Image courtesy of Marvel Studios
With Black Panther, one of Marvel Studios’ most praised films, and Avengers: Infinity War, their highest grossing film so far, out of the way, was the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) successful in giving audiences one last thrill for the year?
In word: yes.
Image courtesy of Marvel Studios
In the follow-up to Peyton Reed’s 2015 superhero film, Ant-Man, our story picks up where the life of Scott Lang, once again played by Paul Rudd, has gone since he aligned with Captain America in 2016’s Captain America: Civil War. He’s under house arrest after brokering a deal with the government. With only a few days left, and the superhero game behind him, Scott is inches away from freedom. However, he’s pulled back into the growing and shrinking shenanigans by Hope Van Dyne and Hank Pym, played by Evangeline Lily and Michael Douglas, when he begins to have mysterious visions of Hope’s long-lost mother, played by Michelle Pfieffer, within the immeasurably microscopic “Quantum Realm.” With Scott’s help, and with Hope donning her own shrinking suit, taking on the name of the Wasp, they might free her from her miniscule confines. Unfortunately, a phantasmic, cloaked woman who can walk through anything, referred to as Ghost, means to claim the energies of the Quantum Realm for herself, and our heroes must use their strengths, wits, and abilities to grow and shrink at will to stop her
While the previous film was enjoyable, it didn’t rank particularly high on my list of films from the MCU. The villain, Yellowjacket, felt like an uninteresting retread of Iron Monger from 2008’s Iron Man, Scott didn’t have a high enough personal stake when it came to helping Hank and Hope, Hope was insistently angry throughout most of the film, the humor didn’t always strike a chord, and the title hero wasn’t given enough dignity or credit for what he tries to accomplishes. With that in mind, I went into this film with a minimal set of expectations.
That said, I’m happy to announce that Ant-Man and the Wasp was a much better outing for the character.
Image courtesy of Marvel Studios
To begin with, the villain, Ghost, played by Hannah John-Kamen, is a far more interesting antagonist than what we saw before. Her motivation is a fairly unique one – her powers are killing her and she needs the Quantum Realm to fix it. This could spell danger for Hope’s mother, which is why the heroes are on the opposite end of things, but this doesn’t necessarily make her a bad person. Apart from that, the actress provides a fairly unsettling performance in some scenes, coming off as physically and emotionally erratic. While certainly not the best villain we’ve gotten out of the MCU, Ghost is among the most interesting in how different she is, in look, abilities, and motivation.
Image courtesy of Marvel Studios
Another positive that this film has over the other is the plot. The first film was a serviceable origin story with elements of a heist film, but this film is a little more engaging. Apart from the race to keep Hank’s research out of the hands of Ghost, there are a few subplots being juggled around. We have one where Scott is trying to keep up the appearance that he’s back home and not pulling off illegal activities with Hank and Hope, another where a group of arms dealers, led by an amusingly Southern Walton Goggins, want Hank’s research as well, Scott’s old gang, with a returning Michael Péna doing his usual funny shtick, working on a security company, and Hank’s old colleague, played by Laurence Fishburne, getting involved. We see the return of Giant Man, there are car chases with shrinking and growing objects thrown into the mix, and psychedelic imagery could compete with Doctor Strange. There plot goes in many directions, but it never feels exhausting, and it all around felt fresher and more energized than the previous film.
Image courtesy of Marvel Studios
The biggest hurdle I felt the film had to leap was the relationship between Scott and the Pym’s. As I said, Scott didn’t feel as involved with the stakes of the plot as he should’ve been. Part of the reason behind that was his relationship with Hank and Hope. Hank treated him as a necessary helping hand and Hope, mostly, didn’t want anything to do with him. This got old for me fast, but, thankfully, they improved that here. Scott has a greater personal connection because he wants to make things right for stealing Hank’s suit, going to Germany without telling anyone, and causing his friend’s to be put on the FBI’s most wanted list for being associated with him. There’s a reason this time for people to dump on Scott as he made a massive mistake that dampened the bond between everyone, and you want to see them patch things up. Not to mention with Hope becoming the Wasp, which was a joy to see another classic character come to life, this allowed Rudd and Lily to have more moments of banter and camaraderie and much less of Hope being an angry, wet blanket. This not only improved Hope’s character, but her relationship with Scott, and eventual romance, feels much more authentic than it did before.
After so much had happened in Infinity War, it was nice to have a smaller (excuse the pun) adventure with Scott and the gang. It’s not a particularly deep film or a game changer in the superhero genre, not to mention being the 20thfilm of the MCU, certain points can be a little confusing to the uninitiated, but it is a visually pleasing, well acted, mostly funny, action packed film that served as a great closing for the summer and for the this year’s run of MCU films.
8/10
The film is available now in digital stores, and will be available next week on October 16 on DVD and BluRay.