Ant-Man and The Wasp -- I'd been looking forward to this movie ever since the first installment of Ant-Man, which was a hilarious movie, and one of my favorite Marvel Cinematic Universe titles. They definitely tried to keep up the humor in this sequel, so I'll give a thumbs up for consistency. Though, I have to admit, while I enjoyed the movie, it still wasn't quite as good as the first where they hit things more on the head with the humor.
Luis's tangents were funny, per usual, and I loved it that Scott's ex-wife's current husband who hated Scott in the first movie now loved him and was hugging him all the time. That reversal was fun.
In Ant-Man and The Wasp we see the repercussions of Scott's actions from Captain America: Civil War. And because Scott is under house arrest, it makes this movie more centralized, taking place in one city. Now I know some people didn't like that it wasn't integrated as much into the rest of the MCU as some of the other movies, but I think it worked. This movie was happening during all the events of Avengers: Infinity War, so it makes sense that Scott doesn't get mixed up in all of that. The nice thing about most of the MCU titles is that even if there's not a ton of weaving with the other movies or characters, it feels like it still fits in the whole universe, and that's what Ant-Man and The Wasp felt like to me -- I knew it was part of the MCU, and there were just enough references in the movie to make it feel that way. Any more and it would have been too much for me, I think.
One of the best things about this movie was that both Ant-Man and Wasp pretty much got equal screen time. If anything, Wasp might have had more kick ass scenes than Ant-Man. I was thrilled to see that she wasn't relegated to a sidekick and that she had a central role in the movie. Quite frankly, since the movie focused on finding Hope's mother, it should have been titled The Wasp and Ant-Man instead!
The whole family theme throughout the movie was great. This wasn't a story of huge, global repercussions, but more personal journeys. And I think it was well-placed after Infinity War since it brought us all back down to Earth (literally and figuratively).
And the villains even reflected this focus. I know, I know, some of you didn't think the villains were big and bad enough. But they weren't the point of the movie, really. They were simply obstacles in the way of saving Janet from the quantum realm. Sonny Burch was your typical money-hungry criminal, and there was just enough of him, in my opinion. Ghost, on the other hand, was a woman striving to stay alive -- quite a different motivation. And in the end, her story was connected to the family theme as well. She'd lost her family in the accident that changed her, but at the end we see that Bill had become her family, since he refused to abandon her.
The one thing with Ghost I would have liked to see was a better fleshing out of her backstory. We pretty much got a big, old info dump. I know they tried to make fun of the fact that they were info dumping, but it wasn't enough to actually forgive the huge info dump that it was. I also figured Janet was going to be able to help her from being in the quantum realm for so long -- saw that not-so-much twist miles away.
And then we had the mid-credits scene. I knew that was coming, too, I just didn't know who was going to be effected. Scott didn't turn to ash, but Hope, Hank, and Janet did! Poor Ant-Man, stuck in the quantum realm. I was hoping for a Captain Marvel reference, but there wasn't anything blatant. I read an article though that mentions she may actually be stuck in the quantum realm? Which would make it connected, however not something neither I nor my husband caught when we first saw the scene.
Overall, I think Ant-Man and The Wasp was well-balanced and it gave me lots of laughs. I'd love to go see it again soon, but I'm also really looking forward to Captain Marvel and how she'll be integrated into the MCU.
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