After all the crazy events of The Infinity War, Marvel desperately needs some palette cleansers for its fans before breathing in further craziness for the previously named Part 2 movie. This palette cleanser is Ant-man and The Wasp.
Despite mixed review of the first movie, I was a total fan of the first Ant-man. It felt like Mission Impossible without the over-zealous seriousness on Tom Cruise’s face. As Kevin Feige, the Executive Producer of the MCU said, they wanted the Ant-man series to be heist movies. The first one delivered and safely to say the second one did that too.
The story of Ant-man and the Wasp happened after Captain America: Civil War and before the madness of The Infinity War. Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) struck a deal with the FBI on house arrest so he could continue to be a responsible father to his daughter Cassie. It is 3 days before the house arrest finishes but some grumpy and uninvited guests showed up and put everything on the line for him again. The Pyms desperately needed his help for he might be the key to unlock the secret to the existence of the original Wasp Janet, Hanks wife, who disappeared in the quantum realm when going sub-atomic in a mission. However, more than one party is actually interested in this knowledge and the technology, so chaos ensured.
What I liked about Ant-man and the Wasp is that, despite the titling, it is basically a Wasp movie as Ant-man failings were frequently covered and dealt with by the Wasp. Hope (Evangeline Lily) who took up her mother’s mantel proved that she is not just a side kick but a formidable partner that can outperform the title character in the last movie (still enjoy how she punched Scott’s face in the training in that movie). There was not damsel in distress as even Janet proved that she is more than what people once thought she was in her role. She is more of a survivor than just a helpless body waiting to be saved. But what I really like was that the motive for Ghost was so understandable that you could hardly hate her for doing what she was doing at all. A lot of comic fans had issue with the MCU changing the gender of the character, but for me the full scale backstory (littered with Easter Eggs) made the character a lot richer and relatable than its comic counterpart. Things just made more sense with the MCU version of the character. Despite it is about Ant-man and The Wasp, the movie had lent substantial girl power to the whole MCU as none of the female characters were wallflowers. Even Cassie contributed significantly to ensure Scott did not get caught violating his house arrest deal and that was significant in my opinion. I also particularly like how Hope just tied up her hair into a pony tail when engaging in battle with a no bull shit attitude. There is no meticulously permed and straightened hair but just good old practical fighting looks.
Michael Pena returned as the comic relieve Luis with his gang and he certainly delivered again with his crazy story telling technique. Their interactions with the other parties who were after the Pym tech was so funny that I just couldn’t stop laughing. As a bunch of reformed ex-cons trying to sell security systems to clients they certainly built a very interesting dynamic and irony throughout the whole process.
After all Ant-man and the Wasp is an MCU movie, so it still needed to tie into part of the narratives, and particularly explain the world from a more microscopic or ground level point of view about life between Civil War and Infinity War. The most significant part for me was how it casually explained or hinted Ant-man’s role in Avengers 4, which was highly conjectured to be about time travelling and jumping to correct actions avoiding the catastrophic results at the end of the Infinity War. It also hinted on what could be coming in terms of the direction of MCU in Phase 4, where it was predicted that a number of current super heroes will be hanging up their shields and armours making space for a new generation to pick up the baton.
Standing alone, Ant-man and the Wasp is a very independent movie within the MCU as it represents its own genre. Within the MCU it sets up the stage for Avengers 4 and the much anticipated Captain Marvel next year. Personally I think it was a wise choice for the MCU to schedule Ant-man and the Wasp as a silent connector for all the current craziness exploded by The Infinity War. I personally enjoyed and appreciated it a lot.
