ANT-MAN AND THE WASP (2018) MOVIE NEWS & REVIEW

ant-man and the wasp (2018) movie

Genre              |   Science Fiction

Classification   |   M

Running time   |   100+ minutes

Released         |   5 July 2018

cast

Paul Rudd ... Scott Lang
​Evangeline Lilly ... Hope van Dyne
​Michael Douglas ... Dr. Hank Pym
Michelle Pfeiffer ... Janet van Dyne
Michael Peña ... Luis
Judy Greer ... Maggie Lang
Laurence Fishburne ... Dr. Bill Foster
Walton Goggins ... Sonny Burch

director

Peyton Reed

writer

Chris McKenna ... (screenplay by) &
Erik Sommers ... (screenplay by) and
Andrew Barrer ... (screenplay by) &
Gabriel Ferrari ... (screenplay by) and
Paul Rudd ... (screenplay by)
 
Stan Lee ... (based on the Marvel comics by) and
Larry Lieber ... (based on the Marvel comics by) and
Jack Kirby ... (based on the Marvel comics by)

cinematographer

​Dante Spinotti

music

​Christophe Beck ... (score)

film editor

Dan Lebental
Craig Wood

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box office result

Worldwide               $? million

Australia                 $? million

North America        $? million

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the best dialogue

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ANT-MAN AND THE WASP (2018) MOVIE IMAGES

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ANT-MAN AND THE WASP (2018) STORY SYNOPSIS

​As Scott Lang balances being both a Super Hero and a father, Hope van Dyne and Dr. Hank Pym present an urgent new mission that finds the Ant-Man fighting alongside The Wasp to uncover secrets from their past.

ANT-MAN AND THE WASP (2018) MOVIE REVIEW

Reviewed by Mark Geraghty   |   Review date  5 July 2018

Pop ​Movee Rating

How do you follow-up AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR?
​
If ANT-MAN AND THE WASP is anything to go by, the answer is “You don’t”...
This is - perhaps - the only genius element present in the second ANT-MAN movie.

The Marvel management team, so ably led by Kevin Feige, must have grappled long and hard about how to address the fall-out from INFINITY WAR, no matter which character drew the short straw to follow one of the most eagerly awaited movies of the 21st Century. Understanding that they had written themselves into a situation where a need existed to bridge the twelve months between INFINITY WAR and END GAME (if we are to believe the most recent of online leaks…), the team at the Marvel machine have used their most innocuous character to deliver a simple, action-packed adventure film that neither delights nor offends.

Reason One - Paul Rudd

ANT-MAN AND THE WASP takes into account the events that transpired in both the 2015 ANT-MAN and the appearance of Paul Rudd’s Scott Lang in the subsequent CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR. “Caps” third feature film saw Lang drafted by Steve Rogers to help him fight on the side of “Right” against the limitations placed upon the Avengers after the disastrous events of AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON. Unfortunately, as the audience discovers at the beginning of this new film, Lang’s part in fighting for “Right” saw him charged with international crimes and placed under house arrest. The new film picks up just as his term of house arrest is about to expire…

Paul Rudd is one of the few reasons ANT-MAN AND THE WASP is worth seeing. Rudd’s comic timing is always spot on and his presence adds a unique quality where he manages to let the audience know that he’s barely keeping up with everything going on, but, somehow, he still manages to demonstrate enough courage that, at the very least, he’ll try and do the right thing.

Nowhere is this more evident than his effort to be a good father… Lang knows that he’s made mistakes, but, the new film’s writing team of Chris McKenna, Erik Sommers, Andrew Barrer, Gabriel Ferrari and Rudd make a genuine effort to show Lang as more than just an “aspirational good guy”. The film’s early scenes between Rudd and his onscreen daughter Cassie, played again by Abby Ryder Fortson, show him as the doting dad and a domestic mishap sees Lang genuinely concerned that he has jeopardized his impending freedom and a chance for he and Cassie to get out from the constraints of his home detention and enjoy everything their home town of San Francisco has to offer.

Disappointingly, the dynamic between Lang and Evangeline Lilly’s Hope Van Dyne doesn’t quite develop in the way fans of the first movie may have hoped…

In spite of Lilly’s character being critical to both Lang’s story arc and the film’s plot, she never quite comes to the fore. Director Peyton Reed seems unsure how to focus on the character; especially during the film’s second half, where she ends up becoming part of the broader ensemble when she should really should be front and centre. This is most evident by the way Michelle Pfeiffer’s Janet Van Dyne is introduced to the audience. Given the build-up throughout the film, by all reckoning, Hope should have been the central figure in the effort to rescue her mother from the Quantum Realm, but it’s not the case. Michael Douglas returning as the grumpiest ex-SHIELD employee ever - Hank Pym - and Scott are given those honours. It really is quite a baffling decision to marginalize Lilly’s character...

Reason Two - Randall Park

Okay, so Michael Pena stole the show in ANT-MAN…

This time around Randall Park gets to do much the same as FBI Agent Jimmy Woo.

Park gets a lot of laughs simply by playing it as straight as an arrow, kind of like a modern day version of Jack Webb’s classic DRAGNET TV show character Sgt. Joe Friday, perhaps with a smidgeon more empathy. Park’s Woo seems genuinely fond of Lang and his family as he’s come to know them throughout Lang’s home detention. Having said that, the G-Man knows that Lang has a history of transgressing the law and isn’t prepared to make any concessions because of his superhero connections.

Park and Rudd have a great time bouncing off each other and there’s a hint that some additional material between the two may have wound up in  the movie that wasn’t originally planned. There’s a very funny scene toward the end of the film that feels like an extended ad-lib between the pair.

