Ant Man and The Wasp

So this was actually one of the first Marvel superhero movies that I actively skipped. It's not that I didn't like the first Ant Man movie, I just think there were a lot of factors that made me just decide to skip this one. I had a lot of work going on this summer, the people I usually go to superhero movies with weren't able to see it with me, and let's be honest, I don't know if I have really gotten over the ending of Infinity War. Seriously, that movie is coming to Netflix at the end of December and of course I'm going to rewatch it for the first time and I don't know if I'm ready.

But like I said, I don't have anything against Ant Man, there just wasn't a whole lot about this movie that appealed to me. I knew I was going to enjoy it when I eventually saw it, I just wasn't super anxious to check it out. Then the Avengers Endgame trailer came out and a lot of people were pointing towards the ending of this movie in the trailer. Essentially, I didn't want anything to be ruined but I wanted to hear people's thoughts on the Avengers Endgame trailer. I realize now that it's not essential to watch this movie before seeing that trailer and probably the movie for that matter, but it still felt good getting caught up.

Ant Man and the Wasp follows up with Scott Lang (played by Paul Rudd) after the events of Captain America Civil War. Scott was freed from prison, but reached a deal with the FBI to turn himself in. Since then, he is under house arrest and developing the most adorable relationship imaginable with his daughter, Cassie (played by Abby Ryder Forston). Scott is only three days until his house arrest is over when he sees a vision of Hank Pym's wife Janet van Dyne (played by Michelle Pfeiffer) who was lost in the quantum realm a long time ago.

This vision puts him back in contact with Hank Pym and Hope Van Dyne (played by Michael Douglas and Evangeline Lily, respectively) who cut communication off with Scott after he turned himself in. They say that they need Scott's vision to help them get into the quantum realm and save Janet.

Hank and Hope have been building a machine that will help them save Janet and they need one last part to make it work. The building of this machine grabs the attention of a shady business man (played by Walter Goggins) who wants to get his hands on whatever they're working on to make money.

But it also grabs the attention of a consistently phasing foe they call ghost (played by Hannah John-Kammen) who wants to use the lab for her own purposes.

Like the first Ant Man movie, the film is a pretty self contained adventure with a lot of chases, comedy, and shrinking and enlarging things. Again, Peyton Reed and the team at Marvel are able to play around very creatively with that super power and it leads to a lot of really entertaining fight sequences and situations throughout the film, both for comedic and action purposes. The end game of this movie is not any world ending plot or dastardly scheme by the villain, it is very contained but at the same time it keeps you engaged because these characters are really good.

From the beginning I was a lot more interested in the characters in this movie than I was in the first movie. I'm not sure if its the fact that I just saw the film and haven't watched the first one in a while, but I felt like the emotional stakes were higher and in turn the relationships being built had a little more weight to them. For example, it's implied that Scott and Hope get together at the end of the last film but that never felt really logical, much less like it had meaning. In this movie, I actually felt a cool connection between these two and I liked it when they get together in the end. Scott felt a little more fleshed out in this film and I really like their working dynamic. While Hope is still much more of a badass, the two compliment each other very well. On top of that the supporting characters were also really great. Michael Pena was funny again, Laurence Fishburne did a pretty good job for the small role he had, and even the villain wasn't half bad.

I also thought there was a little bit more to the relationship between Hank Pym, Hope, and Scott. I think it was a great choice to separate these characters and cause some distress in their relationship in order to not only resolve it, but make their relationship stronger than it was in the first film. I think this is a great role for Michael Douglas and I enjoy every bit of him in this movie the same way I did in the first one. I felt a great connection between him and Hope and those two were a great team and almost foil for Scott's antics. This movie deals with a pretty emotional journey for these two and I wanted them to succeed. One thing I should note is that there are a few dreaded bathos moments in this movie where something serious is happening or someone is monologue-ing and of course Marvel threw in the random mood breaking comedic note. Those just get an eye roll from me, but I do feel like it kind of took away from the moment in the film that really delved into the villain and kind of took away from the build up they had going.

The villain in this movie I would say is a slight step up from the villains of previous Marvel films. She's no Killmonger from Black Panther or Thanos, but I was a lot more interested in her story than I was in Ronan or whoever was the villain in the Thor or Iron Man sequels. I think I felt the same way about the villain as I do the rest of the movie. This villain felt like episode of the week villain on a TV show. Pretty cool, something unique but not super interesting to really make it past one film. I highly doubt we will ever see this character again and that's okay.

And I kind of felt the same way about the rest of the film. It was good, but overall it felt like a final episode of an Ant Man and the Wasp TV show I haven't watched all season. I'm almost inclined to say that I think the Disney should move these two to the Disney Streaming service and give them a TV show cause I'd watch the crap out of that.

I highly doubt that something like that would ever happen because it would probably be the most expensive TV show of all time, but the more I think about it, I actually would really love an Ant Man and the Wasp superhero action comedy show. It's a blast when these two are fighting, zipping in and out of being small, regular sized, and big, and there's a shot near the end where all the good guys are standing in line and I can't help but feel like that would be a super rad cast for a TV show.

Overall, I enjoyed Ant Man and the Wasp a lot more than I thought that I would. I'm not really disappointed that I missed it in the theaters because the truth is, in a week or so this movie will probably fade from my mind the same way the first one did, but at this moment, I do think that this one was better than the first Ant-man. The movie was funny, innovative in the use of super powers, and a little more emotionally driven the the first one. Is it perfect? No, it's still got a lot of the Marvel tropes. But I do think this was the right choice to give people at least a little bit of a pallet cleanser after the emotional boulder that was Infinity War. I'll be watching to see how much this movie holds up in a few months, but if you can find it on Red box or just wanna rent it, you will actually have a pretty good time with this movie.

But what did you think? Do you think Ant Man and the Wasp would make the best TV show ever? Comment and Discuss Below! You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @MovieSymposium as well as send me your requests for films I should review in the future. If you follow me on Twitter, you can get updates on future movie news and reviews coming out of the blog.

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