A few years later, we have a sequel to one of the Avenger’s more minuscule components in ‘Ant-Man‘. The original film was funny, charming, and had a good deal of entertainment value, mostly due to Paul Rudd’s unique and perfect comedy timing and delivery. Now, after the big consequences of ‘Black Panther‘ and ‘Avengers: Infinity War‘, Marvel thought it be best to make ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp‘ with a funnier tone and with much lower conflict and chaos. It’s a nice breather before what’s to come in future Marvel movies.
‘Ant-Man and the Wasp‘ takes place a couple of years after ‘Captain America: Civil War‘, but before ‘Avengers: Infinity War‘. Scott Land (Paul Rudd) has three days left on his house arrest, before he can be a free man, due to being Ant-Man in the previous film. It looks to be a simple three days, however Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) and his daughter Hope (Evangeline Lilly) look to get back to the quantum realm in search for their wife/mother (Michelle Pfeiffer), with the help of Scott Lang. What the writers here have done is make a ton of sight gags throughout the movie with turning not just people small or giant, but with certain objects like a Pez dispenser and even Pym’s multi-story lab, which can be as small as a briefcase or take up a city block at the push of a button.
There’s a lot of adventure to be had here, but not a ton of conflict or seriousness, which isn’t a bad thing. On the contrary, it’s nice to have a refreshing look at some superheroes where the world isn’t ready to end. There are two main villains this time around, one being a southern black market dealer, played hilariously and perfectly by Walton Goggins. The other villain might be the worst villain ever conceived for the big screen, which is someone who can walk through walls, people, and anything else at the drop of a hat. This character is so ill-conceived that I was forced to just take it as it was, which led nowhere and meant nothing to the story. In fact, every time they were on screen, you’d want to just fast-forward to the next scene with Paul Rudd.
In order to truly appreciate and have fun with ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp‘, you have to simply let the film be itself and not worry about the major mistakes or reasons behind any story, because none of it, in fact, makes sense. In the end though, ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp‘ is a fun and light-hearted look into one of the funnier characters in the MCU, and shows we can all have a good time without having lives or the galaxy at stake in each movie.