Ant-Man and the Wasp is 2018 superhero movie about an urgent new mission that finds the Ant-Man fighting alongside The Wasp to uncover secrets from their past.
Marvel’s tiniest superhero is back as Paul Rudd returns to the screen as Scott Lang in Ant-Man and the Wasp. It’s fair to say that Ant-Man has been one of the bigger surprises of the Marvel series, pairing goofy quirkiness with its unique style of bite sized action. Although Ant-Man and the Wasp doesn’t have a huge tie-in to The Avengers films, it felt like a much-needed change of pace for Marvel fans following the emotional toll that Infinity War put us through.
Ant-Man and the Wasp begins by offering some background into what happened to Hope Van Dyne’s (Evangeline Lilly) mother, Janet Van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer). When Hope was a little girl, Janet and Dr. Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) were still in their superhero days of being the Wasp and Ant-Man, respectively. While on a mission, Janet had to shrink so small to complete it that she entered the quantum realm, similar to what happened to Lang in Ant-Man, and she never returned.
Jump to the present day and Lang is currently serving 2 years of house arrest having been captured after helping Captain America in Germany. Near the end of sentence, he has a dream in which he is back in the quantum realm, but as Janet. Although Hank and Hope are upset with Lang for having put them on the run following his Captain America escapades, he reaches out to them in case his dream has some significance. Hank believes that Lang’s consciousness may have linked with Janet’s while in the quantum realm, so he has Hope break Lang out of house arrest to assist in rescuing her.
In order to do so, Hank and Hope have created a machine to open the quantum realm. To create this machine, they’ve had to purchase numerous pieces of black market tech from dealer Sonny Burch (Walton Goggins). Burch believes that quantum energy is going to be the next big money maker, so he has lined up buyers to purchase whatever Hank and Hope have created. When Burch and his men try to double cross her as she buys the last piece of tech needed for their machine, Hope, now the Wasp, easily fends them off. However, Hope is then jumped by newcomer, Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), who steals the tech and also their lab (which had been shrunk down to travel size). Hank, Hope and Lang then seek the assistance of Hank’s former partner, Dr. Bill Foster (Laurence Fishburne) to track the radiation of the lab to get their rescue mission of Janet back on track.
To avoid any potential spoilers, I’ll stop the recap right there. This was a very fun movie. It is exactly what Marvel fans needed to give them a taste of superhero fun, but also a break from The Avengers storyline. Pretty much the only connection to the rest of the franchise is the part about Lang being under house arrest and Hank and Hope being on the run following the Civil War that took place at a German airport. Otherwise, the story is mostly dedicated to the rescue of Janet Van Dyne. Interestingly enough, that makes Ant-Man not even the true focal point of the movie. He’s obviously the main character, but the focus of his part of the story is more so on avoiding the FBI while he is sneaking out of house arrest. He also has some funny and touching scenes with his daughter (Abby Ryder Fortson), but overall he’s just there to help rescue Janet.
Although I didn’t touch on them in the summary, of course Lang’s goofy crew of ex-cons are back, this time running a security business that they started together. Michael Pena returns as Luis who is running the business while Lang is away, and TI and David Dastmalchian are there as trusted employees. The bickering back and forth that they have along with Luis’s ridiculous storytelling offer some of the best humor that the movie has to offer. The true feel of this movie is a comedy that has plenty of action mixed in. There are certainly some touching scenes throughout, the film does a great job at avoiding getting sappy by immediately following them up with humor.
Make no mistake, the most bad a** character in this movie is Hope Van Dyne as the Wasp. She mixes in an expertise of shrinking, flying, blasting, and martial arts to fend off attackers without breaking a sweat (aside from Ghost). Imagine Black Widow being able to shrink and fly, and you get a taste of what Wasp brings to the table. The fight scenes throughout are all excellent, as director Peyton Reed combines hand-to-hand combat with giant, flying Pez dispensers and salt shakers. There are some fun car chases throughout the streets of downtown San Francisco, and we get another taste of giant Ant-Man (which I’m sure most people were hoping for following Civil War).
The first Ant-Man was a huge surprise to me. It wasn’t the best Marvel movie by any means, but I don’t think a Marvel movie has known the exact wheelhouse it should be in more. Ant-Man and the Wasp, while not a surprise, followed up its predecessor by making an even funnier and more action packed sequel. If there is a qualm to be had it would be that the movie lacks a memorable villain. Goggins brings to the table exactly what you’d expect from him and Ghost is unique, but following Killmonger and Thanos, it’s a bit of a letdown. While the film clearly wasn’t going for as serious or intense a villain as Black Panther or Inifnity War, it could have aimed for villain with the quirkiness and humor that Thor: Ragnarok found in Jeff Goldblum’s Grandmaster. Despite that, the movie doesn’t suffer much and you won’t mind an unmemorable villain. This film is entertaining and fun from start to finish as Marvel continues to clean up at the box office.