[usr 3.5]
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.
If you skipped “Captain America: Civil War,” or haven’t watched it since its release in 2016, do not watch “Ant-Man and the Wasp” or you will not understand why Scott Lang, AKA Ant-Man, is on house arrest. That’s right, our favorite bug is back and spending his days playing the drums, building extensive cardboard forts for his daughter Cassie, and mastering card tricks. House arrest isn’t all fun and games though, Scott also works with Luis and their gang to open a new security system business. Because who better to protect your homes than the people who used to break-in to your homes?
Three days – that’s a lot of cardboard forts and drumming – until Scott could walk out his front door without his ankle bracelet screaming for the FBI to come in and check if he was still in his apartment. Trust me, FBI agent Jimmy Woo (Randall Park) loves any excuse to drop in on Mr. Lang for an unexpected visit to catch him turning into a microscopic ant and leaving his second-floor walkup, which he doesn’t do until he dreams of Janet Van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer) and the Van Dyne family re-enter his life with a chip on their collective shoulders. Hope (Evangeline Lilly) and Michael Douglas (Dr. Hank Pym) are building a machine to find Janet in the quantum void. As you may remember from the first movie, Paul Rudd’s character came back from that same void leaving hope for Janet to return. They pull Scott out of his home three days early, without permission but they leave a giant ant eating fruit loop with his ankle bracelet at home, to get a couple components to finish the machine they built and find Janet. As expected, they run into a couple of mild snafus.
The guy, Sonny Burch (Walton Goggins), Hope bought parts from, wants in on their technology no matter the cost and a ghost of a girl steals the component before Hope installs it into the mommy-finding machine. The ghost comes with a professor with a grudge against Dr. Pym for past grievances adding to the matrix (think Laurence Fishburne) of their problems to solve like ghost girl needing the machine to stay alive. A battle ensues as Ant-Man and Hope, as the Wasp, fight the ghost girl, Ava (Hannah John-Kamen), and Sonny Burch for the rights to use their technology and save Janet from a future stuck shrinking in the infinite quantum void.
The plot centers on saving Janet with a National Treasure feel, homey but with an edge. Most of the Marvel movies focus on saving the world with small familial saves along the way. The plot would have been more fun if the Ant-Man and Wasp were saving at least their city along with mommy dearest. Either way, the movie was a lot of fun! If you loved the first you will love the second despite the weak villains. “Ant-Man” is comedy-centered, more so than the other Marvel movies, which is good because Paul Rudd still doesn’t seem like a superhero with his complicated family life and history behind bars as a vigilante. Our tiny Ant-Man has been the funny step-brother to the Marvel films. Ant-Man belongs but never quite fits in like the new Spiderman. They are distractions from the other heroes with more fan-fare but at least this film comes with big names and a giant ant named Ant-onio Banderas.
Luis and his gang are still sub-par friends to just fill space despite a few laughs carrying through. The best scene with Luis involves a truth serum and one of his silly methods of relaying information. Another great scene was Hope and Dr. Pym treating Scott like a child because his suit malfunctioned and refused to return him to full height. Janet comes out of the void after thirty years without any issues. None. Sure, seems logical someone can float around in nothingness for a few decades without mental flaws and their memory completely intact.
You will laugh though, a lot, with a whole collection of knee-slapping moments like only Paul Rudd can pull off. I would love to see Ant-Man and Deadpool in a film together. The best part of the movie was the scene after the movie ended but before the credits. I won’t give anything away but make sure you are caught up on the Avengers movies or you will not understand the scene. Oh did I mention the best part? The Wasp and Dr. Pym have an apartment building that shrinks down into a roll-a-way cart. It’s tiny homes on steroids! Wasp was a bit of a disappointment as was Pym, so fun inventions such as this one held their characters up. Enjoy the show, it’s worth the visit to the theater.
Now available on Digital HD and on 4K Ultra HD & Blu-ray October 16th
