Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) has only a few days left of his house arrestâa result of his plea deal from the events of Civil Warâand is about to start a security business with Luis (Michael Peña) and his team. He hasnât heard from Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) and Hope Van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly) for a time; they are displeased with him and on the run due to those same Civil War events. But then an overly-realistic dream of Janet Van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer) brings the estranged team back together as Hank now has a way to retrieve Janet from the quantum realm if he can use the information in Scottâs head. All they have to do is avoid FBI agent Woo (Randall Park), crime-boss Sonny Burch (Walton Goggins), and mysterious super-opponent Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), while getting help from an ex-shield scientist (Laurence Fishburne), and not putting Scottâs ex-wife (Judy Greer) or daughter (Abby Ryder Fortson)in danger.
Ant-Man and the Wasp seems relaxing after the last two MCU films as the stakes are personal, not global or universal, and while nicely tied in to the other films, stays mainly in its own box. Itâs a light, fun romp and feels much like the previous Ant-Man, except they listened to Guardians of the Galaxy enough to make retro-music more prominent (The Partridge FamilyâŠHuh).
While this is a near non-stop action film, the constant movement is the least important element and occasionally is too much. Ant-Man and the Wasp is more of a romantic comedy and thatâs what works best. It is the character moments between our leads where the real fun is. Rudd and Lilly have have much better chemistry than before, as do both with Douglas. Peña and his gang have great gags, and while she is low on jokes and time, Pfeiffer is an excellent addition. What I wanted was these people playing off each other and thatâs what I got. There were big laughs and strong emotional beats. Even the stuff with the child was strong.
As for all that action, some of it ranks with the best that Marvel has done. If this isnât my new favorite car chase movie, it is certainly a contender. The fights, particularly those involving The Wasp, flow really nicely giving the MCU a much needed super-powered female bad-ass. Plus sheâs sexy as hell, almost as sexy as Pfeiffer.
The whole mix is a bit over-stuffed. There was no need for any villains and certainly not multiple ones. Scott and Hope and Hank are perfectly capable of generating their own problems without bad-guys. But because there is so much going on, everything gets a little less time. Iâd have traded away Ghost for a few more minutes of Janet or an extra few minutes of Hank fuming at Scott. Luckily the character stuff doesnât stop during the fights (ear communicators are sure handy in a script) but thereâs just too many characters.
The science is all on such a nonsense level that it didnât bother me. I donât need to understand anything; I just have to not see that it is wrong. The only thing that troubled me is they never stated anything about the hardness and stability of reduced items so I did find myself asking why a tiny building didnât break.
For a film that does stand alone, it has major implications for Avengers 4 (the quantum realm is going to be popping up again quite soon Iâm betting) and I was pleased how they slipped that in. It was an organic part of this film; that it looms as a possible answer for how to deal with what happened in Infinity War seems almost coincidental.
Like all MCU films there are after credit sequences, the first of which had the greatest effect on an audience since the one in Iron Man introduced Nick Fury. There was a combination of laughter and âWowsâ with a man nearby exclaiming âOh, they did that. They just did that! Oh!â That kind of reaction is usually a good sign.