Movie Breakdown: Ant-Man And The Wasp

Pre-Screening Stance:

Ant-Man is currently the least important character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.  Seriously, if you were to delete the first film and the character’s appearance in Captain America: Civil War, would it matter?  Not at all.  Here’s hoping that changes with Ant-Man And The Wasp.

Post-Screening Ramble:

If you enjoyed Ant-Man, then you’re going to dig Ant-Man And The Wasp. as it’s largely the same film.  Instead of being tasked with behaving after just being released from prison, steady screw up Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) is tasked with behaving while under house arrest for violating the Sokovia Accords when he helped Captain America.  Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) and his daughter Hope (Evangeline Lilly) are still snotty about their tech/abilities and are doing their own thing while in hiding (because they also violated the Sokovia Accords via Scott’s actions).  Scott’s main pal Luis (Michael Pena) is still running his mouth.  Instead of one forgettable villain, there’s two of them – one is Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), a young woman who can phase through objects, and the other is a black market dealer named Sonny Burch (Walter Goggins), and they each want what the baddie from the first film wanted – Pym’s tech.  There’s also some stuff that happens with the ever-mysterious Quantum Real that claimed Hank’s wife (Michelle Pfeiffer) way back when.  Again, everything at play in Ant-Man And The Wasp is very familiar, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Yeah, the film doesn’t take any chances or bother trying to declare Ant-Man (or his cohorts) as an integral part of the MCU, but it does feature a handful of rather entertaining action scenes, some good, clean laughs, and a positive message.  Considering the weight of Avengers: Infinity War and the general cash-grabby feel of a lot of releases this summer, it’s actually kind of nice to be handed a harmless film like Ant-Man And The Wasp, even if it is fairly forgettable.  Grab up the kids and go see it.

One Last Thought:

There’s a few scenes that feature de-aged actors, and boy are they really well done.  I recently had a good laugh when Michael Douglas said he’d like to star in an Ant-Man prequel, but now I actually think it could convincingly be done.