Review: Ant-Man And The Wasp Is As Bland As Marvel Gets
- Jul 8, 2018
- 3 min read
Marvel Studios really hasn't had any "bland" films. The critically-reviled Thor: The Dark World and The Incredible Hulk are plain awful, Iron Man 3 is frustrating but never monotonous, and others could be described as generic and samey. But Ant-Man And The Wasp is a level of tedious that none of the other Marvel Cinematic Universe films have yet reached. A good helping of funny moments and some creative uses of the powers are beneficial to the film, but cannot save it from the complete shambles the plot is in, and the usual weak villain.
Previous movies have seen Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) survive a trip to the Quantum Realm, and helping the Avengers in Germany (in Captain America: Civil War) under the guise of the Ant-Man. The original Ant-Man, Hank Pym (Michael Douglas), is motivated by the former to attempt to rescue his long-lost wife Janet Van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer) from the Quantum Realm with the help of his loyal daughter, Hope Van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly). When they briefly open a portal to the Quantum Realm, and Lang becomes entangled with Janet, they break him out of house arrest to help them find her. But their black market parts supplier Sonny (Walton Goggins) becomes suspicious that they are onto something big, and then the mysterious Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen) shows up and steals their miniaturised laboratory. And to top it all off, the police are hot on their tails.
If you think that's a lot to wrap your head around, well, that's just the first half of the movie, before things get messy. It certainly doesn't help that they're simultaneously trying to introduce audiences to quantum mechanics (albeit in a simplified, blockbuster way), try and make sense of the MCU's complex timeline, and juggle worthless sub-plots such as Lang's new business and the black market supplier. It's overstuffed, but not too difficult to keep track of until the climax. By that point, while trying to follow two or three different car chases, a Quantum Realm mission, and whatever the other characters are up to, all at the same time, I just got confused and started waiting for the final confrontations. The first half is too bog-standard to be memorable, and the second half too confusing to be interesting.
As far as the rest of the movie goes, it never really breaks out of the old routine. The funny parts are really funny - there's nothing quite like watching a half-sized Paul Rudd running around a school pretending to be a student - but it's still got the same Marvel movie stench to it. If there's anything that really stood out to me, it's how creative the team has gotten with the shrinking concept. Being more of a Spider-Man reader than an Ant-Man one, I'm not sure how many ideas were pulled from the comics, but the shrinking building, giant Pez dispenser, Matchbox car tray, and cars with size shifters instead of gear shifters make for some very playful CG sequences.
Maybe the single best part of the movie, though, occurs in the mid-credits scene. It's maybe the most predictable part of the movie, as it pertains to the events of Avengers: Infinity War, but I personally found this take on "that ending" far more haunting than the original. It also leaves some questions for the audience, but in a good way.
If you're looking for more Paul Rudd, some pretty funny scenes, and creative superhero action, look no further. Ant-Man And The Wasp is the film for you. But you're really not going to get much more than that and a headache from the number of times the word "quantum" is thrown about. This overstuffed piece is almost a perfect ode to the MCU in that it's the most generic version of their movie formula yet. As a Marvel enthusiast, especially given the scale and wonder of the last movie, this 20th entry in the franchise leaves me wanting.
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