Ant-Man and the Wasp: An Ant-ertaining Adventure

We are in a movie time-loop. In summer 2015 and 2018, there have been new Avengers, Jurassic World, and Ant-Man movies. It's kinda crazy. The only difference is that the Avengers movie from three years ago didn't have audiences weeping during the credits. Another difference is that everyone was laughing at the idea of an Ant-Man film. When I first encountered the character, I thought he was useless. But, to the surprise of no-one, Ant-Man turned out to be a really good movie. In my opinion, I think it's quite underrated. I loved the idea of going from this huge ensemble movie (Avengers: Age of Ultron) to a much smaller (literally) movie about a superhero who just wants to prove himself to his daughter. With that out of the way let's dive into the review.

Ant-Man and the Wasp is directed by Peyton Reed and stars Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Michael Douglas, Michael Peña, Walton Goggins, and Hannah John-Kamen. Since the events of Civil War, Scott Lang (Rudd) has been placed under house arrest. As he's trying to balance being a super-hero and a hero, Hope van Dyne (Lilly) and Hank Pym (Douglas) come to him with a new mission. Now Scott must suit up once again and fight alongside the Wasp. With all of that out of the way, let's dive into the review!

I really liked this movie. Paul Rudd is great as Ant-Man. It's nice to see a continuation of the relationship he has with his daughter, Cassie (Abby Ryder Fortson), from the first movie. Scott likes being a super hero, but he likes being a father more. Rudd has great chemistry with Fortson and it seemed like they were father and daughter in real life. Rudd has great chemistry with everyone actually. It was cool to see how Hank Pym and Hope reacted to Scott going to fight the Avengers in Civil War. I loved the back-and-forth between Rudd and Douglas. Lilly is great as the Wasp. It's nice to see her doing more than in the first one. She's not just some damsel in distress, either. She is more than capable of holding her own. I also really liked the villain, Ghost (John-Kamen). She keeps phasing in and out of the Quantum Realm and our world. I like the fact that she's a villain with a legitimate reason for doing what she does. She's just trying to survive. Her powers are very visually interesting. A majority of the movie is, actually. The detail when Ant-Man or the Wasp shrunk down was incredible. The Quantum Realm was gorgeous to look at. I enjoyed how the action was done too. Sometimes you can't even see the heroes because they are too tiny to see. Then they'll grow and just knock a guy out. The Wasp was awesome to see fight. Luckily all the cool stuff wasn't in the commercials. The humor was pretty good here, too. Sometimes it got a little too much, but people have to understand that this is a completely different movie than Infinity War. It's more family friendly. Out of all the characters, Luis (Peña) had to be the funniest. He has a bigger role in this movie than he did in the last.

This movie suffers from what a lot of sequels do. While the first installments have the luxury of telling the backstory of the characters, the sequels don't and can sometimes drag on a bit in the beginning. This happens in Ant-Man and the Wasp, but it doesn't take as long as Deadpool 2 did. The movie sometimes jumps around a bit. One villain, Sonny Burch (Goggins), seemed kind of unnecessary. His basic purpose is to try and steal Hank's equipment. He also knows people in the FBI, so he has dirt on Scott. I felt like he could've been taken out. This way, the much better villain (Ghost) could have more screen-time than she already has. It's not that Goggins doesn't do a good job. He was just not really needed.

To sum everything up, Ant-Man and the Wasp is a really good follow-up to the 2015 film and a nice pallet-cleanser following Infinity War. The leads have great chemistry with each other, the movie has a lot of heart, the humor is really good, Ghost is really cool, and the visuals and action are awesome to look at. It does take a bit to get going and there is an unneeded villain. That being said, it is a very fun ride! If I were to rate it, I'd give Ant-Man and the Wasp an 8-8.5/10. As usual, make sure you stay through all of the credits.