Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018)
Rated PG-13 for some sci-fi action violence
Score: 4 out of 5
Blah blah blah, Marvel hasn't made a bad movie yet, blah blah blah, their run of good luck has to run out someday, blah blah blah, but today is not that day, blah blah blah, let's get on with the show. Ant-Man and the Wasp is another well-made and very fun movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, about as good as the original Ant-Man in that, while it's not a great movie, it definitely gets the job done, especially after the bleak gut-punch that Avengers: Infinity War ended on. It's got everything that's good about these movies, and even if it never really goes above and beyond, sometimes you need a quick, lightweight breather. Both the returning cast and the new additions are great, the action scenes range from the good to the outstanding, its breezy tone goes well with its (pardon the pun) smaller-scale story, and overall, it's got more than enough charm to be worth a trip to the movies.
At the start of the film, Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) is under house arrest following the events of Captain America: Civil War, his punishment being fairly light compared to the likes of Steve Rogers himself on account of the fact that he only played a minor role in the incident. Unfortunately, this means that he's getting bored and suffering from cabin fever, so when Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) and his daughter Hope Van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly) basically kidnap him, he's actually not all that unhappy. You see, at the end of the previous movie, Scott had managed to enter the "quantum realm" and return, giving Hank and Hope, well, hope that they might one day reunite with Janet Van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer), Hank's wife and Hope's mother who, many years ago, vanished into the quantum realm while on a mission with Hank. Things are complicated, however, by Ava Starr (Hannah John-Kamen), a mysterious criminal who can phase through walls like a ghost and winds up stealing Hank and Hope's entire lab. She had been given her powers by a lab accident that killed her scientist parents; the thing is, those powers are killing her, and both she and her adoptive father, Hank's bitter ex-colleague Bill Foster (Laurence Fishburne -- no relation to the Bill Foster that Douglas played in Falling Down, even if it is an amusing coincidence), are willing to do anything to save her. Throw in Scott's old partner-in-crime Luis (Michael Peña) who now runs a security company, and a two-bit crook named Sonny Burch (Walton Goggins) who wants his hands on Hank's technology to sell to the highest bidder, and you've got yourself an adventure.
There were basically two plotlines running concurrently, one about the protagonists' hopes to rescue Janet and one about the villains' plans to cure Ava, and they went together remarkably well. The relationship between them is simple: the latter is getting in the way of the former, and needs to be resolved for that reason. Fishburne and John-Kamen make for compelling, sympathetic villains, the former a man who had been screwed over by Hank in the past and the latter as a woman who is desperate to stay alive. Together, Bill and Ava feel almost like a mirror of the family dynamic between Hank and Hope (and Scott and his daughter Cassie, for that matter), a father and daughter who are motivated by love for one another and those around them. Ava's superpowers, meanwhile, are taken from a character appropriately named Ghost in the comics, and true to form, in this film she acts almost like a horror movie villain at times as she vanishes from characters' sight only to reappear right in their face with a left hook waiting. They may be small-scale and not that much of a threat, but Bill and Ava disprove the famous quote by Damon Lindelof that, once your budget hits $100 million, your movie has to be about saving the world -- this and other smaller-scale Marvel movies prove that big-budget blockbusters can still tell smaller stories with human stakes rather than cosmic ones, and be just as engaging.
Paul Rudd and Evangeline Lilly, meanwhile, make a great pair as Scott and Hope, aka Ant-Man and the Wasp. The latter gets top billing in the title this time around as the first woman to headline a Marvel movie (albeit in conjunction with Ant-Man), now with her own shrinking suit just like Scott Lang (except with wings and blasters, leaving Scott to ask if he's chopped liver), and the two of them are born action heroes. Given some of the marketing, I was expecting this to be something of a superhero romantic comedy, not unlike how the last film was a heist flick in the Marvel style, and while the finished product doesn't go that far, it does give quite a bit of focus to the chemistry between Rudd and Lilly as both teammates and romantic partners, which they pull off remarkably well. I can definitely see them going the full rom-com route the next time around, because they would be great for that. Michael Douglas' Hank is the glue that holds them together, the man who drives both the main plot of searching for Janet and the secondary villain Bill's motivation, and together, they build a very effective father/daughter/son-in-law relationship. The characters in their orbit, such as Michael Peña's Luis, Scott's daughter and ex-wife, and Walton Goggins' comic-relief criminal, are fairly minor figures in the grand scheme of things, but all of them did their jobs and did them well. There aren't many big twists and turns with the story here, but people don't normally see Marvel films for such. (Hence why Infinity War was so shocking.) What we do get, however, is a conventional story, well-told with capable actors and fun writing.
Oh, and solid direction. Peyton Reed injects a lot of fun into the big set pieces, most notably a number of car chase scenes that make use of the protagonists' shrinking technology for Hot Wheels-style shenanigans in the streets of San Francisco, right down to the fact that Hank keeps a bunch of getaway vehicles in a Hot Wheels case. The whimsical nature of Scott and Hope's powers is played to the hilt, whether Scott is flying around on the back of a flying ant (and outrunning a hungry seagull), Hope is using her blasters to enlarge objects like a salt shaker and a Hello Kitty Pez dispenser, a giant Scott is flicking guns out of crooks' hands, or the fact that Hank's lab can shrink for easy transport (complete with wheels and a handle to move it like luggage), though the action still gets exciting when the scene calls for it, especially once Ghost and her unique gifts enter the fray. The visual design is in keeping with the film's tone, filled with creative action scenes that are less about brutal violence and more about having as much fun as humanly possible. If the Ant-Man films are going to be Marvel's B-grade fantasies, then I can definitely get on board with that.
