If you're sick and tired of all the Marvel movies, who could blame you? The formula is abundantly clear by now, and the pace of 2-3 films a year is exhausting. Yet the Marvel Cinematic Universe is so smartly realized that it even has its own antidote-the "Ant-Man" series.
Every Marvel movie has a sense of humor, but "Ant-Man" is that humor at its broadest. Paul Rudd's choice to play Scott Lang as "the superhero who is just happy to be a superhero" works delightfully better than it ought to, and director Peyton Reed has found ways to let Rudd's energy trickle to the rest of the cast and other elements of both productions-2015's "Ant-Man" and now "Ant-Man and the Wasp."
The creative choice behind these films has painted Ant-Man as the black sheep of the MCU, making this sequel the perfect follow-up to the devastatingly self-serious "Avengers: Infinity War." The investment level is much lower for this movie and its ambitions ant-sized in comparison. Too some extent, it might even be too light and breezy.
"Ant-Man and the Wasp" sees Lang under house arrest following his excursion to Germany during "Civil War," but he's soon plucked out of it by Dr. Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) and Hope Van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly) when the two realize that Lang's time in the Quantum Realm in the last film might be the key to allow them to locate Pym's wife/Hope's mother, Janet (Michelle Pfeiffer), who was lost in the realm decades earlier.
Although the trio finds its plans in jeopardy due to some competing interests, the plot being a voluntary mission takes a lot of the stakes out of the film. We have no attachment to Janet Van Dyne, even if we can empathize for why Pym and Hope would want to find and rescue her. And given finding her requires a machine built inside of a size-changing MacGuffin that runs on suspension of disbelief, the script requires some artifice to stay interesting.
In other words, the story that the joyride of "Ant-Man and the Wasp" is built upon (which saw contributions from two writing duos plus Rudd) isn't all that solid or interesting, which doesn't derail the viewing experience so much as generate indifference. The fun to be had lies mostly with the size-changing gimmick, which continues to be smartly deployed as it was in the original "Ant-Man." The heist conceit that powered that film, however, gave it more of a foundation and a focus that this movie is missing.
So the relaxed attitude of the film is both a strength and a limitation. The strong group of main characters, bolstered by Lilly's expanded role (even if she feels an awful lot like Black Widow), keeps it engaging, though the fun, humor and creativity seems to have an obvious ceiling. That's a shame, because Ant-Man feels like a character with a lot more potential than a light change of pace.
~Steven C
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Every Marvel movie has a sense of humor, but "Ant-Man" is that humor at its broadest. Paul Rudd's choice to play Scott Lang as "the superhero who is just happy to be a superhero" works delightfully better than it ought to, and director Peyton Reed has found ways to let Rudd's energy trickle to the rest of the cast and other elements of both productions-2015's "Ant-Man" and now "Ant-Man and the Wasp."
The creative choice behind these films has painted Ant-Man as the black sheep of the MCU, making this sequel the perfect follow-up to the devastatingly self-serious "Avengers: Infinity War." The investment level is much lower for this movie and its ambitions ant-sized in comparison. Too some extent, it might even be too light and breezy.
"Ant-Man and the Wasp" sees Lang under house arrest following his excursion to Germany during "Civil War," but he's soon plucked out of it by Dr. Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) and Hope Van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly) when the two realize that Lang's time in the Quantum Realm in the last film might be the key to allow them to locate Pym's wife/Hope's mother, Janet (Michelle Pfeiffer), who was lost in the realm decades earlier.
Although the trio finds its plans in jeopardy due to some competing interests, the plot being a voluntary mission takes a lot of the stakes out of the film. We have no attachment to Janet Van Dyne, even if we can empathize for why Pym and Hope would want to find and rescue her. And given finding her requires a machine built inside of a size-changing MacGuffin that runs on suspension of disbelief, the script requires some artifice to stay interesting.
In other words, the story that the joyride of "Ant-Man and the Wasp" is built upon (which saw contributions from two writing duos plus Rudd) isn't all that solid or interesting, which doesn't derail the viewing experience so much as generate indifference. The fun to be had lies mostly with the size-changing gimmick, which continues to be smartly deployed as it was in the original "Ant-Man." The heist conceit that powered that film, however, gave it more of a foundation and a focus that this movie is missing.
So the relaxed attitude of the film is both a strength and a limitation. The strong group of main characters, bolstered by Lilly's expanded role (even if she feels an awful lot like Black Widow), keeps it engaging, though the fun, humor and creativity seems to have an obvious ceiling. That's a shame, because Ant-Man feels like a character with a lot more potential than a light change of pace.
~Steven C
Thanks for reading! Visit Movie Muse Reviews for more