San Francisco figures prominently, at least for a few moments, in the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s latest blockbuster, “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,” opening Thursday.

That’s the highest profile release of the week, but an even better option is to check out Amazon Prime’s second — and final — season of “Carnival Row.” Or, if you’re not into steampunk/fantasy series, plunge into the lovely romance “Of an Age.” It’s a keeper.

Here’s our roundup.

“Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania”: It’s best to approach Marvel Studios’ latest release as if it’s a stepping stone for more compelling comic-book mayhem ahead. In other words, it’s good, not great.

Set after the game-changing events of “Avengers: Endgame,” director Peyton Reed’s third “Ant-Man” film is a satisfying enough entry point to MCU’s Phase 4.

Loaded with special effects but showing more restraint than the CGI orgy we saw in “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness,” the film’s best sequences center on human interactions. This “Ant-Man” puts the human factor first in its opening moments as the proud Scott Lang/Ant-Man (Paul Rudd, charming as ever) strolls along Bay Area streets, where he catches the fancy of everyone around him. Having just released a self-help/autobiography “Look Out for the Little Guy” (a real book due Sept. 5), Scott’s life is about as sweet as a cherry pie.

He’s in love with do-gooder Hope, aka the Wasp (Evangeline Lilly), and is bonding more with science-nerdy daughter Cassie (Kathryn Newton). But a shakeup comes to all once they get sucked into the Quantum Realm — a surreal alterna-world that looks like an amalgamation of “Star Wars,” “Tron” and other sci-fi classics.

Once there, the fam gets fed all the dirt on Janet (Michelle Pfeiffer), the fierce mom of the Wasp. Surprisingly, Janet is the main character and a steady anchor in the film, and Pfeiffer brings gravitas to playing a supreme badass with a wild past and an unfortunate connection with the story’s standout villain, Kang the Conqueror (portrayed with Shakespearean flourishes by the great Jonathan Majors).

To spill more tea about what goes down would be a disservice. What needs to be said, though, is just how remarkable Pfeiffer and Majors are in this sequel. Whenever they’re paired onscreen, “Quantumania” catapults to a top shelf in the Marvel Universe.

So it’s all the more of a killjoy when those juicy moments get followed up by stale and obvious side-notes, such as Bill Murray popping in and doing his standard Bill Murray shtick as a kinda-creepy former hookup of Janet’s. It’s boring, and adds nothing.

At other times, screenwriter Jeff Loveness and Reed engage in more inventive doings, particularly when it comes to giving various return players — the now big-headed M.O.D.O.K. (Corey Stoll) and ant-lover Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) their star moments. It’s all entertaining enough, but “Quantumania” seems like an in-between enterprise, another chess move in the superhero series. The two terrific end-credit scenes hint of even better things to come. Stay. They’re worth it. Details: 2½ stars out of 4; in theaters Feb. 16.

“Of an Age”: In what should wind up as one of 2023’s best and most poignant romances, two young Australian men — 18-year-old aspiring ballroom dancer Kol (Elias Anton) and graduate student Adam (Thom Green) — spend a life-changing day together in 1999 that sticks with them for years. The two are thrown together as they search for Adam’s sister Ebony (Hattie Hook) who is Kol’s friend and dance partner and has woken up after a bender on a beach somewhere and needs a ride home. Kol and Adam’s search finds them stumbling upon something of great importance. The bulk of “Of an Age” transpires in a car with telling, tight shots on the facial expressions of both guys  — the determined-to-be-straight Kol, whose Syrian family doesn’t exactly embrace homosexuality, and the out and proud Adam. Gradually they grown closer and fonder, with off-hand glances giving way to more intense gazes. We’ve seen something like this play out before in Andrew Haigh’s sexy “Weekend” and Richard Linklater’s tragicomic Ethan Hawke/Julie Delpy trilogy. “Of an Age” taps the same vein of those films with director/screenwriter Goran Stolevski (whose debut from last year, “You Won’t Be Alone,” was one of the best films of 2022) guiding the film’s sense of intimacy into something more profound, even eternal.  But there’s more here than longing, with Stolevski making a U-turn late in the film, and taking us to a staggeringly beautiful and heartbreaking destination. Details: 3½ stars; opens Feb. 17 in area theaters.

“Carnival Row: Season 2”: Maybe deciding to call it quits after just two seasons was all that was needed to fire up the creative juices of showrunners Travis Beacham and Rene Echevarria. Their Amazon Prime fantasy/steampunk series’ second outing is on fire, an improvement over Season 1, which was decent but plodded at times. The pacing issues are gone and the metaphors from Season 1 remain; in fact they’re even more pointed. Orlando Bloom reprises his role as a “copper” who’s also a war veteran and partial fae — a winged creature that’s been relegated by the dominant human population to be freedom-denied refugees.

Cara Delevingne returns also as independent-minded fae Vignette, a passionate defender of equal rights for all. In Season 2, the conditions and treatment of the fae have deteriorated as a nationalistic pride escalates. Sound familiar?

The world-building and mythology at play in “Carnival Row” is captivating and seductive, sounding alarms about today’s world much as SyFy’s relevant, and yes better, “Battlestar Galactica” did. The effects are astonishing to behold as well. OK, so how about Season 3, already? Details: 3 stars, drops Feb. 17 on Amazon Prime.

“All That Breathes”: Director Shaunak Sen’s evocatively shot documentary — the odds-on fave to win the Oscar this  year — takes us into the inspiring world of New Delhi brothers Nadeem Shehzad and Mohammad Saud. They’re valiantly trying in their makeshift avian basement to nurse back to health the black kite, an at-risk bird of prey. Although Sen’s documentary can be viewed at home, it deserves to be seen on the biggest screen imaginable. It soars as high as the birds it depicts, while telling a compassionate story of two Muslim brothers trying to do their part in making the world a better place. It’s astonishing. Details: 4 stars; now available on HBO Max.

“The Blue Caftan”: Desire. Passion. Love. All of those tricky emotions create complications and trouble. Moroccan filmmaker Maryam Touzani’s gentle and compassionate second feature proves that there is no rulebook on the proper way to love and that unconditional love is the most altruistic gift you can give. Mina (Lubna Azabal) grows to understand that truth as her health worsens and her reliance on her closeted gay husband Halim (Saleh Bakri) grows stronger by the day. When the couple hires an apprentice — Youssef (Ayoub Missioui) — to help in their caftan store, a sexual awakening and reckoning comes about. Touzani’s three-character drama doesn’t pretend to have all the answers but stresses the need to think about our legacy and our capacity to go beyond ourselves to make others happy. It’s the equivalent of a cinematic poem, filled with ache, insight and exhilaration. Details; 3½ stars; in theaters Feb. 17.

Contact Randy Myers at [email protected].