RageLite review - Ant-man and the Wasp

Ant-man was one of Marvel’s more modest hits when it was released back in 2015, making around $520m on around $120m budget. A sequel was ultimately inevitable and Marvel did increase the budget for it, putting it around $190m. Peyton Reed is back directing but we have an all knew writing team including Chris McKenna, who wrote the Lego Batman movie and Spider-man: Homecoming, Erik Summers, who also worked on Homecoming and the previously reviewed Jumanji sequel, Andrew Barrer, who’s last work was on the 2014 film Haunt, Gabriel Ferrari, who was producer of Haunt, and Paul Rudd himself, who had helped write the screenplay for the original Ant-man.

The film had the blessing/curse of being released between Infinity War and Endgame, anticipation was high, and turnout was OK, it made around $620m, again a modest success for Marvel. Critically it did well, an 88% Rotten Tomatoes rating but with an average of only 6.97/10, Audiences gave it a 76% rating with an average 3.76/5. How did I find it? Let’s take a look

Thanks to the events of Civil War, Scott Lang has been under house arrest for two years, he’s days away from release and playing with his daughter, but when he experiences dreams about his time in the quantum realm that imply that Janet Pym may still be alive. He must reunite with his old associates and outwit Gangsters, the FBI and The Ghost, a mysterious woman after their tech for her own purposes.

So, you might remember I was hardly enamoured with the first Ant-man movie. I thought it had creative action but the drama and comedy were a bit of a miss. I’m pleased to report that the comedy I didn’t like is dialled back in this second outing, although it’s still there and it’s still annoying. Luis has the most prominent role and but his tendency to go on about things works better here because they have a straight man to react to it. Dave and Kurt are so much background characters you’re probably looking up who they are right now.

That’s not to say it’s a darker film, it’s actually one of the lighter toned Marvel films, something that’s kinda necessary given that a month or so earlier we had Infinity War and the annihilation that came with it. The film is very low key, with the stakes barely passing what they were in the first film.

For some reason the regulator on Ant-man’s suit is malfunctioning, causing him to shift to various inconvenient heights at varying moments. It’s used for laughs and the occasional bit of drama but we’ll be getting back to it shortly.

Hank and Hope are fugitives because they made the tech, I think… This is stupid. Anyway, they’ve got a building and a fleet of cars in their pocket and are working on a quantum tunnel to help rescue Janet. Unfortunately, the same project is needed by the Ghost.

I don’t know what to make of the Ghost honestly. She reminds me a lot of Elektra from the Netflix Daredevil series, even though it’s a different actor. She’s out for herself, but carries a grudge against Hank Pym for his role in what happened. The problem is despite her powers she’s not much of a threat, she’s not especially smart or powerful, she doesn’t have much control over her phasing. They try to make her sympathetic and they’re more successful in that regard, but to do that she needed some lines she’s not able to cross.

To that end we bring in Bill Foster, he exists to provide some minor plot exposition, and to be her conscience. Beyond that he doesn’t have much to do in this film. Providing some actual firepower to the movie, we instead get Sonny Burch, who, despite being intelligent is also rather annoying and even less of a threat when it comes to facing two guys with shrink suits.

So, we get a happy ending as Janet is brought back from the Quantum realm and she uses her magic, I guess to heal the Ghost instantly, I find this a rather lame ending for her.

OK, I can’t go any longer without mentioning the school scene. Hank spends most of the time there, the size of a tablet. How did the cleaner think he was one of the kids? Why was he asked for a hall pass when the classroom is empty, implying the kids are on break? Where is the tension in this scene? It’s not especially funny, we don’t even see Cassie here, it’s kinda boring.

The one place the movie excels is once again with the action, as the size changing abilities allow them to construct wacky scenarios. Whilst in my opinion, there’s nothing as clever as the model train set, we do get a car chase and a restaurant fight that both utilise the size-changing well. I just wish there was a more powerful villain for them to be up against.

Ant-man and the Wasp serves as a passable interlude after Infinity War and honestly a superior follow up to the original Ant-man. The action continues to be great, even if the drama requires some leaps in logic (the security business was a really good idea though) and it’s nice to have a hopeful ending, pre-credits anyway. The biggest issues with it come from the lack of any credible threat which makes the action, whilst still creative lack the impact they did in the first film.

Rating 70/100