Ant-Man & The Wasp - Review

Rating: 4 out of 5

THE star of this film may be a superhero of tiny proportions but Ant-Man & The Wasp sure makes a gigantic impact.

In this eagerly anticipated sequel, everyone’s favourite miniature superhero shares equal billing with The Wasp for the first time in MCU history. In a historic and unprecedented move by Marvel, The Wasp is the first female character ever to be included in the title. That’s a pretty major move, and about time too!

Now it’s time for a female-led spin-off, perhaps Black Widow, which has been long-rumoured, or Lady Deadpool or even The Wasp herself?

With Peyton Reed returning to the director’s chair, the film doesn’t disappoint, with strong performances from Paul Rudd, reprising his role as Scott Lang (aka Ant-Man), Evangeline Lilly as Hope van Dyne/The Wasp and Michael Douglas as former S.H.I.E.L.D agent and physicist/inventor Hank Pym.

But as in the first film, Michael Pena’s character Luis – Scott’s former cellmate and now a part of his X-Con Security crew – steals the show, bringing humour and laughs along with his cronies Dave (Tip ‘TI’ Harris) and Kurt (David Dastmalchian).

There’s one particularly funny scene where Luis is injected with a chemical he thinks is truth serum, while the bad guy keeps insisting: “There’s no such thing as truth serum!”

The follow-up to 2015’s Ant-Man, the film is set between Captain America: Civil War and before the events of Avengers: Infinity War, and initially finds Lang in house arrest after he violated his parole to help the Capt (Captain America, Chris Evans) fight Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr).

Having cut all ties with Hope and Hank, he’s spending quality time with his daughter, Cassie (Abby Ryder Fortson), in between learning to play the electronic drums, having long baths and lounging around eating Froot Loops – until he gets a dream about Hope’s mum and Hank’s wife, Janet (Michelle Pfeiffer).

Suddenly, he’s reunited with the father and daughter team and plunged into an adventure into the quantum realm, as they try to rescue Janet and bring her back into the present day.

As you can imagine, it’s not quite as straight-forward. Several people are after Hank and Hope’s portable lab, which is home to a stable tunnel to the quantum realm, including black market dealer Sonny Burch (Walter Goggins) and ghost-like assassin Ava Starr (Hannah John-Kamen). They will stop at nothing to have it in their clutches.

The film also introduces Hank’s estranged former partner Bill Foster (Laurence Fishburne), who Marvel fans will recognise as Black Goliath, with an expected cameo from comic book creator Stan Lee.

Whether you’re a Marvel die-hard fan or a newbie, this has something for everyone – and laughs and special effects aplenty, so you won’t be disappointed.

Certificate: 12A
Running time: 118 minutes
UK release date: August 2, 2018