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
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