Review of Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018) by Kyle M — 12 Jul 2018

In what instance has a franchise provided a break mostly within a new chapter away from the main occurring arc - besides the release gap? The latest chapter in the Marvel Cinematic Universe takes place in conjunction to "Infinity War", which clears up one absence and gives a proper introduction to another heroic alter-ego. Respectively, "Ant-Man and the Wasp" is a nice, fun break from recent scales and stakes with positive characterization and the usual excitement in the action-packed creativity.

After the events of "Civil War", Scott Lang, aka the current Ant-Man, faces the consequences of his voluntary actions and takes things further towards a full redemption in order to be able to spend time with his family, namely his daughter, while restricted in his pleaded sentence. His chance to make it through the near end of his sentence gets complicated when confronted by Hope van Dyne and Dr. Hank Pym in an urgent matter to bring back someone lost from the past. Putting his suit back on, and teaming up with the now modified Wasp, the pair work together to uncover secrets in order to fulfill the mission before few other parties reach them.

This sequel to "Ant-Man" follows a typical boost for the story when adding more to the predecessor, particularly increasing and reusing retained favorable qualities with increased energy and shine. The storyline's basically a race to the targeted macguffin - literally at a keyword of an unusual size - that attracted few parties to pursue it from the protagonists - with one motive being forgettable but memorably needed for couple of triggers - which positioned the film within its own boundaries rather than causing outer attention like mostly others. In other words, experiencing this film is like watching the Marvel television universe. This direction indicates director Peyton Reed's intention of positioning Ant-Man's character arc as a palate cleanser.

Each of the Marvel films show generic taste and style of visual panels with their own individual boost in order to stand out with a definitive experience (i.e. exhilarating "Black Panther", strong "Infinity War", grounded Captain America, out-of-this-world Guardians, etc.), and "Ant-Man and the Wasp" adds more creativity to the ideal play with sizes in shrinking and growing, and transparent, action that delivers the fun in the punch.

As part of the returning crew from direction to writing to score, most of the cast returned, mainly the pivotal characters with known charisma and expected dynamics that goes further than the initial interactions. While most performed at their usual, particularly veteran Michael Douglas and comedic fast-talking Michael Peña, Paul Rudd and Evangeline Lilly fulfilled their titular dynamic duo's teamwork with such chemistry that did contemporary justice in effective achievement that broke the genre's cinematic tradition of singularity in recent times.

As powerful and heavy "Infinity War" turned out to be, its conjunct follow-up "Ant-Man and the Wasp" provides a complimentary relief while still continuing the Marvel-ous run with the behemoth franchise's continuous, aspectual overall taste maintained towards a minimum entertainment value that managed to get expectations exceeded. In another note speaking of which, the very final outcome was predictable but the whole film made it more twisted and mostly chilling. It doesn't reach a peak that "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2" contains as a fun sequel, but it's around second place in that specific ranking, thanks to the combined efforts as the obvious main source of bolstering fuel. (A+).