Antman and The Wasp (2018)

 

Oh Ant-Man, you are such a treat. Whether it be your quirky antics or even just being yourself, it's always a delight to see you in the big screen.

Tiny but mighty

It's been a few years since we've last seen Scott Lang and boy has he been through a few things but let's take a quick jog through memory lane and talk about everything Scott did since being introduced to the MCU. Scott Lang, the second actual Ant-Man, was a thief looking for a fresh start but as soon as he thought he was out in the clear, one last job brought him back into the spotlight putting him in the mantle of Ant-Man. Something to note though is that before Scott was incarcerated, he had a daughter Cassie Lang. She looked up to him regardless of what he did in life and a broken marriage definitely didn't stop Scott from loving Cassie and a few crimes here and there didn't change her opinion of him at all. After the first film, we next see Scott in Civil War. After the beating Falcon got from him, Ant-Man gets recruited to Captain America's side to go against Iron Man. We all know how that went and sure enough since Ant-Man was on the side against the Sokovia Accords, there were definitely some repercussions. What's strange though is that we didn't even see Scott in the events of Infinity War so where were Ant-Man and the Wasp?

It was at this moment that Scott knew he f*ed up

Anyway that's enough rambling for now, let's talk about the Ant-Man and the Wasp. The film takes place between the 2 year time gap between the events of Civil War and Infinity War. Scott's under house arrest for acting out as a vigilante and it looks like alot had happened in those 2 years. Right then and there, the film already gave us the answer we needed to hear namely what happened to Scott after all this time? The film gave more depth to the characters previously introduced with Scott showing us why his daughter looked up to him the way that she did. It even gave us a more in depth look to the situation Scott is in after the events that had happened. Hope Van Dyne is now the Wasp complete with the costume teased in the Post-Credits scene from the first film and Hank Pym is more of a jerk than ever before. Remember the Sokovia Accords? Yeah they're way more relevant than we'd like to think. What about the villain ghost? Kinda the weakest part of the film really. Watching her arc throughout the film felt kinda dragging but then again, it's a bit difficult to follow up the caliber of villain that Marvel had been putting out lately in the MCU (Killmonger into Thanos). The comedy was top notch for sure and you wouldn't really need any truth serum (*wink wink*) to tell me otherwise. The pacing was perfect considering the length of the film but the easter eggs definitely make the viewing experience worth it. What about the film's connection to infinity war though? Let's just say that the leaks about the next Avengers film floating around are true and leave it at that. Wonder how they'll face off with Thanos? In the first 10 minutes of the film it'll all make sense.

Now to the verdict:

Token Supervillain

7.5/10 for me but factoring in the Wholesomeness factor of Scott being one of the best parents the MCU has, Ant-Man and the Wasp is a solid 8 for me. It's Marvel and when it comes to these films what I do is start with an expected value of at least 7 then work my way up or down from there (if you're wondering about DC, it starts at 4). The biggest factor that brought the film to a lower score were definitely the villains. Ghost was forgettable and the only thing I remembered about the other villain was his Jim Carrey-esque mannerisms. It's understandable though as the MCU is heading into its home stretch that every film leads up the the conclusion of the Thanos Saga. Every film is now connected and to quote something often said in a series I'm watching, everything is F O R E S H A D O W I N G

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Here's some fun Ant-Man trivia too. The original Ant-Man, Hank Pym, had the Mantle of 4 different heroes, Ant-Man, Giant Man, Goliath and Yellow Jacket. Also as of this film, all characters have been in the MCU.

Also in an unrelated note, Ant-Man is small and GI-Ant-Man is big.