Ant-Man & The Wasp

 

     18. Ant-Man & The Wasp 

Each of the Marvel movie sequels expect that you’ve seen the first instalment. The continuing story line and character developments might be confusing to anyone coming to watch, say “Captain America: Civil War” who hasn’t seen any previous films. The films reward you with an ongoing arc, that demands you to know the previous history of the story’s and the characters. This is certainly the case more than ever for “Ant-Man and The Wasp”.

For starters, you would have to know who those characters are before getting invested in a movie with a title like that. It’s preposterous, let’s be honest. Then, so too was “Ant-Man” a ridiculous title, and fully aware of that in its own film. However, the first Ant-Man adventure was a pleasant surprise, focusing on less backstory and making of the hero, and getting straight into the fun. With a story centred on a heist, Ant-Man was smaller in scale to its counterparts in the Avengers cannon, and that was okay. It was simple, light-hearted escapism. Its sequel is more of the same. 

Ant-Man and The Wasp, is not the “Captain America:  Winter Soldier” of its own franchise, and it doesn’t intend to be. As far as superheroes go, Ant-Man deals with smaller stakes. Returning to wear the suit is small time crook Scott Lang, now under house arrest for his actions in Civil War, where he fought in Germany alongside the Avengers. Doing anything he can to pass the time there, the film opens with a cute scene in which Scott entertains his daughter, by retro-fitting the house into a maze and slide, all made from cardboard boxes mind you. 

But after Scott has a dream where he revisits the Quantum Realm – that trippy place he went to at the end of the first film – he feels obliged to call Hank Pym and tell him that he saw his wife in a dream. This leads Hank and his daughter Hope to borrow Scott from his house, breaking federal law by removing him during a house arrest, and use him to help get some technology they need to enter the quantum realm, and find out if in fact, Hank’s wife is still alive after entering the realm thirty years earlier. But Ant-Man and The Wasp will have to contend with a new villain on the scene; a woman who appears to be matter-less and can walk through walls. She is nicknamed The Ghost and wants access to the quantum realm to heal herself. 

This film, like its predecessor is light on plot, as it’s a situational story; the real star here is the special effects, with the appeal of shrinking still being as strong as ever. Taking humans down to all sizes, and back up again, has always been a fascination of ours, but has only been visited as a concept in the movies once in a blue moon. The Ant-Man franchise now owns the shrinking guy formula and has some real fun with it. The special effects are great, clever and entertaining. There are several stand out scenes in the film including where Hanky Pym has further developed his technology and now shrinks cars and buildings, carrying them around like Hot Wheels toys. There’s a car chase where our heroes outrun the baddies and shrink the car to toy-car size and back up again, and it’s an inventive scene. 

And you’ll laugh your arse off at a scene where Scott has to break into his daughters’ school to retrieve something she took, that is hiding his suit. Having to wear another suit which has a few bugs in it, his shrinking tech malfunctions, making him either overly tall, or about the size of a five-year-old. As he tries to break out of the school undetected, wearing a large hoody and running away from a teacher, you’ll laugh at the silliness of it all, but also how subtly clever it is. 

Ant-Man and The Wasp is a ride, and a movie to be enjoyed. There’s no deep meaning about war and sacrifice like with Captain America, the lessons of greed vs good such as Iron Man, or taking up your rightful place in the world, as Thor is pressured to do. Ant-Man operates on a small scale, but with this instalment, the stronger focus on the quantum realm concept and the technology at the characters disposal looks set to play an important part on a bigger stage. Looking ahead to “Avengers: Endgame”, I can only  imagine our heroes will borrow this technology at some point to try and undo what Thanos has done, and perhaps Ant-Man will finally get his moment to shine. So far, he’s just fumbled his way through three films, and it’s about time he became a real Avenger. 

Post Credit scenes – the first scene following the film is a cracker; showing Dr Hank Pym finally reunited with his estranged wife, with Hope in tow, they are about to run a test entering the quantum realm; having to go on the lam, their lab is now restricted to the inside of a van. Scott is suited up to willingly volunteer for the test, and enters the realm to collect particles, which can heal. He is in radio contact with the other, and as Hope starts the countdown to bring him back, the radio goes silent. Scott grows concerned when there is no answer, and as we cut back to the van, Hank, his wife Janet and Hope have disappeared; in a cloud of dust. The final post-credit scene shows the ant that was standing in as Scott’s body double while he left the house during his arrest, playing the drums, as you wold expect… completely oblivious that outside, the city has fallen silent, as not a single human being is in sight. Where have they all gone? And who will get Scott back out?

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