Ant-Man and the Wasp: A Review
The year of Marvel continues. As will spoilers, so avoid this review if you haven’t yet seen Ant-Man and the Wasp. Again, spoiler warning.
It’s pretty hard to follow the two films Marvel Studios has already put out this year, but this movie about these tiny heroes makes a huge impact on the MCU.
With the same light-hearted tone as the first, this sequel is funny and packed with action. It also answers some questions about Scott Lang’s whereabouts during Infinity War.
When this film opens, we learn that Scott has been on house arrest since the events of Civil War. He took a plea deal with the government to serve two years of house arrest for his role in violating the Sokovia Accords. Having cut ties with Hank and Hope, he’s three days away from being released at the start of the movie and has been following the rules.
Until, of course, now.
After a dream of Janet van Dyne (which is later proven to be a quantum communication) and a phone call to Hank, Hope kidnaps Scott and leaves aa giant ant in his place to wear his ankle monitor in his home. These two have great chemistry on-screen and will be a fun duo to watch.
Angry at Scott for taking the Ant-Man suit to Germany in Civil War, Hope and Hank haven’t spoken to him since. But they’re building a tunnel to access the Quantum Realm and need his help. This starts a series of escapades involving these three, the main antagonist, Ghost, and arms dealer Sonny Burch all stealing Hank’s shrunken lab from each other. The lab is a humorous Macguffin. Hank and Hope need it to finish their access to the quantum realm, Ghost needs it to cure her quantum phasing, and Burch stands to make a huge profit from it.
Laurence Fishburne makes his debut as Bill Foster and his character is a bit different from the comics. Early on, it appears he’ll be a villain and that’s not a take on the character I’d appreciate. But as you learn his motivations, which is simply to help save the girl in his care, he becomes much more sympathetic.
Comedy relief is once again provided by Scott’s buddies, especially Michael Pena’s Luis. He steals every scene he’s in. One of the best scenes is when he’s being interrogated by Burch as to Scott’s whereabout after being injected with “truth serum” (that alone is a hoot) and he of course goes off on his tangent providing every detail of his friendship with Lang since they met.
Ant-Man and the Wasp is a refreshing chapter in the MCU because it’s not as socially important as Black Panther or as somberly intense as Infinity War. It doesn’t take itself too seriously and provides us with the laughs we all need, and the laughs you expect to get from reading comics on a page. The villains are a little weak, but who isn’t compared to Thanos?
A couple things I was excited about? I've always hoped we'd see Hank Pym suit up as Ant-Man, and we did! That was a great moment for comic fans and I didn't think it would come in this movie. Also, the Quantum Realm was a much bigger presence in this, and it will be exciting to explore more of that going forward.
And as fun as this movie is, its relevance to Infinity War, Avengers 4 and the future of the MCU can’t be overlooked. So much so, as a matter of fact, that it requires its own article which will be coming later this week.
All in all, Ant-Man and the Wasp is a successful sequel to Ant-Man and a fun movie for the whole family.