Review 466: Ant-Man and the Wasp

Ant-Man and the Wasp is a hilarious adventure.

In the aftermath of Captain America: Civil War, Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) grapples with the consequences of his choices as both a superhero and a father. As he struggles to balance his home life with his responsibilities as Ant-Man, he's confronted by Hope van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly) and Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) with an urgent new mission. Scott must once again put on the suit and learn to fight alongside the Wasp as the team works together to uncover secrets from the past.

The plot is one hilarious non-stop rollar coaster ride. Whereas the first Ant-Man film was a heist movie, Ant-Man and the Wasp is more of a Buddy, Road and Search and Rescue film where there are villains but also antagonists and roadblocks that threaten to stop our heroes from getting where they need to be and getting what they need for their mission: A simple but effective one: Rescue Janet van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer) from the Quantum Realm where she's been trapped for these past 30 years.
The narrative keeps you on your toes, Scott, Hope and Hank bounce from from set piece to set piece always in motion with the antagonists like Ghost (Hannah John Kamenn) and Sonny Burch (Walton Goggins) and the FBI constantly hot on their tale all the while they’re desperately trying to find a way to bring Janet van Dyne home and we as an audience desperately want them to succeed and are constantly on the edge of our seats as a result.

What’s interesting about this film is how there’re no villains per say, there’re just obstacles for our heroes to overcome or whose interest come into conflict with our heroes.
Both Ghost and Sonny Burch are presented as opposites: Ghost is an anti-villain at worse, does all the fighting herself without the use of any henchmen and just wants to survive whilist Burch is a complete sleaze-bag who posses no fighting skills whatsoever, has loads of henchmen doing his dirty work and wants Hank’s lab for his own reasons.  

Family is an important subtext in this film: The relationship between Scott and Cassie is just as strong here as it was in the first film.
The relationship between Hope and Janet is also very prominent

By this point in MCU, with Hope taking on the Wasp mantle and further exploration of the Quantum realm, it's clear that the Ant-Man films are confidently opening their own corner of the ever expanding Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Returing director Peyton Reed’s direction is kinetic and fast paced, the cinematography is beautiful and captures the beauty of San Fran, the production design is excellently inventive, the action scenes are fast paced and excitingly creative. They’ve really stepped it up a whole nother notch in this film, playing a lot with scale. Suddenly, not only can people shrink but that technology has been applied to cars, buildings etc. The score by Christophe Beck is terrific, the costumes are excellent, the pacing is fast and nimble, the special effects are outstanding,

The acting is splendid, Paul Rudd and Evangeline Lilly make for a terrific pair as Scott Lang/Ant-Man and Hope van Dyne/Wasp respectively.
Their camaraderie and banter are They have great chemistry and work superbly off of one another.
Scott is aiming to steer away from Superhero responsibilities and just focus on being a good father in the aftermath of the Avengers Civil War so it's of the utmost importance for him to keep on the straight and narrow given that he's under house arrest.
But when Hope and Hank approach him with a new mission, Scott just cannot turn down a pair of friends in need and has no choice but to suit up once again as Ant-Man and help them out.

One of the most appealing and indeed hilarious things about Scott Lang is that he’s an ordinary guy who’s thrown into these simply extraordinary circumstances such as shrinking, flying around on ants, entering Quantum Realms, fighting alongside the Avengers and all other sorts of life threatening stuff.
The film also explores the ramifications of Scott fighting alongside Captain America in Germany during the Avengers Civil War and how it affects Hank, Hope as well as his family.
He even says it “I do some dumb things and the people I love the most they pay the price.” This is further illustrated by how Hank and Hope are now considered criminals and have been forced to go on the run because of his violation of the Accords.

Becoming the Wasp has been something Hope's been waiting for her whole life, which is essentially an affirmation from her father. Her relationship with Scott has become more strained since the first film thanks in no small part to Scott fighting alongside Cap.
At the core, the mission to find Janet van Dyne is Hope's mission. Hank and Hope are very much working together but it's Hope who's in charge.

Michael Pena shows once again that he's the Ant-Man series MVP as Luis, once again bringing to life the characters immensely and infectiously goofy charm that just makes him such a likeable character.
He's a guy whose pretty good in a crisis and that's the reason Scott has him around.

Sadly on round 2, Bobby Cannavale & Judy Greer are reduced to smaller roles as Paxton and Maggie
Though Maggie does get a few funny moments, mostly calling out the FBI for their treatment of Scott.

Randall Park is a joyful hoot as Jimmy Woo, a former S.H.I.E.L.D. turned FBI agent and Scott’s parole officer. The great thing about him is that he’s not portrayed in a villainous light, he’s just doing his job and it’s clear he has soft spot and respect for Scott. At the end of the day, he's just an honest, hardworking FBI agent doing a job.

Hannah John Kamen’s Ghost is a most interesting villain. Ghost initially appears to be a  but as film progresses and the layers unravel, it’s revealed that Ghost is in fact a victim of circumstance. She desperately needs Hank Pym’s lab in order to survive and will go to any lengths to ensure that. Her motivation, ultimately, is desperation, plain and simple.

Justified's Walton Goggins is also  Sonny Burch. Goggins is appropriately slimy and charismatic in the role,
Obviously once he gets hold of said lab he’s gonna use it or nefarious purposes but we never find out what those purposes are or why we should care. He ultimately boils down to being a foil for our heroes albeit a serviceable one at that.
A running gag throughout the film is that despite being clearly outmatched on all fronts, Burch continues to pursue Scott, Hope & Hank under the misguided allusion that he can get hold of the lab and each of his attempts blows up spectacularly in his face.

Laurence Fishburne proves to be a very interesting addition to the MCU as Bill Foster. In the comics, he's Goliath character with similar powers to Ant-Man and the professor of Project P.E.G.A.S.U.S.
Foster is one of the most interesting and morally ambiguous characters the film has to offer.
He use to be an old partner of Hank Pym but the two of them butted heads over Hank's “ego” and went their separate ways after Hank resigned from S.H.I.E.L.D. Hank formed his own company, Pym Tech whereas Bill took a more accademic approach and started teaching Quantum Physics at Berkeley.
He also acts as Ghost's moral conscious and prevents her from going to far in her quest to cure herself.

Michelle Pfeiffer is, unfortunately, rather under-utilised as Janet van Dyne. But then again it’s kinda tough to utilise a character when they’ve been trapped in the Quantum Realm for 30 odd years.
Thankfully she makes the most of every scene she’s in and effectively conveys a very maternal nature to both Hope and Ghost.

Michael Douglas is, once again, fantastic as Hank Pym and gets to show off a lot of comedic skills here and cracking more one-liners.
After some ungainly setbacks, he and Hope have managed to open up a tunnel to the Quantum Realm in the hope of rescuing Janet.
He and Hope have also become closer since the first film and he gets to have the joy of fatherhood in watching her take on the mantle of the Wasp and become a superhero in her own right.
On the other hand, they're now fugitives thanks in no small part to Scott's involvement with the Avengers. They have technology (the Pym particle) that would be considered a superpower in the MCU at a point where you're not allowed to have that independently so their lives have dramatically changed and not for the better.

All I can really say is I'm really excited for Ant-Man 3, 4.5/5.

The Anonymous Critic.