Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018) Review

"You're the world's greatest grandma."
-Cassie Lang



Two years after the events of Captain America: Civil War, Dr. Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) and his daughter, Hope (Evangeline Lilly), are nearly finished with a device to try and rescue Hank's wife, Janet (Michelle Pfeiffer), from the quantum realm.  During a test, Janet manages to implant a message in Scott Lang's (Paul Rudd) mind because he has also been to the quantum realm.  Scott, who has been estranged from Hank and Hope since his arrest in Civil War, is nearly done with his house arrest sentence.  Hank and Hope kidnap him to get the message from Scott's head and try to finish the device.  Unfortunately, other people want to get their hands on the device, criminal, Sonny Burch (Walton Goggins) wants the device for profit and the mysterious and powerful Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen) wants it for her own reasons.  But the clock is ticking and the window to save Janet is closing.  Can Ant-Man and the Wasp save her before it's too late?


What Works:

Ant-Man and the Wasp is a very funny movie and works best as a comedy.  There are plenty of hilarious sequences, especially short Scott and and Janet's possession of Scott's body.  Watching Paul Rudd be Hank's wife and Hope's mother is bizarre, hilarious, and probably my favorite part of the movie.

The best character in the Ant-Man series continues to be Michael Peña's Luis.  He is hilarious in every scene and he gets more to do in this film, which is a lot of fun.  We even get one of his classic stories and I can't get enough of it.

The action scenes that involve shrinking are really sold as well, particularly the 3rd act car chase.  It's an elaborate sequence with a lot of moving parts and characters playing keep-away.  It's a great sequence with a lot of creative energy and another highlight of the film.


What Sucks:

Marvel is back to its old problems with Ghost, who is a sub-par villain.  It sucks because she had a lot of potential.  She has solid motivation and isn't so much a villain as a desperate person who's goals conflict with our heroes.  They really don't do enough with her and it's a shame because Marvel has been on fire with their villains lately.

There were far too many jokes about Scott being the dumbest guy in the room.  We get it, you're not a scientist.  Make one joke about it and move on.  But no, we had to keep being reminded that Scott doesn't understand what the other characters are talking about.  It got old really fast.

The tone of this movie is very light-hearted and normally that's fine, but it feels kind of inappropriate with how the last movie went.  Which brings me to my biggest problem with the movie: it's not necessary.  Besides rescuing Janet from the quantum zone, this movie adds nothing to the MCU as a whole.  And did we really need a movie about rescuing Janet?  Who cares?  This movie just felt like filler as we wait for the next Avengers.  I also think the movie missed a huge opportunity by setting it before the events of Infinity War and not after.  That would have been a much more interesting film. 


Verdict:

Ant-Man and the Wasp is a funny and entertaining film that has some really cool action scenes, but not much else.  It's a wholly unnecessary film in the MCU, and definitely one of the bottom 5 films in the franchise.  The villain was disappointing and some of the jokes felt repetitive, but by all means go see it.  You'll have a good time.

 7/10: Good       

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