Film Review: Ant-Man And The Wasp

The first Ant-Man was a much needed palate cleanser, as it was sandwiched between the bombast of Avengers: Age of Ultron and Captain America: Civil War. But looking at it on its own, it’s a rock solid character piece that felt like the kind of intimate and small scale superhero adventure from a long gone era. The new Ant-Man and the Wasp is dealt with a similar situation serving as the follow up to the the planet hopping spectacle of Avengers: Infinity War before we get into more MCU setup with Captain Marvel, which leads directly into the next Avengers. And once again, it totally works, both as a palate cleanser and a fun, character driven piece that mostly stays within its own world.

The film takes place a couple years after Ant-Man, and a few days before the events of Infinity War occurs. Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) has been under house arrest due to his involvement with Captain America in the events of Civil War, and he hasn’t been in touch with either Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) or Hope van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly). However, a strange dream involving Janet van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer), gets the attention of Hank and Hope, who have just put the finishing touches to a device that might bring Janet back from the quantum realm. Unfortunately, the device also catches the eye of a a criminal, Sonny Burch (Walton Goggins), as well as a strange figure known as Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), putting our heroes in peril every step of the way.

Peyton Reed returns as director, and there’s a certain confidence in the filmmaking that wasn’t as present in the first Ant-Man due to his late involvement after Edgar Wright left the project. This time he gets to work with a team of his choosing, he’s able to bring his particular groove and weave it into the fabric of the film in a way he wasn’t able to prior, and it’s a joy to behold. His humor, especially that of visual gags that play with the shrinking or expanding of someone or something never gets old, and he really gets to run wild with it here. There’s one sequence involving Scott going to an elementary school that just nearly had me in tears laughing.

The film has a number of writers involved, Chris McKenna, Erik Sommers, Andrew Barrer, Gabriel Ferrari, and Paul Rudd, and I’d be lying if I said it didn’t show at points. The does have a lot of moving parts, and it wouldn’t be hard to imagine that certain characters had more importance in previous drafts. There’s Sonny and his crew trying to take Hank and Hope’s device for their own personal gain, the mystery surrounding Ghost, there’s even an FBI agent played by Randall Park, who is just eager to catch Scott violating his parole. Reed is practically spinning plates here, and it consistently borders on being convoluted, but the surprising thing about it is that the film still has a good flow to it, and it never comes across as overstuffed. It moves really fast, and while it might be at the expense of diving deeper into some of the supporting characters, it all still works since they function well as obstacles for our heroes to overcome. At least be thankful they kept this just under two hours.

Another reason the film manages to do that because it keeps the focus consistent. A major throughline is that of the relationship between a parent and their child, and how a parent has to grapple with mistakes they have made in the past. That idea runs through in multiple characters in their own distinct way, and it helps ground the manic lunacy of the film to a compelling emotional core. The movie may have an affable attitude, but it knows what notes to play to get you behind a character, and that emotional investment really pays off in a beautiful sequence in the final act. That kind of tonal tightrope is tough, and Reed, his writers, and cast are working with each other incredibly well. Call it a “minor entry in the MCU” all you want, but it’s one of few to bring out a genuine emotional reaction.

The cast is as good as you’d expect. Paul Rudd continues to be a delight to watch, and he shares an infectious chemistry with anyone in his vicinity. He’s especially great with kids, which he also showed in Ideal Home just a week ago. Evangeline Lilly naturally gets a lot more to do this time around, and you can practically feel her enthusiasm, and she is great whenever she has to work with Michael Douglas, who also gets more to do here as a father in desperate search for his wife and someone filled with guilt over the ramifications that came from a fallout in the past.

Like I mentioned earlier, some of the supporting characters are quite given as much time to really breath in the film, and that includes Hannah James-Kamen, Walton Goggins, Laurence Fishburne (who plays a former partner of Hank’s, Bill Foster), and Michelle Pfeiffer. They most certainly aren’t bad, in fact, they’re quite good, but Fishburne and James-Kamen, specifically, have to get through most of their more interesting character beats in the middle of lengthy exposition dumps, so their impact is a tad lessened. Oh, and Louis (Michael Peña) only gets one of those fast-talking monologues, which might sound disappointing, but be grateful that they don’t run that joke into the ground like most comedy sequels tend to do.

Ant-Man and the Wasp might seem minor and insignificant if you look at it as another installment in the MCU, but its small pleasures and idiosyncratic charms are the things that really speak to me. It’s a film devoted to giving the audience a damn good time, and it does so in spades. It’s not only effortlessly likable, it has a big heart that earnestly cares for the characters and their relationships. It’s not the tightest work of storytelling, but I found a lot of joy in seeing this play more fast and loose, and leaning on the filmmaker’s weirder, creative impulses. It’s not just an improvement over the first film, it’s easily the best blockbusters that’s been released this year so far.