This month, the long-awaited threequel and kick-off to phase 5 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) was finally released to the general public. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, (starring Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lily, Kathryn Newton, Michelle Pfeiffer, Michael Douglas, and Jonathan Majors) though of course not the best MCU project ever, does not deserve the hate it’s receiving unless you are being very nit-picky. Before reading further, know that there will be spoilers ahead!

I watched this movie twice already. I really enjoyed the film at the moment and was prepared to defend it with my life but after hearing some of the complaints people had about it, I realized that a few are pretty valid. For one, It didn’t really feel like an Ant-Man movie. I understand that this movie sets up the future of the MCU, but that seemed like all it did. The writers made sure that the viewers are very aware of how drastically this new villain, Kang, will affect the MCU which as result made it hard to care about Scott’s (Rudd) storyline.

Apparently, the writers of this movie have never taken an English class because it seems that they have never heard the common phrase, “show don’t tell.” Throughout the entire film, viewers are warned about how dangerous Kang is, and how many bad things he has done, but we never actually get to see examples of this, in fact, we instead see examples that demonstrate how weak he is. We are made aware that Kang has the capability to destroy entire timelines and that he has killed many Avengers variants, but then we see him ultimately destroyed by ants? I don’t think so.

I didn’t even think about this until I researched other people’s opinions about it but something that the MCU did fall short on with this project is the stakes. When you think about it, the whole movie is pointless. The entire time in the movie, Janet (Pfeiffer) warns the protagonists that letting Kang leave the Quantum realm would put everything at risk, but as Kang constantly reminds us, things would be just as catastrophic if they left him in exile. So what’s the point? Things will turn out bad no matter what so why does any of this story matter? I personally feel that the only pieces of this film that really contributed to the future of the MCU were the post-credit scenes

While this movie did have its drawbacks, it also had some very wholesome and fun moments. I enjoyed seeing Scott and Cassie (Newton) together again after the events of Endgame. It was really special to see how their relationship changed from when Cassie was little to where we see her now. We see a lot of Scott in Cassie and, though not all of these traits are things to be proud of, I think that Scott is very happy to see that even after being absent for five years he still had a large impact on her.

Marvel always hits with the post-credit scenes but I think that these were the best in a long time (besides maybe Wakanda Forever). I won’t give spoilers, but specifically, the second scene made me so excited. Let’s just say that one of, if not my favorite character in the MCU made an appearance.

At the end of the day, I think that this was a really fun movie if you overlook the loose ends. Scott Lang is always a fun character and seeing these serious challenges through his eyes gives viewers a whole new and more comedic perspective. I think that if you just enjoy the movie theater experience and are not a very nit-picky person, this movie is for you.