As for Michael Pen, unfortunately, he isn’t able to match Park in the humour stakes or recapture the spontaneous verbal assault that was a highlight of his Luis character in the first movie. It’s almost as if the writers were determined to outdo Pena’s efforts from ANT-MAN and created material for him that is kooky for the sake of being kooky. His “big” scene, involving truth serum seems very contrived and slows the pace of the film at a point where it should be building momentum.

Reason Three - Genuine talent ...

There’s nothing like great actors to really light up a film…

Michelle Pfeiffer, Laurence Fishburne and Michael Douglas are performers that don’t need Marvel movies to affirm their talent or introduce them a new fan base looking to “discover” these Hollywood heavyweights in Hall H of San Diego Comic Con. 

So, what are they doing in ANT-MAN AND THE WASP?

While it’s only speculation, it’s probably more to do with “fun” than anything else… If you’re a A-list talent who has a serious resume of acting, writing, directing and producing in a career that spans more than forty plus years, the chance to be a part of the biggest movie franchise on the planet must be a nice story to share with your grandkids or Bridge partner at the Beverly Hills Country Club.

Unfortunately for ANT-MAN AND THE WASP, there’s not nearly enough of Pfeiffer, Fishburne or Douglas.

Douglas has the most to do of the trio, but he spends a hell of a lot of the movie just rushing around not making any meaningful contribution. It’s only toward the finale that he becomes important to the plot but, as mentioned, it comes at the expense of Evangeline Lilly’s character. The decision to use Hank in the manner the story does in the film’s back half just doesn’t make sense and, worst of all, it requires Douglas to don a rather ridiculous looking superhero suit that is both inappropriate and ill-fitting. The film’s design team would have done well to take a page from the Christian Bale BATMAN movies and provide a cool, ultra-modern costume to help compensate for the fact that the guy’s meant to be older. (In this case, in his seventies.) Just because someone’s old, it doesn’t mean they can’t be cool. The costume Douglas has to bound around in makes even less sense because he’s Hank Pym; the guy who’s been designing the awesome costumes for both Scott and Hope!

It’s nice to see Fishburne pop up in another major franchise. He’s done his DC stint as Perry White, he’s got a side-gig happening with old mate Keanu Reeves in the JOHN WICK franchise and now he’s jumped on board the Marvel Express. It doesn’t matter what character he plays, he’s always good, if not great. His Bill Foster role in ANT-MAN AND THE WASP is more at the “good” end of the spectrum, but he helps to bring some balance to one of the film’s biggest problems; the absence of a solid villain. Fishburne’s character is largely expository, helping the audience to understand the motivation of Hannah John-Kamen’s Ghost, the character who is supposed be the one of the film’s central threats. That’s not to forget Walter Goggins, who plays Sonny Burch; perhaps the MCU’s most tedious bad guy yet!

Unfortunately, Pfeiffer is the least used of the trio.

Viewers hoping for a large dose of the starlet will be disappointed.

Janet Van Dyne is a very important part of the Marvel mythology, but Pfeiffer’s screen time doesn’t do the character justice. Her presence throughout the story is more of an abstract concept until halfway into the film and, once again, it’s a male character who supplants what could have been a great dynamic between mother and daughter as Scott becomes a cypher between the Quantum Realm and Earth. Even with limited screen time, Pfeiffer manages to wring a couple of the biggest emotional moments the Marvel franchise has ever had. It’s just a real shame that everyone is going to have to wait at least another movie before Pfeiffer can really get involved in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. 

ANT-MAN AND THE WASP takes the elements of the 2015 movie that resonated with audiences and reshuffles them in an effort to deliver something that is different to what  heightened anticipation might have been expecting in the aftermath of INFINITY WAR. It feels, though, as if Director Peyton Reed and his production team are still not certain how to escape the legacy of Edgar Wright’s involvement with the Ant-Man character prior to the Englishman parting ways with Marvel before he shot a single frame on the 2015 movie. Without Wright, it’s doubtful Marvel would have developed a film around the character in the first place. Wright’s projects are memorable and possess a signature style.The evidence of this was borne out by the box office and commercial success Wright enjoyed with the project he developed off the back of his Ant-Man exit, the 2016 film BABY DRIVER. Wright delivers movies that are unique and exist on their own terms within their own bubble of a universe.

Despite Peyton Reed’s efforts, ANT-MAN AND THE WASP is reliant upon but unable to match the rhythm he established with the first movie by taking Wright’s ideas and sculpting them into a Marvel movie. That rhythm is a vital missing ingredient that would have helped audiences re-engage with the returning ANT-MAN characters and the challenges of this new film that is much closer to the Marvel Cinematic Universe formula than its predecessor. There is no carryover of Wright’s unique creative input from the first film into ANT-MAN AND THE WASP. Of all the parties involved in this outing, only Paul Rudd seems to be game enough to stretch toward anything that resembles the unique take that Wright may have delivered had he stayed the course back in 2014. As a result, ANT-MAN AND THE WASP feels like a B-side follow-up track to an A-side hit record. It kinda sounds the same (and looks the same) but lacks the ‘X’ factor. In this instance, it’s absent of the playful, cheeky attitude and distinctly disorientating visuals that made the 2015 adventure an endearing, welcome alternative entry into the prescriptive realm of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

ANT-MAN AND THE WASP MOVIE (2018) USEFUL LINKS

​Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018) - IMDb
​Ant-Man and the Wasp - Wikipedia
​Ant-Man and The Wasp | Movies | Marvel.com

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