Ant-Man / Ant-Man & The Wasp

ANT-MAN & THE WASP (12)

D: Peyton Reed

Disney/Marvel (Kevin Feige & Stephen Broussard)

USA 🇺🇸 2018

118 mins

Science Fiction/Adventure/Comedy

W: Chris McKenna, Erik Sommers, Paul Rudd, Andrew Barner & Gabriel Ferrari [based on characters created by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Larry Lieber & Ernie Hart]

DP: Dante Spinotti

Ed: Dan Lebental & Craig Wood

Mus: Christophe Beck

Paul Rudd (Scott Lang / Ant-Man), Evangeline Lilly (Hope Van Dyne / Wasp), Michael Douglas (Hank Pym), Michael Peña (Luis), Hannah John-Kamen (Ava Starr / Ghost), Walton Goggins (Sonny Burch), Laurence Fishburne (Bill Foster), Michelle Pfeiffer (Janet Van Dyne)

Avengers: Infinity War was such a cinematic behemoth that any Marvel movie that followed was going to feel small in comparison, so it's quite fitting that the next in the MCU series of films would be about the most diminutive superhero in the comic book canon.

Following on from the events in the first film and Captain America: Civil War (qv), Scott Lang is under house arrest as punishment for his actions, passing his time by looking after his daughter and generally goofing around. Meanwhile, former Shield scientist Hank Pym and his daughter Hope Van Dyne are conducting a new experiment which may prove that Pym's wife and Hope's mother, Janet, the original wasp, is still alive and trapped in the quantum zone, which Ant-Man shrunk down into in the original film. Hank and Hope abduct Scott for his assistance, but also attract the unwanted attentions of Ghost, a woman with a molecular instability who also needs to benefit from the quantum science, as well as Sonny Burch, a black market trader who deals in the high tech.

Though the film provides enough entertainment through action set pieces and scenes of comedy, it does suffer by having villains who just aren't interesting enough, especially for Ghost, who is given a victim status which we are forced to empathise with. 

Though Edgar Wright was replaced halfway through production of the first film, it's clear that he had a huge positive influence on the outcome of the film which this sequel sadly lacks. It does provide a fun distraction, but it just doesn't stand tall like the bigger Marvel movies.

6/10