Ant-Man and the Wasp

We are so deep into the Marvel Cinematic Universe time span now that it has become nearly impossible for the makers to release a bad outing. They've long found and sat on their comfortable niche, knowing almost perfectly what would or would not click with their audiences. And with their 20th film; Ant-Man and the Wasp, they've nailed it once again!

The film started off by introducing the primary goal: Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) and Hope van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly) were revealed to be on an ongoing mission ever since the ending of the first joint - to locate and retrieve their wife/mother Janet (Michelle Pfeiffer) who's stuck in the quantum realm for the past 30 years. Based on Scott Lang's (Paul Rudd) successful exit after entering the alien space, it's deduced highly likely that Janet's still alive. And how these individuals go about accomplishing this pursuit formed the crux.

Perhaps the most triggering question in our minds after the release of Avengers: Infinity War would have been: Where's Ant-Man? Well, this is the little film that answers the particular question. Taking place in parallel to the Thanos-caused global disaster, Ant-Man and the Wasp updates us on the status of Scott Lang after Captain America: Civil War. He's on homebound arrest for his participation in the previous 'crime' and his friends are currently on a startup company venture to free themselves from the ex-convict label. In this situation, a call to adventure arrives for Scott to suit up as Ant-Man once again, with the police, mobsters, FBI and villains on his tail!

Director Peyton Reed clearly understood the one unique concept that distinguishes an Ant-Man movie from the rest of the superhero flicks - shrinking and enlarging abilities. And the way they’ve exploited this technology to the fullest potential by incorporating it into creating exciting action sequences, humor and charm was pretty damn good! Ant workers, replacement life size ant on ankle bracelet, Giant Man confronting a ferry ship, large suit decoy on the wall of a building, ant on drum set, FBI appearing as soon as the lab's shrunken, new house as a present in a jewelry box, car library, grown Hello Kitty, Giant Man roll-skidding on a truck catching criminals, kitchen fight in between flour, tomato, knife slide and expanded salt sprinkler, birds pecking on toylike car, shrunken vehicle and lab edifice travelling on the road, Giant Man collapsing in water, stuck in wiper wash, dwindling enemy motorcycle, miniature puppets end credits and laptop as theater were absolute amazeballs! Of all, Scott Lang fixed in a malfunctioning suit before transforming into large and medium heights to steal his trophy from school was hilarious to the core!

When a motion picture's able to bring about an enthralling climax that achieves amicable resolutions for all parties, you know the screenwriting job was decent. Installing deadline by the compulsion of erecting the lab back to its normal size before the return from quantum realm plus connecting side plots of Luis (Michael Peña) and Sonny Burch (Walton Goggins) to assist the main plot were smart. One could only wish for the obvious and long-winded exposition dialogues to be avoided. Plausibility questions such as wouldn't a bee-full of arrow directions mid-air draw public attention and Hank Pym escaping the FBI headquarters without an iota of suspicion minutes after the whole office was out there to nab him in the woods did bother a little. Also, the absence of emotional weight in this rather simple chase-and-catch plot rendered the journey rather physical only. However, with a fitting tie-in to Avengers: Infinity War as one of the post-credits clip, we now know that Scott Lang's trapped in the quantum realm whilst the other three family members have evaporated as dust particles. Poor Janet, after a 30-year prison time in quantum realm, now she's locked inside the Soul realm.

It's refreshing to see Laurence Fishburne as Bill Foster aka retired superhero Goliath, but the way this character's linked with Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen) was weak and forced. But, it's cool to see how their goal came in direct contact with the protagonists' and Bill being torn in between on what's the right thing to do. Reunion with Janet was touching and Michelle Pfeiffer was a prolific addition to the MCU family! She has changed a whole lot since her stay in the quantum realm and it'll be interesting to see where the series takes this character further. Not to forget, Sonny Burch's motivation was meh and a little more explanation on how the quantum realm works would have tidied the uncertainty and confusion at times.

Main issue with Ant-Man and the Wasp was the excessive light tone. In order for a final screen product to be well-balanced, you'll have to have the anchors footed in both seriousness and jovialness. When you have 90% of the characters in a movie, including the main and supporting ones being funny all the damn time, it'll be monotonous as all personas would turn out to be the same, on top of the film experiencing severe lack of stakes, consequences and gravitas. Undeniably, Michael Peña was a fantastic comic relief. Watch out for his iconic storyception narration magic again! But his disposable friends coming out of nowhere to save him was a lousily written story point. Paul Rudd, although great on his own regards with the jokes and whatnot, needed the significance as the hero. The edge of solemnity for the character of Scott Lang from the first picture was missing here. Walton Goggins is a terrific actor and profound choice to play an antagonist, but using him and the FBI officers as comedy materials, as aforementioned, lost the film its stakes, consequences and gravitas. With all these being said, truth serum argument, reversal of big-small perspectives, Scott Lang spending time with her daughter in a creative cardboard game, making fun of the term 'Quantum Entanglement' like the audiences plus communicating with Hank and Hope as Janet were enjoyable moments!

The most outstanding achievement by the visual effects department in Ant-Man and the Wasp was the deaging effect the team has bestowed upon the older actors! It's extremely seamless and mind-blowing! The way Ghost glitches and leaves shadow traces as she moved around was remarkably pulled off too. Quantum realm was beautifully picturized as well, with its micro germs and stuff. However, one could definitely see a slight background disparity when individuals of different heights are paired on a single frame. Costumes and Quantum Tunnel infrastructure were for sure under an expert production design management. Film editing though, especially for the action sequences, was tacky. Too much cuts at rapid pace made it look cheap. The same can be said about the quantum entanglement picturization with odd choices of flashes.