Rating: B
It's summer and that means it is time for superhero blockbusters to be coming at us from all directions. The next one up is the sequel to the surprisingly awesome Ant-Man, Ant-man And The Wasp starring Paul Rudd as our hero and Evangeline Lilly suiting up as The Wasp. The film picks up after the events in Captain America: Civil War but before Infinity War. Scott (Rudd) is now on house arrest and has been for the past 2 years, He is coping with the fallout from him helping out Captain America, stealing the Ant-Man suit from Dr. Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) and causing a ton of damage in battler during some of Civil War's more intense fight scenes. He struggles with juggling his how and hero life. When Hank and Hope Van Dyne (Lilly) unexpectedly pop back into his life he must suit back up and help them rescue Hope's mom from the subatomic realm.
I just want to go in saying that I wanted to love this movie. I feel like Paul Rudd doesn't always get the love he deserves for some of his leading roles so I was incredibly excited about this film. Now while I did enjoy the movie it wasn't quite the blockbuster I was hoping for, for several reasons. So let's take a few lines to break those down.
The Storyline Felt like it had way too much going on.
I am all for subplots and things but for some reason the way this one came together just left me not really wanting to care about and one of the plots in particular. Yes we are saving Hope's mom, but while we are doing that we are also dealing with Scott avoiding the FBI, a black market high-end tech dealer (Played by Walter Goggins) who is out to get them and steal the machine they are putting together, there is a new strange Ghost character who is popping up and also trying to steal their tech, Scott's security company is struggling to survive, and we are still trying to reconcile Scott, Hank, and Hopes relationship in this movie. Now if that felt like a lot to read, then imagine watching it squeezed into 2 hours. It just felt like a lot of plot points felt rushed. I think they tried to do too many things here and missed a chance to make this movie as awesome as it could have been.
The Wasp should clearly have her own movie & can I get more Michael Pena?
The Wasp is clearly the most badass character in this movie. She basically outshines Ant-Man in my opinion. I would love to see a totally dedicated movie to just her character. She can fight, she has badass powers, she is played by the very awesome Evangeline Lily and she is a no-nonsense type of women. What more do we need? I would watch the hell out of that in a stand-alone film. Her character has much more to root for than her male counterpart Ant-man. Sorry guy, she just does. And speaking of people who have more going for them than Ant-Man, can we get more Michael Pena? I freaking adore him in this movie. Two words, Truth Serum. Figure that one out later. He is so damn funny every time he hits the screen. Can we get this guy a super suit? Either way, he needs more screen time because he makes a lot of the scenes in the movie.
Overall, this movie is good, just not the greatness I wanted it to be. Paul Rudd is still funny and enjoyable to watch, but there are characters in this film that I feel outshine him a bit. We almost forget that this is an Ant-Man movie because The Wasp feels like she gets more screen time, which I am a-okay with. You will still have fun checking this one out on the big screen and it is a needed addition to the series, especially if things go down the road I think they will in future Marvel films. This one could potentially be one of the most important pieces of the story yet. There are of course two end credit scenes, one in the middle of the credits and one at the very end. Keep in mind the one at the very end felt like a let down unless I completely missed something. In the end, we scored Ant-Man And The Wasp with a solid B.
Ant-Man And The Wasp hit theaters everywhere July 6th!