Ant-Man and the Wasp Review: Laughs, Heists, and Mystery
In another world, one kind of like this one but maybe with fewer near-total corporate monopolies, more superhero movies would be breezily confident—just very funny actors having a ridiculously good time telling a story with small, personal stakes that you don't have to watch over a dozen other movies to fully grasp. We don't really have that world, but we do have Ant-Man and the Wasp, a movie that is so top-to-bottom fun that it's hard to believe the same studio put out the doomsday spectacle that is Avengers: Infinity War a mere two months ago.
Ant-Man and the Wasp begins with Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) on house arrest. This is a great place to start, because Paul Rudd has always been a surly teen banished to a grown man's body with the mannerisms of a five-year-old (who can relate?). This is a compliment, I swear—and it's also the reason watching Paul Rudd bored in a house he can't leave is more fun than it should be. However, there's a movie that needs to happen, and it's not long before Lang finds himself kidnapped by Hope Van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly) and her father, Hank Pym (Michael Douglas), both of whom are both very reluctant to enlist his help.
It turns out that, due to the events of the first Ant-Man film (and yes, while we're praising this movie for being self-contained, it is the sequel to Ant-Man, so you should watch it), Lang, who took a dangerous plunge into something called the Quantum Realm, is somehow psychically entangled with Pym's wife, Janet Van Dyne, who has been missing in the Quantum Realm for thirty years. Thanks to Lang's connection to her, they can finally mount a rescue—once they get a few things.
With this objective in place, Ant-Man and the Wasp quickly becomes a fun caper, and like any good caper, there are complications abound. As the movie quickly divulges, things have changed between Ant-Man films. It turns out Scott stole the Ant-Man suit in order to help Captain America in Captain America: Civil War—which is why he's on house arrest, and why Hope and Hank are now in hiding (and hate Scott's guts). And Hope's status as a wanted woman means that her dealings with the criminal Sonny Burch (Walton Goggins, having the time of his life), a fence specializing in the sort of hi-tech equipment they need to mount her mother's rescue, become much more difficult once her identity is compromised.
And then there's Ghost, the skilled assassin who wears a spooky spy suit and can phase through solid matter. No one knows who she is! What's her deal, man? Why is she beating up on Paul Rudd and Evangeline Lilly? Laughs, drama, heists, and mystery? This movie's got everything.
That's kind of what makes Ant-Man and the Wasp such a fun jaunt—and that's what it is, really, a jaunt—it spins all of its plates effortlessly without trying to convince you that you're doing anything more than watching someone spin plates and make jokes. There's no fate of the world at stake. There isn't even a real villain—just people who have wronged one another in some way and are trying to Work Through It. Everything that was promising about the first Ant-Man has been dialed up just the right amount. Paul Rudd is no longer playing straight man as much as he was in the first film and gets to flex his comedy muscles more. Michael Peña's Luis and his ex-con pals have started a security firm where they, noted ex-cons, evaluate how secure your stuff is, which lends itself to loads of great bits (and a reprise of the best scene from Ant-Man). The inherent silliness of all sorts of things shrinking and growing to ridiculous proportions is played for great visual comedy and really fun fight scenes—which is kind of remarkable given that most Marvel movies are so bad at action.
Ant-Man and the Wasp also has what's probably the most ridiculously stacked roster of talented actors in bit parts and minor roles. Randall Park is wonderful as the FBI agent responsible for Scott Lang. Judy Greer and Bobby Cannavale don't do much, but they delight whenever they appear as Lang's ex-wife and her husband, Paxton. Also, T.I. is in these movies! T.I.! It's wild how we don't talk about this.
But much like T.I. in a major motion picture, Ant-Man and the Wasp succeeds because it is unassuming. It's a movie you can wander into and be delighted by, a confection that lingers just long enough for you to remember it fondly. Cinematic universes are nice, but they're even nicer when they don't remind you you're in them all the time.
