Review of Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018) by Dana F — 31 Dec 2018

As much as I love all things Marvel, Ant-Man has just never done it for me. It's not the actor (I love me some Paul Rudd) or even the character (he's the most relatable of all the Marvel heroes).

It's the lore surrounding him that I just can't get into. I have an easier time with Thor and all the psychedelic wacky stuff that goes with him because he's clearly fantasy, while the Ant-Man franchise tries to ground its story in "science", and it just doesn't fly.

.. it seems more like a gimmick than anything else. With all the "quantum void", "particle", "subatomic", "algorithm" mumbo jumbo flying around, being a writer on this film must have been like travelling through all nine circles of hell.

Even the subplots are full of nonsense, which makes the story practically impossible to follow. Luckily, it's not important that you do - it's a better viewing experience to sit back and not think about it.

As with all sequels, this chapter ups the ante by introducing two villains - one suitably comic-booky, and the other, the obligatory greedy corporate douchebag archetype - and while both are an improvement over the laughably lame Yellow Jacket from the first film, neither is very compelling.

Michael Pena as Ant-Man's buddy is the darling of these films, and once again steals the show - he isn't given a lot to work with, but when he is given it, boy does he roll (the "truth serum" sequence is by far the best part of the film).

The action sequences are fun and they use the shrinking/growing trick to maximum-cool effect, but I was disappointed that we didn't get to see more of the two leads working together as a team, as the title suggests.

This film is really the origin story of their partnership. Through the entire film, Wasp is a total badass while Ant-Man is just struggling to keep up with her badassery. This really should have been called "The Wasp and Ant-Man"; he is clearly the Robin to her Batman.

Which isn't a bad thing, Evangeline Lilly really sells both the character and her badassery, and I look forward to seeing more of Wasp in future films. This is a fun and entertaining movie that delivers on both the action and the humor (it's funnier than the first), but this is the 20th (20th!!!) MCU movie, and by now, the formula is wearing very thin.

I gave the first Ant-Man only 55%, so I'll say this one is marginally better... but it's nothing you haven't seen before, or won't see again.