At the start of the film, Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) is under house arrest following the events of Captain America: Civil War, his punishment being fairly light compared to the likes of Steve Rogers himself on account of the fact that he only played a minor role in the incident. Unfortunately, this means that he's getting bored and suffering from cabin fever, so when Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) and his daughter Hope Van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly) basically kidnap him, he's actually not all that unhappy. You see, at the end of the previous movie, Scott had managed to enter the "quantum realm" and return, giving Hank and Hope, well, hope that they might one day reunite with Janet Van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer), Hank's wife and Hope's mother who, many years ago, vanished into the quantum realm while on a mission with Hank. Things are complicated, however, by Ava Starr (Hannah John-Kamen), a mysterious criminal who can phase through walls like a ghost and winds up stealing Hank and Hope's entire lab. She had been given her powers by a lab accident that killed her scientist parents; the thing is, those powers are killing her, and both she and her adoptive father, Hank's bitter ex-colleague Bill Foster (Laurence Fishburne -- no relation to the Bill Foster that Douglas played in Falling Down, even if it is an amusing coincidence), are willing to do anything to save her. Throw in Scott's old partner-in-crime Luis (Michael Peña) who now runs a security company, and a two-bit crook named Sonny Burch (Walton Goggins) who wants his hands on Hank's technology to sell to the highest bidder, and you've got yourself an adventure.
There were basically two plotlines running concurrently, one about the protagonists' hopes to rescue Janet and one about the villains' plans to cure Ava, and they went together remarkably well. The relationship between them is simple: the latter is getting in the way of the former, and needs to be resolved for that reason. Fishburne and John-Kamen make for compelling, sympathetic villains, the former a man who had been screwed over by Hank in the past and the latter as a woman who is desperate to stay alive. Together, Bill and Ava feel almost like a mirror of the family dynamic between Hank and Hope (and Scott and his daughter Cassie, for that matter), a father and daughter who are motivated by love for one another and those around them. Ava's superpowers, meanwhile, are taken from a character appropriately named Ghost in the comics, and true to form, in this film she acts almost like a horror movie villain at times as she vanishes from characters' sight only to reappear right in their face with a left hook waiting. They may be small-scale and not that much of a threat, but Bill and Ava disprove the famous quote by Damon Lindelof that, once your budget hits $100 million, your movie has to be about saving the world -- this and other smaller-scale Marvel movies prove that big-budget blockbusters can still tell smaller stories with human stakes rather than cosmic ones, and be just as engaging.
Paul Rudd and Evangeline Lilly, meanwhile, make a great pair as Scott and Hope, aka Ant-Man and the Wasp. The latter gets top billing in the title this time around as the first woman to headline a Marvel movie (albeit in conjunction with Ant-Man), now with her own shrinking suit just like Scott Lang (except with wings and blasters, leaving Scott to ask if he's chopped liver), and the two of them are born action heroes. Given some of the marketing, I was expecting this to be something of a superhero romantic comedy, not unlike how the last film was a heist flick in the Marvel style, and while the finished product doesn't go that far, it does give quite a bit of focus to the chemistry between Rudd and Lilly as both teammates and romantic partners, which they pull off remarkably well. I can definitely see them going the full rom-com route the next time around, because they would be great for that. Michael Douglas' Hank is the glue that holds them together, the man who drives both the main plot of searching for Janet and the secondary villain Bill's motivation, and together, they build a very effective father/daughter/son-in-law relationship. The characters in their orbit, such as Michael Peña's Luis, Scott's daughter and ex-wife, and Walton Goggins' comic-relief criminal, are fairly minor figures in the grand scheme of things, but all of them did their jobs and did them well. There aren't many big twists and turns with the story here, but people don't normally see Marvel films for such. (Hence why Infinity War was so shocking.) What we do get, however, is a conventional story, well-told with capable actors and fun writing.
Oh, and solid direction. Peyton Reed injects a lot of fun into the big set pieces, most notably a number of car chase scenes that make use of the protagonists' shrinking technology for Hot Wheels-style shenanigans in the streets of San Francisco, right down to the fact that Hank keeps a bunch of getaway vehicles in a Hot Wheels case. The whimsical nature of Scott and Hope's powers is played to the hilt, whether Scott is flying around on the back of a flying ant (and outrunning a hungry seagull), Hope is using her blasters to enlarge objects like a salt shaker and a Hello Kitty Pez dispenser, a giant Scott is flicking guns out of crooks' hands, or the fact that Hank's lab can shrink for easy transport (complete with wheels and a handle to move it like luggage), though the action still gets exciting when the scene calls for it, especially once Ghost and her unique gifts enter the fray. The visual design is in keeping with the film's tone, filled with creative action scenes that are less about brutal violence and more about having as much fun as humanly possible. If the Ant-Man films are going to be Marvel's B-grade fantasies, then I can definitely get on board with that.
The Bottom Line
This was a very quick review to write, because honestly, there's really not a whole lot to say here. Ant-Man and the Wasp is just a very good movie. Not a great one by any stretch, but Marvel still knows what it's doing, and there's really not a whole lot to complain about. If you like these movies, then you're gonna enjoy this one.
(Though I can think of a way I would've made the end-credits scene hit even harder.)
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