Review by Curt Holman
Marvel Studios
Fans of Star Wars and Marvel superheroes alike expressed concern when Disney bought their respective parent companies, envisioning their favorite fantastical epics reduced to kiddie fare.
But so far, the only film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe to seemingly reflect a Disney influence is the 19th installment, Ant-Man and the Wasp, and that seems entirely deliberate on the part of the filmmakers. After the universal threats of Avengers: Infinity War and the MCU’s other cosmic adventures, Ant-Man and the Wasp embraces more modest, whimsical ambitions that feel closer to the Disney tradition of The Absent-Minded Professor, Now You See Him, Now You Don’t and, of course, Honey, I Shrunk The Kids. It’s not a sprawling spectacle – it’s not even terribly memorable – but it’s cute.
After the events of Captain America: Civil War, Scott “Ant-Man” Lang (Paul Rudd) has been under house arrest in San Francisco. Because Scott used the Ant-Man technology to help the renegade heroes, inventor Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) and his daughter Hope (Evangeline Lilly) have been fugitives from justice. Days from finishing his sentence, Scott focuses on being a good dad and avoiding his former colleagues in superheroism.
But then he has a mysterious dream involving Janet Van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer), who served as Wasp to Hank’s original Ant-Man, and years ago shrunk to the subatomic “quantum realm” and was never heard from again. (The film opens with a reprise of the Wasp’s last mission from the previous film.) Knowing it could risk his freedom, Scott breaks his silence to leave a message for Hank and Hope.
Practically the next thing Scott knows, he’s been enlisted by Hank and Hope on a mission that involves building a “quantum tunnel” with the intent of going subatomic to rescue Janet. As teased in the last film, Hank has finally allowed Hope to take up the mantle of The Wasp, giving her the powers of flight and sting-blasts in addition to size-changing abilities.
Pym’s plan sees several complications, including a ticking clock to get Scott home and a sleazy black marketeer (Walton Goggins) who wants to get his hands on Pym’s tech. But most unnerving is Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), who suffered a quantum-related mishap that gives her unreliable powers of intangibility and invisibility. (Now you see her, now you don’t.) Ghost wants the tech not to conquer the world but just to save her own life.
Ant-Man and the Wasp unfolds as a kind of old-school caper comedy with multiple characters trying to get their hands on a McGuffin. Instead of, say, a briefcase full of cash, they’re vying for Pym’s lab (in real life, the former Atlanta archive), which alternates in scale from a multi-story building to the size of a dorm fridge.
Director Peyton Reed and his five screenwriters (including Rudd) clearly got a kick out of making big things small and vice versa, from a three-foot Scott infiltrating an elementary school to a giant Scott wading into San Francisco Bay. The climactic car chase, with vehicles and occupants switching scale for maximum impact, is one of the MCU’s most delightful set pieces. Having more of this than the previous Ant-Man makes the sequel a marginally better movie.
But the script’s characterizations and relationships also prove fairly meager. There’s a nice thread of fathers and daughters, but the characters scarcely develop beyond wanting to solve their immediate tasks. Scott vacillates between wanting to serve his time and do right by the Pyms, but doesn’t really have an arc. The script particularly short-changes Hope, who wishes to find her mom and resents Scott for fighting the Civil War without her. Otherwise, Lilly plays her as so capable and determined, the character feels kind of remote.
It’s hard to generate much ill will to such a cheerful, silly movie, and most of the actors convey a sense of fun, especially Michael Peña in a scene involving truth serum. If Ant-Man and the Wasp is the least of the MCU movies since, well, the last Ant-Man, it generally achieves its humble goals. Going forward, though, Marvel may want to think just a little bigger.
Ant-Man and the Wasp. B-. Starring Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly. Directed by Peyton Reed. Rated PG-13. 118 minutes.