When it comes to Ant-Man and the Wasp, you really have to ask yourself a few questions when it comes to this film. The first and most obvious is the poignancy of the film. Is it worth watching after the grim and foreboding Infinity War? Is Paul Rudd enough of a draw by himself, when I personally found him a much better Scott Lang in Civil War than I did his own movie? I'm not going to ask why this movie exists, because we all know the answer to that is $$$$$$$. But is this movie strong enough to warrant existing on it's own instead of just being a smaller part of a bigger story? Well, let's find out.
Plot: Having been placed on house arrest following his violation of the Sokovia Accords on behalf of Captain America, Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) believes he has received a message from Hank Pym's long thought missing wife Janet van Dyne (Michelle Pfieffer) and tries to get into contact with the Hank (Michael Douglas) and their daughter Hope (Evangeline Lilly). The two, though mistrustful of Lang following his involvement with the Avengers, smuggle Lang out of his home, believing Lang's brief contact with Janet is a confirmation that she was in fact still alive and try to build a more stable Quantum Realm to venture into and rescue her. Their plans are halted by a black market arms dealer and the theft of Pym's lab, which was allegedly taken by some kind of "ghost".
While attempting to locate the lab, the trio is captured by Ava Starr (Hannah John-Kamen), the daughter of another of Pym's former partners who lost her parents during an experiment that also caused her to exist in some kind of unstable state. The pain her condition causes her will no doubt result in her death and both she and Pym's former colleague in Bill Foster plan on using the quantum energy that Janet was providing to save her life, but Pym refuses to aid them and escapes with Scott and Hope, fearing that this will ultimately kill Janet.
After opening a much more stable path to the Quantum Realm, the trio gets into contact with Janet, but learns that they only have two hours to get in contact with her, or else the realm will destabilize and result in them being separated again for 100 years. But with both the black market arms dealer and Ava Starr pursuing them to get Pym's lab, as well as the FBI becoming suspicious, time becomes one of the few things that those outside of the Quantum Realm do not have anymore.
What's Bad?: The stakes in this movie are unfortunately significantly lower than they were in Infinity War. I mean, I feel for Hank wanting to get his wife back, but considering what was going on simultaneously in both Wakanda and on Titan in the other movie, the stakes for this movie just seem utterly without merit. And yes, I know all about how major Ant-Man is for fixing the damages done to the universe by Thanos, but I feel like this movie could have been a side story to a bigger storyline. The characters are what salvage this movie, chiefly Ava, Scott and Hope, but I think this is where the cracks in the MCU begin to become more profound. When the stakes cannot get much higher than they got in Infinity War, you find that the rest of the movies ultimately become less important and more pointless. I know people have wanted more "slice of life" style Superhero movies, but considering how close you are to the general conclusion of the story and the final confrontation with Thanos, those kinds of movies and shows need to wait until after Endgame comes out so I don't have to watch them (and I mean it. After the last Avengers movie, I'm done. Only saw half of No Way Home and none of Black Widow, Shang Chi and have no plans to watch the third Spider-Man movie. I might watch Thor 4, but that's about it.)
Maybe it comes from the increased stakes of previous movies, but I cannot find myself getting into this universe once again in this movie. Maybe it's just that I've always felt Ant-Man is a supporting cast character and not strong enough to run a movie on his own (with me being proven right twice so far), or maybe that I just don't find any part of this universe interesting besides the suits that Scott and Hope put on in this movie. Maybe it's that I'm not the biggest fan of Michael Douglas out there and I find the side characters to be somewhat insufferable, including Luis and the rest of Scott's little gang of criminal buddies. I don't know, but I do know that the side characters in this hold no candle to the side characters in a movie like Thor: Ragnarok or even Captain America. There is so much that holds this movie back for me that I feel personally like this film only exists for the stinger in the mid-credits, where Scott enters the Quantum Realm and Hope, Janet and Hank all turn into dust alongside the others Thanos wiped out. And when a movie exists solely to set up another movie, what's the point of it? It's a reason why I've soured on Age of Ultron and will continue to sour on any movie that doesn't truly develop the characters beyond setting them up as vehicles for future movies.
What's Good?: As I stated above, while the secondary characters don't do anything for me, it's the leads in this movie that make it a solid re-watch. Paul Rudd continues to grow on me as both a comedic and dramatic actor and I feel Evangeline Lilly has finally gotten over the terrible role she had in the Hobbit movies. I was also interested in the "villain" of the picture, who serves as more of an antagonist you can empathize with over a villain. One thing I'll say the MCU struggles to do is get a truly empathetic villain. Zemo was a mess in Civil War, Ultron was a bit of a ham in terms of performance and other villains who try to be more empathetic just don't cut much mustard. Their motivations are weak and they do evil deeds just to serve as an antagonist the movie needed to fill a quota (the Dark Elves, Whiplash, Zemo, etc.). They do the pure and unapologetically evil villains well and the tragic villains they do get right are a sight to behold (Ego, Loki, Kilmonger and especially Thanos). Ghost in this movie is a solid antagonist because you realize she's after something justifiable. Her own life. And you're left to hope that she gets what she wants while it doesn't adversely impact the quest to save Janet from the Quantum Realm. But the characters, chiefly Scott, Hope and Ava are what sells this movie for me.
Overall: While the film feels like a waste of time, it's an entertaining waste of time. There have been much worse wastes of time in the history of cinema as well as the Marvel Cinematic Universe. But Ant-Man and the Wasp is far from that kind of mess. It's got heart and a solid conflict that you can get behind emotionally without it being so high stakes of a movie. While it does feel weird to have this movie be inbetween two movies that have much higher and more important stakes, this film is definitely carried by it's solid leads, while the supporting cast feels utterly worthless in this one. Oh well. Take what you can get with this universe now. If you want to know why Ant-Man wasn't erased when Thanos snapped and appears in Endgame, this film will have some answers for you, though I think they could have gotten away with just having this be a mid-credits scene or a subplot for another movie. But I suspect most will skip their way to either Captain Marvel or Endgame now that all of the movies are out.
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