Review of Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018) by Alex S — 13 Jul 2018

Ant-Man and the Wasp takes place in the MCU two years after the events of Captain America: Civil War, with the ending lining up with 2018's Avengers: Infinity War. The movie follows Ant-Man, played by Paul Rudd, and the Wasp, played by Evangeline Lilly, as they go on a quest to rescue the mother of Hope Van Dyne (the Wasp) who is also the wife of Hank Pym. While this was a fairly good movie, I did not think that it was great. It does not stack up against the first Ant-Man and I would rank it in the bottom half of MCU movies as a whole. I have one large problem for the movie and this is probably the reason that it was not as good for me. This is not a little, pointless problem but a big one that persists throughout the movie. This problem is that it feels as if there is no real super villain in this movie and that is very disappointing. In a plot, there needs to be a strong conflict to overcome or else you do not really feel as if it is important or vital to do. Well, in most super hero movies, this is the villain and for good reason. The villain gives the heros a purpose and are the reason that they become heroes in the first place. While this movie could say that they have two villains, they are both extremely weak and don't feel like villains in the slightest sense. The first is the character Ghost. Ghost is a character who has the ability (spoilers if you want to know nothing about the movie or trailers) to shift through walls and other matter. In this movie, her goal (warning, the rest of this review may have spoilers) goal is to try to use Janet Van Dyne when she comes back from the quantum realm (and will be filled with quantum energy) to save her life from this "quantum phasing" condition that is tearing her apart. Nobody knows if this process will kill Janet or not. The reason that this character is not a villain is because she doesn't do anything villainous in the entire movie. She steals the lab to try to save herself, she kicks a few people, and then in the end of the movie Janet comes back and saves her and everybody is okay. SHE DOESN'T DO ANYTHING EVIL!!! AND SHE'S SUPPOSED TO BE THE SUPER VILLAIN!!! The other guy is just some guy who wants to steal the lab for money so people can harness its energy. There are literally no stakes in the entire movie and that was extremely upsetting. Janet was not dying in the quantum realm so if they didn't get her now then they could have always just gotten her later. Overall, the villain(s) in this movie were very weak and I didn't feel that there were many stakes in this movie. The one part that was better than the first movie-and most other MCU movies and movies in general-was the humor. This movie was hilarious! I couldn't stop laughing during parts of it and I would go see it again in IMAX if it was for that reason alone.

-Alex Schroeder.