Ant-Man and the Wasp review

It’s getting harder and harder to say so many unique things about the Marvel formula, given that it you can describe all the movies as being “funny, character-driven and delivering on action scenes tailored to the character’s gimmick.” As it so happens, Ant-Man and the Wasp is funny, character-driven and delivers on action scenes tailored to size play.

The story fits in-between Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War. While it was not so clearly stated in dialog during Infinity War, a solid two years have passed (even though Spider-Man is the same age in both and also Homecoming… I think). Since Ant-Man was on probation leading into Civil War, and had a family to get back to, he cut a plea bargain and spent that time under house arrest. The movie takes place shortly before Infinity War, but helps provide Ant-Man and company an excused absence.

Ant-Man and the Wasp is very much about family. While other movies in the series, like Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, certainly have family as a major theme, they need to move over. I get it that “ex-con trying to set his life straight and get his kid back” is a very played-out trope. But Paul Rudd does it with such genuine charm. There’s this wonderful paternal chemistry with cute-as-a-button child actress Abby Ryder Fortson has only gotten better, and it’s a shame there couldn’t be more of that in the movie.

While the Civil War incident actually brought him closer to his family, including his ex-wife and her new husband, it estranged him from Hank Pym and Hope Van Dyne. As the first movie was about rebuilding the former bridge, the second movie is about rebuilding that latter. Meanwhile, Hank and Hope are working on a family reunion of their own.

The antagonists in the movie are, of course, tailored to challenge everybody’s goals. Scott Lang has to make it through his final days of probation intact against the every watchful eyes of his personal FBI agent while being stuck providing crucial and time-sensitive help to Hank and Hope. The Ghost shows up with a conveniently tight tie to the latest science experiment, and there are these other guys who are only there to add bodies to the car chase and handwave what otherwise would have been a plot hole.

One thing that the size-based action scenes lacked from the first movie is a sense of comedic timing. Ant-Man and the Wasp instead tries to rely on the subject of the action to do the heavy lifting on funny and leaves the tools of reaction and montage at all. This serves to make the comedic element less unique to Ant-Man, despite the prevalence of giant Pez dispensers.

The original Ant-Man wanted to be solidly grounded in science (somehow) by talking a lot of the Law of Conservation of Mass (though there were a few scenes where it wasn’t followed). The sequel, however, is much more freewheeling. Before, the law was flouted just for Rule of Cool or Rule of Funny, and was otherwise to be expected. Not consistent, but easy to follow. Now, there’s absolutely no way to expect when a shrunk or enlarged object retains its mass or changes its mass until after it happens. It can be disorienting, and a source of somewhat contrived tension during the action scenes.

Verdict: Go for it (4/5). Don’t forget to stick around to the end. Twice.