Ant-Man and the Wasp
When I rewatched Peyton Reed’s 2015 “Ant-Man” for my pre-“Infinity War” Marvel Cinematic Universe marathon, it held up remarkably well, and I enjoyed it quite well. So if I’m not completely high on his follow-up, “Ant-Man and the Wasp,” it’s not because I don’t enjoy this film as much as I did the first one three years ago. You can blame its immediate predecessors in the MCU (“Black Panther” and “Avengers: Infinity War”) for raising the bar, but the truth is, Reed and his writers know what they want to do here, and it’s kind of delightful watching them do it.
The film begins almost two years after the events of “Captain America: Civil War,” where Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) was recruited to help Captain America after he went rogue to help his friend, Bucky Barnes. Doing so has put Lang in deep trouble with the authorities again, and he has spent the nearly two years after Germany under house arrest for violating the Sokovia Accords, which also put a target on the backs of Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) and his daughter, Hope Van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly), who are now on the run from the FBI. Scott has managed to make time for his daughter, Cassie (Abby Ryder Fortson), and has also found a way to start a security business with Luis (Michael Pena), Dave (Tip “T.I.” Harris) and Kurt (David Dastmalchian). Unfortunately, he has been cut off from Hank and Hope for using the Ant-Man suit without their permission. However, he starts to have visions of his brief time in the Quantum Realm at the end of the first film, and it includes visions of Hank’s wife Janet (Michelle Pfeiffer), that he feels like Hank and Hope need to know about. Seeing as though they are actually working on a way to (safely) enter the Quantum Realm to try and save her after Scott’s experience, they might be more receptive to hearing from him than he thinks.
One of the things I find kind of wonderful about “Ant-Man and the Wasp” is also one of the things that, I think, keeps it from being another great Marvel entry for 2018, and that is the stakes attached to the film. Comparatively speaking to “Black Panther” and “Infinity War,” the stakes in this film are small, and personal, and thus, there’s not much need for a legit “bad guy.” Instead, we get an antagonist in Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), whose parents died in an accident at S.H.I.E.L.D. that caused her to lose her molecular structure. She has a chamber that allows her to keep the effects of her condition from getting too bad, but ultimately, she will die if she does not get healing energy from the Quantum Realm. She shows up to one of the exchanges Hope and Hank are doing for a part that will finish the project they are building to access the Quantum Realm, and Janet, safely, and throws a monkey wrench in things that spirals out of control. Like the great 2018 MCU films, though, Ghost is a fascinating ying-yang mirror held up to our heroes here in the same way Erik Killmonger was to T’Challa in “Black Panther,” and Thanos was to the Avengers in “Infinity War,” and John-Kamen does really affecting work in the role, making us as engaged in her story as we are in the story of saving Janet that is driving Hank, Hope and Scott here. We want to see them save Janet, and we’d also like to see Ghost, whose real name is Ava, get better, as well. Ghost is making that difficult with the rage she has in her, and she’s a difficult fighter to land a punch with, which is part of why it’s so fascinating to see her entangled with Scott and Hope, who has taken on the Wasp mantle her mother once wore opposite Hank. Lilly as Wasp was worth the wait, and her and Rudd have wonderful chemistry together that makes them an engaging couple of fighters in this adventure.
The personal story driving the action here is Hope and Hank trying to get Janet back, and while we are attached to that story emotionally, it’s also relatively slight in how Reed and his screenwriters (including Rudd, Chris McKenna, Erik Sommers, Andrew Barrer and Gabriel Ferrari) present it. The film takes place away from the events of “Infinity War,” so it’s very low-scale, but if Reed proved nothing else in the first film, it was finding a way to make the small action-packed and imaginative, and all the action sequences have energy and entertainment value, as our trio of heroes have to not only fight Ghost but a black market seller they’ve been going to for parts (Walton Goggins) and his crew who want to use what they are putting together for his own purposes. Reed has a great eye for what the action in this film should be like, and he uses scale not quite as brilliantly as he did at the end of the first film, but you have to admit that the car chase at the end of this film does goes places, and directions, the likes of “The French Connection” or “Bullitt” were unable to go. One of the things about “Ant-Man” as a series that helps it stand out is how light compared to the other Avengers the character, and his adventures, are, and Rudd is a big part of that. He helps sell this reality in a way few other actors really would have, and it’s quite entertaining to watch.
There’s really not a lot to this film, and while it feels like a lesser film compared to an “Infinity War” or “Black Panther,” I don’t think you can say it’s lower-tier Marvel just because it aims for popcorn superhero fun that doesn’t rise to lofty expectations. You can blame Marvel for elevating our expectations. I’ll just enjoy seeing ants try and help Scott from going away for 20 years for violating his house arrest. Peyton Reed and his cast are as sure-footed as his other Marvel brethren with what they are doing, and, if history with the first one holds, I think “Ant-Man and the Wasp” will bring the fun on repeat viewings just fine.
