Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (4K UHD Review)

Disclaimer: Marvel Studios has sent a 4K UHD physical media copy to review, however, this is still a brief honest review. Read our full review of the film, from February 2023 here.

Ant-Man and the Wasp Quantumania has released on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray and DVD, in the UK, since May 22, 2023.

It is an overly ambitious science-fiction adventure film, especially to pit Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) up against Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors).

While also taking Lang out from a grounded comedic city scenario, for almost all of the movie, to a larger adventure compared to the previous two installments.

Michelle Pfeiffer and Jonathan Majors were definitely still the standout performances. Their story was set up really well!

In addition to my previous review, I did like the family bonding scenes when they were eating, it was a chance where they get to talk in a calm realistic mundane setting compared to the rest of the film.

Upon rewatching this film, Cassie Lang and Scott Lang’s relationship does develop to be much better by the end. I do feel like they could have had more heartfelt scenes with them talking, to strengthen that father-daughter connection on-screen.

Most of the vfx looks much better in the 4k transfer and I love the vibrant uplifting colour grading for the scenes set on Earth and pieces of the Quantum Realm.

Although, better for the actors, some of the best parts were when ‘The Volume’ wasn’t used as much, such as when Scott and his family were falling into the Quantum Realm with all of the ants and scenes falling in the energy core, those looked incredible!

Quite a lot of the sets looked stunning, as well as the practical and CG structures and characters.

A strong part of this film, is that it has such a heavy Star Wars influence for the scoring, bizarre alien character designs, environments, even the costuming and Kang harnessing cool tech that can make him like Darth Vader, with a force-esque ability.

Overall, Quantumania is a fairly entertaining movie that sets up a much larger picture for the MCU; for introducing Kang the Conqueror theatrically. It’s surprising to see how the story eventually played out.

As I mentioned in my previous review, it does leave me with a sense of wanting more Kang and Janet content, they did do a good job with that aspect. After this rewatch at home, I am also interested in seeing where Scott’s journey takes him next.

Here is what is include in this physical release:

The 4K UHD comes with a slipcover, and two separate discs for 4k and the Blu-ray version that also contains the film, as well as all of the special features on this one.

The first special feature on the blu-ray disc is called ‘All in the family’ which gives a behind-the-scenes look of the film, in addition to the director, producer and actors giving an interesting insight about the family dynamic between the characters, and their involvement overall in the Marvel franchise.

In the second titled ‘Formidable’, the cast and crew discuss the making of Kang the Conqueror, which is quite impressive to see how the costumers created the suit and bringing this character from the comics to live-action.

A wacky BTS with bringing in Bill Murray’s character and introducing M.O.D.OK into the MCU; discussed by writer Jeff Loveness, producer Stephen Broussard and actor Corey Stoll.

The gag reel was quite short, however the two deleted scenes were funnier because it shows David Dastmalchian in a mo-cap suit in scenes as Veb, instead of the CG character.

There is an audio commentary available to go over the film where Peyton Reed and Jeff Loveness talk every step of the way including for both credit scenes.

However I’ve not listened to much of it due to already sitting through the 4k film already. Skimming through some of it; they did mention about the parallel’s between Kang and Janet both being shipwrecked, family scenes and the different companies who created the VFX.

It was also interesting when they mentioned that they researched a lot of microscropic/electron microscopic photography to see how those creatures moved and came up with other ideas for how to populate the Quantum Realm.