Ant-Man and The Wasp (2018)

(SPOILER WARNING!!)

While I wait for my pre-ordered copy of "Infinity War" to arrive from Amazon, and while I take a break from reviewing Steven Universe, I guess I can take the time to review what can technically be considered it's interim story; "Ant-Man and The Wasp".

Just to give a brief context, I thought the first "Ant-Man" film in 2015 was perfectly fine. It was an entertaining ride with likeable characters and inventive action scenes, but was otherwise unremarkable in the long run, especially with how little of an impact the ant sized hero has had on the MCU. That's not to say I didn't like the movie, but it did feel like a bit generic and it's comedy rarely hit bulls-eye for me, especially with the annoying comic relief that was Michael Pena as Luis.

That said, I still wanted to see how it's sequel, which finally allowed Evangeline Lily's Hope van Dyne shine as the titular Wasp, would play out, especially since they had the perfect set up for the journey of saving her mother; Janet, the original Wasp.

And how did it turn out? Well, before going into spoilers, I can definitely say this; if you liked the first film, then you'll like it's sequel just fine.

As for the story itself, Scott Lang, played again by Paul Rudd, has been on house arrest for the last couple of years due to his actions in "Captain America: Civil War", which also painted a target on the backs on Hope and her father Hank Pym, played again by Michael Douglas. He is just two days away from finally being able to step out of the house, only to receive a vision of Janet's mother, who years ago had shrunk herself to the sub-atomic level in order to stop a nuke from hitting America, with the cost of her being stuck in the Quantum Realm with seemingly no way to come back.

This vision prompts Hope to basically kidnap Scott and have him help her and Hank in finishing the machine that could guide them to bring back Janet, necessitating Hope involve herself as the Wasp in order to find the parts they need. Of course, this also results in a whole bunch of other stuff happening at roughly the same time in order to fill out the length of the film; namely, a masked woman who seems to basically "ghost" herself in and out of the physical quantum field, which also has her being able to avoid being hit by most things, but with the side effect of slowly killing her. Thus, the race is on to save Janet, stop Ghost and get Scott home on time to finally get taken off of house arrest. Oh, and something about a business man wanting the part, but that hardly matters.

Much like the first film, despite several plot threads all happening concurrently, the film knows which one to focus on and how long to focus on it. When it needs to focus on Scott and Hope as our titular heroes, they're the focus. When they need some comedic levity, it brings said levity and doesn't just solely rely on Luis. And when the emotional stuff is needed, it lets it play out long enough for the audience to care.

Ghost, played by Hannah John-Kamen, makes for a fairly unique antagonist, as she's not strictly a full on villain in this film. In fact, her entire goal is focused around finding a way to stabilise her condition as it's only serving to cause her more pain and suffering. What helps is her contrast to scientist and former friend of Hank, Bill Foster, played by Lawrence Fishburne. Foster basically treats Ghost, or Ava, as something of a daughter, while Ava mainly sees him as a tool to fix her condition. While there isn't as much time focused on the relationship between the two, there is just enough for the audience to understand and somewhat sympathise with their plight, even if their plan to use Janet's Quantum Realm energy may end up killing her. Ghost may seem underwhelming in comparison to the likes of Loki, Ego, or even Thanos, but I doubt she was really ever meant to be on that same tier as those God-like entities, especially as the "Ant-Man" films are more focused on smaller adventures to help sell the MCU as a full universe. Thus, Ghost actually fits in perfectly with this kind of setting.

And surprisingly, the effects of "Infinity War" are still felt as this film seems to take place at roughly the same time of that film's events. Namely, the mid-credit scene. Again, this is where we head into spoiler territory, so you have been warned.

After they bring back Janet, she, Hank and Hope plan to use Scott to go into the Quantum Realm to gather energy that could be used to help people like Ava. Scott goes and collects the energy, but can't get a response from the outside. Why?



...Goddammit, Thanos!

That said, this is where we start my critiques. Namely, with this mid credit scene, doesn't it kind of render most of the film completely worthless? Rescuing Janet, Hope becoming the Wasp, the fiasco with Ghost; almost all of it was pointless as two of those characters, along with Hank, have been reduced to dust. And yes, I know, there's the whole "everyone is in the Soul Stone" theory, but most regular movie goers won't automatically pick up on that, especially when no one actually knows what the Soul Stone does! On top of that, because we hardly know anything about Janet, we don't have much reason to care when we see her turned into a pile of dust. Thus, the emotional impact of seeing her dead is lost when compared to Hope and Hank, the characters we DO care about.

Then again, that might also be because the film, while still entertaining in it's own right, also has a very predictable and underwhelming story. We know what they're doing with most of the story and can tell when something will happen almost to the minute. There are still some legitimately cool additions such as actually seeing the Quantum Realm for more than two minutes, and Fishburne was great as always, but we otherwise have to sit through a bland and predictable story in the interim.

In a sense, "Ant-Man and The Wasp" is better than the first film due to trying new things and having an interesting idea for the main "antagonist", and I did like how it addressed the aftermath of "Infinity War" even if it was during the mid credits sequence. And I definitely appreciate how they downplayed Michael Pena's role in this film as he is pretty much the only character in this film I don't like. However, it still has the similar issue as the first film of generally playing it save and having an emphasis on comedy which, while expected for the MCU, doesn't really make it stand out from other "down to Earth" superhero stories like "Spider-Man:Homecoming" or even Netflix's "Luke Cage". I might be alone on this, but I ultimately think that this film is about on par with the first one; it's really serviceable.

Overall Rating: 6.5/10 (It's fine).

I hope you enjoyed this review and, 'til next time; This is Callum Lewis, the Media Man, signing off!