ANT-MAN AND THE WASP Review

I heard a bug hit the windshield on my way home from the theater after seeing Ant-Man and the Wasp and genuinely felt bad about it. If that tells you anything about how well this movie will hit you. That isn't to say this superior sequel to 2015's Ant-Man is something of an emotional roller coaster that evokes real sympathy for characters that get minor in the most minor of Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) movies, but in some ways...it kind of does. In its earnest portrayal of these characters we come to easily invest in each of their plight's largely (isn't that ironic?) because they are dealing in stakes that are so personal and thus small when compared to that of the end of the world. Is it kind of ingenious? Yeah, a little bit considering Doctor Strange goes to another dimension to stop a blob called Dormammu from engulfing the earth and all things considered that should terrify me far more than if Paul Rudd's Scott Lang survives his last few days under house arrest, but it didn't and I would rather watch Ant-Man and the Wasp a hundred times over than sit through Doctor Strange again. The best part of that? Doctor Strange isn't a bad movie by any stretch of the imagination. Rather, Strange is simply a generic and forgettable one in the scheme of the last decade of MCU films whereas director Peyton Reed (Ant-Man) and writers Chris McKenna, Erik Sommers, Andrew Barrer, Gabriel Ferrari, as well as Rudd himself lend their movie a more memorable signature by allowing it to indulge in its inherent goofiness while simultaneously proving this isn't as cheesy an affair as it has to be. I mean, the basis of a super hero being a super hero because he shrinks down to the size of an insect and can then communicate with said insect is a premise wholly owed to whatever drug-induced haze Stan Lee, Larry Lieber, and Jack Kirby were in at the time (1962 to be exact) which isn't a bold claim considering Lee's cameo here hints at how crazy the sixties were, but the fact is despite their powers being corny and their abilities being used more so for their own agendas than maybe any other heroes in the MCU Reed is still able to execute and exhibit these technologies and the capabilities they enable in ways that are effective and dare I say it...even kind of cool. There are less than a handful of big action sequences here, but that doesn't matter because everything about Ant-Man and the Wasp is enjoyable, but more each of those few action sequences are crafted in ways where it feels every facet of who these characters are and the world they exist within is being utilized in creative and fun ways. This kind of passion for the material also assists with the level of compassion we, the audience, feels toward the characters and thus the level of investment we pledge to what is admittedly a less vital piece of the MCU puzzle. That Ant-Man and the Wasp challenges this precedent set by the first film is enough to solidify its worthiness among the ranks as well as its quality outside of them.

New Trailer for ANT-MAN AND THE WASP

Marvel Studios and Kevin Feige are wasting no time in ramping up the promotional campaign for their follow-up to Avengers: Infinity War with the sequel to 2015's Ant-Man, Ant-Man and the Wasp. Though Ant-Man and the Wasp apparently takes place before the events of Infinity War as does next March's nineties-set Captain Marvel it seems a foregone conclusion that either film will offer little in the way of answers to some of the questions that third Avengers film poses. Of course, we could see some type of serious foreshadowing depending on how exactly Paul Rudd's Scott Lang went about staying off the grid after Captain America presumably broke him out of prison after the events of Civil War which might in turn provide reason as to why Ant-Man was nowhere to be seen in Infinity War, but we'll have to wait and see as we have just over two months until the next MCU film hits theaters. Joining the company of Jon Favreau, Joss Whedon, and James Gunn director Peyton Reed is only the fourth director in the MCU's history to return for a sequel (though the Russo brothers still lead the pack as they will have directed four MCU films come next May). Of course, you may remember that there was a lot of fuss around the first Ant-Man given Edgar Wright's involvement in developing the script and even casting many of the key roles before dropping out of the project mere weeks before principal photography was due to begin due to "creative differences". Despite the late-in-the-game roster change it was easy to see the DNA of Wright all over that initial film and so it will be interesting to see what Reed and what seem to be his two writing teams that took a pass at the script (Andrew Barrer and Gabriel Ferrari breaking into the big time while Chris McKenna and Eric Sommers of Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, Spider-Man: Homecoming, and The LEGO Batman Movie) come up with as Rudd also received a writing credit. Of course, the biggest draw of this sequel is that Evangeline Lilly will finally get to suit up as The Wasp and join Rudd's Lang in the action and while MCU heroes have had sidekicks before (The Falcon to Captain America, War Machine to Iron Man) the MCU has never touted one in the title of one of their films nor has one ever been female. Here's to change and here's to hoping change is good. Ant-Man and the Wasp also stars Michael Douglas, Laurence Fishburne, Walton Goggins, Michael Peńa, Hannah John-Kamen and opens on July 6th, 2018.