“Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantamania” crashed into theaters Feb. 17; and what was supposed to be the next best Marvel Cinematic Universe [MCU] film quickly became one of the worst. With low ratings, a staggering 47 percent from Rotten Tomatoes, making it the second lowest rated MCU film, and harsh reviews, one can only ask what went wrong with the highly anticipated film?

Paul Rudd reprised his role as the loveable hero Scott Lang, with familiar and unfamiliar faces at his side. One of which is the new actress, Kathryon Newton, playing Cassie Lang, the daughter of Scott. 

The film took a step away from the San Francisco scene, delving into the quantum realm, a new part of the MCU that has never before been seen. But Janet Van Dyne, played by Michelle Pleiffer, had kept dangerous secrets about the realm from her family. A new foe, Kang the Conqueror, played by Jonathon Majors, is introduced and Scott must face difficult decisions to get home and keep his daughter safe.

But the curiosity of exploring the quantum realm was overshadowed by the complaints fans had. One of which being that more than a few characters were missing from the assembled cast despite having been present in the previous films.

The absence of the Wombats, a trio of ex-cons who are close with Rudd’s character, and Cassie’s mother and soon to be step father, had left fans confused and upset.

While it could be argued that as side characters their absence should not matter, they are in fact what made the Ant-Man films so unique in comparison to other MCU movies. The non-traditional and found family aspect was appealing.

It is not often that divorced families are shown to be close and have a healthy relationship, or the close community built in prisons. Both were shown in the previous films, and fans expected to see the same in the third, only to be disappointed when none of them showed up, not even Maggie Lang, Cassie’s own mother.

Considering those are the characters that Scott was shown to be close with and trust with his daughter, them being left out gives off the idea that found family means nothing once you reach the top, as before Scott was a criminal and not yet known as a hero and often needed their help.

The Pym-Van Dyne family is included though, which some fans find odd considering they are both rich and white, unlike the other characters missing from the third installment. Fans would usually take no issue with the Pym-Van Dyne’s but with the others gone eyebrows have been raised.

But low scores and ratings were awarded for other reasons, fans were often left annoyed at the odd pacing of the movie. Scenes changed without any flow, often the serious scenes would lose effect when seconds later a new scene was framed as humorous. This made it difficult to build a connection with the story being told.

Not only that, but for an Ant-Man and the Wasp film fans could not help but to pick up on the fact that the story revolved far more around Janet Van Dyne then Scott or Hope. While not a bad thing, it was unexpected when watching, after all, no one wants to watch an Ironman movie only to realize it is about Happy Hogan. 

Perhaps worse of all, the longer one watches the more it becomes clear, despite its title this is clearly not an Ant-Man movie, a story about the ‘Little Guy’, but a mere introduction to a new villain. 

This itself would not be an issue had it been done differently, Kang was brought out right away and just when he seemed like a real threat it was proven otherwise. Unlike Thanos who was never fully seen until Infinity War, this helped him seem threatening.

With Kang’s underwhelming arc he is a step down compared to Thanos, even with Majors excellent performance. Fans can only hope Majors is given a better script in the future.

One thing the film did right was casting. But that is not enough to save it. With fan favorites missing, bad pacing, the inability for the story to be about the characters it is meant for, sums up to a dull and disappointing film.