[yasr_overall_rating]
As Scott Lang balances being both a Super Hero and a father, Hope van Dyne and Dr. Hank Pym present an urgent new mission that finds the Ant-Man fighting alongside The Wasp to uncover secrets from their past.
In 2015, Marvel unveiled one of its lesser-known superheroes, the incredible shrinking “Ant-Man.” Initially helmed by Edgar Wright, which fueled massive fan excitement, the film soon lost the cult director due to rumored studio disputes. The logical replacement for the man behind “The Cornetto Trilogy” and “Baby Driver” was obviously Peyton Reed, the man behind… “Bring It On” and “The Break-Up.” Stupefied, fans expected the worst – just to be pleasantly surprised when the film didn’t turn out to be an absolute disaster. Certain wacky elements of Wright’s stylistic flourishes remained: an improvisational/comedic approach to the plot, sharp one-liners – and a giant Thomas the Tank Engine crashing through a suburban home. It’s like Reed studied and respected Wright’s vision and stayed true to it, with an occasional stumble here and there.
Those stumbles become major hurdles in Reed’s sequel, “Ant-Man and the Wasp.” Credited to five screenwriters, the film seems disjointed, lacking thrust and high stakes – and most importantly, laughs. Hot on the heels of massively-scaled Marvel films (“Black Panther,” “Avengers: Infinity War,” “Deadpool 2”), Reed tries to replicate the success of the original “Ant-Man,” an underdog of sorts that scored due to its quirky hijinks and charming anti-hero, as opposed to apocalyptic-level stakes. Unfortunately, he fails to squeeze further interest out of potentially-fascinating characters. It’s all dull and predictable, the villain a weak, ever-shifting amalgamation of Sofia Boutella’s Ahmanet in “The Mummy” and Cara Delevingne’s Enchantress in “Suicide Squad.”
For those of you who were wondering where Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) was during the cataclysmic events of “Infinity War” – well, he’s been busy rescuing Janet (Michelle Pfeiffer), wife of Dr. Hank Pym (Michael Douglas), from a quantum realm where she had been stuck for 30 years. In the meantime, he and Hope (Evangeline Lilly) battled it out with the aforementioned witch-like quantum-villain and prevented another baddie, Sonny (Walton Goggins), from stealing priceless equipment. This all leads to several nifty action sequences involving the frequent shrinking and expanding of objects and humans, often to mildly comic effect. My favorite involves a toy-sized car quietly plopping into water after a blaringly loud chase scene.
But man, talk about stretching out a non-plot into an almost-two-hour running time! The dad-daughter reconnecting bits are as mushy as a foot sole of squished ants. At about the halfway point, Laurence Fishburne’s character, Dr. Bill Foster, goes into an expository monologue of such length, it literally takes a visual gag involving a phone call to shut him up. Due to the lack of a real – or should I say, substantial – villain, there’s no real feeling of suspense or tension. As for the flimsy pseudo-quantum-physics sub-plot… It makes the bat-shit-nuts stuff in “Dr. Strange” seem like heady science in comparison, and I don’t mean that in a good way. It’s as if the filmmakers tried hard to be smart and trippy at the same time, and ended up purely demented, “Innerspace” on acid. Again, I make it sound more appealing than it is.
Michael Douglas hams it way up; the sight of the aging stalwart and 1990s sex symbol in an ant-man suit is almost worth the ticket price alone. Michelle Pfeiffer is criminally underused, appearing as a digitally-enhanced, younger version of herself early on, then reappearing towards the end and somehow managing to make utter quantum-nonsense sound somewhat-believable. Walton Goggins plays yet another villain, which marks his third this year, after “Tomb Raider” and “Maze Runner: The Death Cure,” and 356th in his career. The film’s more effective one-liners come courtesy of Paul Rudd, in his effortlessly charming mode. Evangeline Lilly brings a little extra panache to her role as the Wasp. Michael Peña, as Scott Lang’s hapless henchman Luis, steals his scenes. That said, the moment where Luis lurches into one of his soliloquies, recounting past events in a frenzied flurry of jumbled flashbacks, serves as a perfect example of the film attempting to replicate what magic the original had, with “meh” results.
The post-credit sequence, which references “Infinity War,” may be the best part of the film. One can’t help but wish this ant-hill were a bit sturdier. Perhaps, prior to “Ant-Man and the Wasp” meeting their greatest foe, Bumblebee (?), Kevin Feige should invite Edgar Wright for a cup of coffee.
In theaters Friday, July 6th
