movie only has its characters dealing with the conflict, some of the characters end up with little to no development. For example, the Wasp, played by Evangeline Lilly, is really only shown in action scenes, so the audience does not learn anything about the Wasp’s personality, motives, or anything that makes her interesting. But for the most part, the movie’s pacing kept it interesting throughout its runtime.

The movie offers viewers a fun time at the theater and can be an entertaining way to kill a few hours. Despite its entertainment value, the movie has numerous problems with its script and visuals that make it hard to watch. The mix of flaws and strengths present in “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” earns it 2.5/5 stars.