/Warning: We will discuss the purely cinematic treatment of Kang the Conqueror and not his fidelity with the source comics/
Series Loki had predicted it via the presence of He Who Remains, Kang the Conqueror was going to tumble very soon in the spans of the mcu to give free rein to his murderous impulses. Result: the super villain embodied by Jonathan Majors made his grand debut in the Adventures of Ant-Man: Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania… A feature film that is far from unanimous. In addition to its violent tumble at the box office, this new Ant Man is one of the lowest rated films of the mcuwhich is deserved.
The realization is catastrophic, the characters laughable (Cassie, Hank and MODOK in the lead), the awful special effects and the uninteresting story as possible. Too bad when you know that the feature film had a crucial mission: To introduce the beginnings of kangestablish it as a threat XXL for the future avengers of mcu. Above all, the fans had to, via the arrival of kangdefinitively mourning the highly appreciated Thanos.
But Peyton Reed literally sabotages the entry of this key character for the rest of his universe. Of a corrosive, powerful, egocentric and untouchable villain (and played by an incredible Jonathan Majors)the film gradually transforms its presence into a crappy burlesque disaster, where one has the impression that the only positive point of the film suffers from the risky choices of its authors. Was Ant-Man the right universe to introduce Kang for the first time?
Already, the saga Ant Man has never really been appreciated by Marvel fans for a very simple reason: Each opus systematically came after a big deadline of the mcu (Age of Ultron predated the first film, Infinity War the second)so that the cool and sanitized side of each film was not welcome after so much dramatic richness in the different films avengers. Many saw something salutary in this 180° turn towards drama thanks to kang. And yet, it is only the tree that hides the forest.
Although Jonathan Majors strives to infuse his Kang with nothing but seriousness, the character of Scott does not stick with him: Always too tender, too ” funny“, Scott is only fair when he is afraid for his daughter. None of the other characters compete with the villain. Cassie Lang throws ” dads “Anything goes and reasons in five seconds a MODOK just asking him not to be anymore” a loser“, Janet spends the entire film playing the mysterious and hank drags her paw depressedly throughout the film. kang is therefore quite alone in trying to draw a dramatic and creepy stake from the film to establish himself as the next major threat of the mcu.
Things had started well. The clash between Scott, Cassie and Kang in the prison of the latter is masterful. We feel all the power and violence of the character who crushes the mini avenger with charisma. But everything goes wrong afterwards. The scenario makes him passive and spectator of the attack of Scott and Cassie against his imperial temple. The character witnesses the decline of his empire by two avengers.
He who is never promptly threatening the announcement yet on many occasions: He has put down many revolutions, killed many of avengersbut gets trapped by Hank Pym which brings back an army of ants. But above all, Peyton Reed causes his character to fall by the need to give an unnecessary last stand to MODOK. Since the script wishes to get rid of the big ugly CGI head of Corey Stollas much to make sure that he sacrifices himself to considerably weaken kang… Who will have to subdue all the Avengers in a few years, we remind you. kang is therefore massacred by the rotten biases of this film which accumulates bad choices.
In an extreme start, kang stop Scott to leave the quantum world, but gets trapped in a multiverse reactor by Hope. If his disappearance suggests his return in the future, Marvel missed an opportunity to cement his villain in violent and untold roots by not killing Scott. If, on the other hand, he is violently beaten, Marvel would have gained everything by sacrificing his little ant man, especially since Cassie could have had a place to take in the future of the MCU. Instead, the expensive studio Kevin Feige chooses an atypical narrative scheme: the villain loses at the end (at least temporarily).
Regarding the post-credits scene: This one doesn’t work, but we’ll come back to it later to explain why. We are therefore on a start not necessarily with a fanfare for Jonathan Majors.