For all of you who haven’t seen Avengers: Infinity War by choice: 1). What in all sanity have you been doing? 2). It’s been long enough for you to see it so don’t get mad later in this review. For those of you who have seen it and was wondering where Scott Lang a.k.a. Ant-Man a.k.a Paul Rudd was during the events, well you most definitely get answers to all of your questions after Ant-Man and The Wasp.
Ant-Man and The Wasp takes place almost two year after the events of Captain America: Civil War. Scott Lang (Rudd) has been under house arrest since the “Germany Incident”. Three days before his house arrest ends, Dr. Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) and Hope Van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly), fugitives themselves, present him with a mission that could be the key to bringing back Hope’s mother Janet (Michelle Pfeiffer) from the Quantum Realm.
What made the original so entertaining was its levity after a period of darkness. Ant-Man came right after the events of Age of Ultron. The Wasp comes after Civil War chronologically and after Infinity War based on release date, so it had A LOT of darkness to alleviate. This sequel leaned heavily into allowing MCU fans time with their heads above water. But, for the first hour it seemed that they tried too hard to capture the original's humor and heart.
The heart was there but the humor was overbearing. The heart was carried through Scott and his daughter Cassie’s (Abby Ryder Fortson) relationship. Fortson does really well taking Rudd’s quirkiness and bouncing it back with her own wickedly peculiar twist. The humor never turned off, and that wasn't always good. Times where Lilly and Douglass were having a serious moment, Rudd would come in with a joke that wasn’t funny. The back and forth between Rudd and Randall Park (FBI Agent Jimmy Woo) would go on a joke too long, and the Dave (T.I.) and Kurt (David Dastmalchian) banter would lay on too thick. I don’t know what’s been up with Walton Goggins lately, but he just hasn’t been able to play his brand of evil like we know he can. The lowest point came when it took ten whole minutes of exposition to explain Ghost’s (Hannah John-Kamen) origins. Even Laurence Fishburne’s cool musings with Douglas couldn’t save the drab first half (though, HUGE shout out to the Sproul Plaza appearance. Of course the top minds in Quantum theory would teach at UC Berkeley, #GOBEARS).
Who does come to the rescue???
Luis (Michael Pena) comes back full force, and so does your favorite part from the original. Once his rambling reemerges with a vengeance, so did the movie. The second hour found its rhythm and returned to form. The jokes began to land, the action intensified, what did not work in first half started to work, and what did work became more entertaining. This is the first instance of a female superhero headlining an MCU movie, and it was well earned and way overdue. The Wasp truly belongs to Hope Van Dyne. The intensity, intelligence, and insecurities she deftly balanced in Ant-Man is given more opportunities to flourish, and Lilly takes full advantage. The best action sets come when she whoops on EVERYBODY in her Wasp suit, and the best solemn moments are between her and her mother. She takes the baton for team MCU Women from Wakanda and passes it in stride to Captain Marvel (keep it going Brie!).
Ant-Man and The Wasp is the invigorating break from Thanos and The Black Order that we needed. It didn’t deliver as well as its predecessor. The story had too many convenient solutions, and the villains fell back into the lackluster performances we haven’t seen since Dr. Strange (Goggins more so than John-Kamen). However, from the moment Rudd appears there is an energy that keeps your eyes glued to the screen through the good and the bad. All the way through that post-credit scene. That damn post credit scene though… I am giving Ant-Man and The Wasp 7/10 Luis “CRAZY STUPID FINES".