Review-Ant-Man & Wasp

Ant-Man & Wasp wasn’t a film I was particularly excited to see when it was first announced.  Around the time it was revealed “superhero fatigue” was hitting me very hard and I really couldn’t care less about it, which is funny considering that I actually did enjoy the first Ant-Man movie, as flawed as it was. I thought the original had a very great story (for the first half at least) and I really enjoyed both Scott Lang’s and Hank Pym’s characters in it but I felt it got bogged down by an uninteresting villain, a cookie cutter plot, and a boring tie in to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. However I will admit that the reveal trailer did impress me and the last few Marvel movies have restored my faith a little bit in their products so I decided to give it a fair chance. Well that and I’ve seen every single one of these movies so at this point I can’t back down.

One aspect of this film that I liked was its light-hearted tone. The film maintains a very fun attitude throughout the running time and even though it is present, does not give too much of a focus on the drama between the characters. I would say it’s a lot like one of Marvels previous Thor Ragnarök in that respect, meaning it chooses to focus more on entertainment than melodrama. Another thing I quite liked were the performances given by each of the lead actors. Michael Douglas continues to bring his A game as Hank Pym as does Paul Rudd as Scott Lang, who continues to give the character more and more personality with each movie he’s in. Evangeline Lilly was also great as Hope van Dyne and it was nice seeing her in a more action oriented role as opposed to the last movie where she was only there to serve as a trainer and Scott’s love interest. The other supporting actors are great as well, including Michael Peña who continues to be a great comic relief character, though he is much more downplayed in this one.

The story this time around has Scott Lang going through his 2 year house arrest due to his actions in Civil War but he gets called back into action due to being linked to Janet Van Dyne after he traveled to the Quantum Realm in the first film.  This movie actually has more of a focus on Hank Pym and Hope due to their desire to find Janet and because of this Hope actually gets more time to shine than Scott and is featured in a lot more action scenes than he is and is given more on-screen characterization.  While this is good Scott actually degrades as a character a bit as he is portrayed as being more of an absent-minded goon than the crafty cat burglar he was in the last movie, though this didn’t personally bother me because I still felt like he was a believable character. One thing I didn’t really enjoy that much were the villains, most notably Walton Goggins character. His entire subplot was utterly useless and only served to prolong chase scenes for the main villain, Ghost who is played by Hannah John-Kamen. Even though Ghost has actual motivation for her actions in the movie, it is a little paper-thin and doesn’t get much development outside of two scenes and a flashback.

Really overall this movie was extremely fun and it was a breath of fresh air to see a superhero movie with this much levity. Even though some people may not like the way everything gets wrapped up in the end, I personally enjoyed it and the ending made me smile…..And Then The After Credits Scene Happened. I won’t spoil what happens but the first post credits scene did bring down the movie a little bit for me, but of course I understand why it’s there. I will say that it doesn’t reinforce my feelings about the MCU which is that I don’t like how every movie has to be connected to one another. Outside of that though, I do highly recommend Ant-Man & Wasp if you’re just looking for a fun superhero movie to watch.

Oh and also, don’t stick around for the second post credit scene. It’s not worth the 6 minutes of credits.