Movie Review: Ant-Man and the Wasp

Ant-Man and the Wasp

Director: Peyton Reed

Starring: Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Michael Douglas, Michael Peña, Walton Goggins, Hannah John-Kamen, Abby Ryder Fortson, Randall Park, Laurence Fishburne, Michelle Pfeiffer, Tip “T.I.” Harris, David Dastmalchian, Judy Greer, Bobby Cannavale

Rating: PG-13

Runtime: 118 minutes

Paul Rudd’s first stint as Scott Lang was in 2015’s Ant-Man, a movie that, while enjoyable in its own right due in large part to Paul Rudd’s charisma, is widely considered to be one of Marvel Studios’ weaker projects. And although Rudd has appeared in two MCU movies prior to this one (Ant-Man, Captain America: Civil War), Ant-Man always felt like a B-list hero tagging along with the popular crowd. Despite all this as I said before Rudd is an actor who I always enjoy seeing no matter the movie. On top of this, Ant-Man’s gimmick of shrinking and growing was fun to watch on the big screen. And after the successes of Guardians of the Galaxy and Thor: Ragnarok (which I will say is in my top five favorite Marvel movies), I’d hoped that Marvel would feel more comfortable doubling down on the humor and goofiness that was present in the first Ant-Man but felt restrained compared to the newer Marvel films.

Ant-Man and the Wasp takes place two years after Captain America: Civil War, where Scott Lang has been serving time under house arrest due to his actions with the Avengers. During this time, Hank Pym and his daughter Hope van Dyne (Michael Douglas and Evangeline Lilly respectively) have been trying to figure out a way to save Hope’s mother from the quantum realm, a subatomic universe introduced in the first film. Because of Lang’s experience with returning from the quantum realm in the first film, Pym and van Dyne break him out of his house arrest to help them complete a machine that will allow them to safely travel to and from the quantum realm. Along the way, our heroes are met with the struggles of avoiding the FBI and namely agent Jimmy Woo (Randall Park) to keep Lang out of jail, low-level crime boss Sonny Burch (Walton Goggins) who wishes to sell Pym’s technology to make a fortune, and the enigmatic Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen) who holds a grudge against Pym due to an incident in the past and wants his tech for her own reasons.

For the most part, the cast in this movie is solid; Besides Rudd, Douglas and Lilly have really stepped up their game since the last film. Douglas plays up his cranky-old-man role to great comedic effect, and Lilly has much more of a presence in the film as Lang’s partner rather than just the love interest (and it’s worth noting that she is easily the cooler action star out of the pair). Laurence Fishburne appears in this movie as Bill Foster, a former associate of Pym’s from his days in S.H.I.E.L.D., and I must say he was one of my favorite editions to the film. It’s clear that he’s having fun with this role, and he readily joins in with the ant-tics (I’ll be here all week, folks) when the moment arises. Goggins plays his typical charming Southern rogue, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t love him in almost everything I’ve seen him in.

Michael Peña also returns, and while he’s an actor I’m never too excited to see in this film he was much more annoying than he was in the previous film. For me, Peña is fine in small doses. As a very minor sidekick, he plays the role well with his goofy antics and energetic attitude. But given the screen too long, his roles always devolve into long and unfunny ramblings where the crux of his comedic delivery is talking fast and being obnoxious. Hannah John-Kamen’s Ghost feels like Marvel’s attempt to create more interesting villains in their movies and while she does have a rather compelling reason for her actions, none of her motives are all that original and the way John-Kamen handles the role mostly consists of being angry and violent (which given the circumstances I can’t really blame her character for acting that way, but it still makes for a boring performance overall).

And then there’s the plot. That generic, paper-thin plot. Now the pacing of the movie is fine, and I never found myself bored while watching the film, but the plot is something that kind of gets pushed to the backburner in favor of showing off the shrinking and growing special effects that made the first Ant-Man stand out amongst the other superhero films. And when you start to think about the plot, you realize why. A lot of the conflicts throughout the film feel like things that could be handled much simpler if the characters all took a moment to sit down and talk. Beyond that, all the emotional moments and important scenes to the plot are unoriginal and a lot of the events in the movie are rather easy to predict based on Marvel’s formula as well as just basic storytelling in general. The ending was one that I saw coming after about an hour into the movie, and the mid-credits stinger, while one of the best ones Marvel has done in a long time, was easy to call as well.

Besides all these negatives, though, the movie is just so much fun. The shrinking and growing effects are played up even more in this film, and there are a lot of enjoyable action scenes that come from using the effect in creative ways. Anytime van Dyne puts on the Wasp suit she’s either engaging in entertaining and well-choreographed fight scenes or joining Lang in his ridiculously goofy antics (such as a hilarious scene in an elementary school). And Lang is even more enjoyable in this film than he was in his prior appearances; his love for his daughter Cassie (Abby Ryder Fortson) is the cornerstone of his character and their interactions onscreen are always enjoyable. And I must say as far as children actors go, Fortson does an excellent job.

I enjoyed Ant-Man and the Wasp a lot more than I thought I would. However, at the end of the day, Scott Lang’s adventures never seem to live up to the rest of the MCU. I really did consider giving this movie a higher rating at first because of how fun it was and how happy I was leaving the theater, but when I thought about the negatives in the film, ultimately, I couldn’t justify giving it the same rating as other movies that were inherently better. Luckily, the movie is barely short of two hours, so it gets in and out before it’s able to hit the point of exhaustion. In summary, while this movie does shoot for the same heights as Thor: Ragnarok, unfortunately it comes up short (get it? Cause of the shrinking? Alright, I’m done).