Ant-Man and The Wasp review by Bobby Blakey
Despite a lot of troubles getting the original Ant-Man off the ground the film surprised fans with yet another great entry into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. With not sign Ant-Man during Infinity War fans have been waiting to see more adventures from the pint sized hero. Now the follow-up Ant-Man and The Wasp is here starring Paul Rudd, Evangaline Lilly, Michael Peña, Michael Douglas, Bobby Cannavale, Judy Greer, Abby Ryder Fortson, Tip “T.I.” Harris and David Dastmalchian along with new additions Michelle Pfeiffer, Laurence Fishburne, Hannah John-Kamen, Walton Goggins and Randall Park. Could this follow up to the surprise hit offer up more of the fun from the first or will it fail to grow the challenge?
Ant-Man and The Wasp follows the aftermath of “Captain America: Civil War,” where Scott Lang grapples with the consequences of his choices as both a Super Hero and a father. As he struggles to rebalance his home life with his responsibilities as Ant-Man, he’s confronted by Hope van Dyne and Dr. Hank Pym with an urgent new mission. Scott must once again put on the suit and learn to fight alongside The Wasp as the team works together to uncover secrets from their past. Like most I was surprised by how much I liked the first film and how much fun it was. It added a great new light hearted tone to the MCU and the character worked perfectly into the Civil War story arc. With that I was pretty excited to see more adventures with the character especially with the anticipated addition of The Wasp. I have to say though that while I had a ton of fun with this movie and it is good something just felt off.
I found myself having a great time, but by the end of it just felt kind of meh about the whole thing. I am not sure why to be honest though. The story felt a lot smaller than it wants you to believe being stretched out to be something more than it really was. This was fine despite its overall predictability but I guess I was
just hoping for more. Make no mistake there are some great things in the story, but it just doesn’t feel as big and bold as other films in the MCU and maybe that is a good thing for the bigger picture. With the first film we got plenty of the shrinking fun, but it felt fresh and fun and this time around it happens almost non-stop to a silly level. The film never takes itself overly serious which helps because it might be the silliest and cheesy of any film out of the MCU to date.
Paul Rudd does a great job as usual as does Michael Douglas, but the real highlight is Evangaline Lilly who gets her time to shine all around. The Wasp character is a blast to watch and seeing her alongside Ant-Man will no doubt have the hardcore Marvel fans smiling ear to ear. The rest of the cast all do a fine job as well, but nothing overly stands out outside of maybe Michael Pena who is back for more comedy relief. This group of guys felt a bit forced back into the story and add very little, but they are entertaining nonetheless. Despite the over the top nature and the fact that most of it makes little to no sense the effects of the shrinking and growing is great to watch. I had an issue with a lot of the directions of this as it just made no sense at times, but you just have to let that go sometimes.
Not sure if it is the fact of coming off of something so epic and devastating as Avengers: Infinity War effected my thoughts on this or what, but I just never fully connected to this light hearted action comedy like I thought I would. This is my first time walking out of a Marvel movie and not fully satisfied, but hopefully repeat viewings will change that. As always there are after credit sequences with a great one mid-credits that will answer some questions and one at the end of the credits that is not only silly and a waste of time, but also already in some of the trailers which I thought was strange.
This release not only includes the film, but bonus content including deleted scenes, gag reel, outtakes, and numerous featurettes that take fans behind bringing this latest chapter of the MCU to life. Rise to the occasion and get in on the action with Ant-Man and the Wasp on Digital now and then on 4K Ultra, Blu-ray and DVD from Marvel Studios.
