NO BIG DEAL
Ant-Man and the Wasp has its moments, but it could really use some dramatic relief
In case you were wondering where Ant-Man was during the mayhem that was Avengers: Infinity War — well, the answer is pretty prosaic. He was under house arrest.
Scott Lang, a.k.a. Ant-Man, a.k.a. Paul Rudd, starts the new movie hanging out in his home, where he builds Rube Goldberg devices to amuse his daughter and occasionally enjoys such classic Dad rock as Dusty Springfield or the theme from The Partridge Family.
But supers gotta hero, and soon enough Scott finds himself dragged back into action to help rescue the wife of Ant-suit inventor Hank Pym (Michael Douglas), lost these past 30 years in the Quantum Realm, which is also my nickname for where I keep my least favourite Bond DVDs.
Sure, Hank has enlisted his daughter Hope (Evangeline Lilly) and given her an even better suit — waspish, with wings. But they still need Scott’s expertise and maybe a piece or two from his old suit, much in the way your obsolete cellphone needs a charging dongle that no one uses anymore.
The rescue-mission plot line gives this new Ant-Man movie a rather tepid sense of urgency. It’s never even explained how someone could survive for decades in the subatomic world with nothing to eat or drink except water molecules that are bigger than they are.
And the villains are a modest bunch. Ghost (Hannah JohnKamen) has a terrifying mask, but her power is to phase in and out of solidity, which in practical terms just means she could leave a party and not be missed for 20 minutes or so.
And her greatest desire is to be normal again, for which she’ll need some of Pym’s wife-saving technology.
The other baddie is Sonny Burch, played by Walton Goggins, and he isn’t so much villainous as aggressively capitalistic: When Hope says no to a business deal, he goes for a very hostile takeover instead. The movie’s MacGuffin is Hank’s high-tech lab, which sits on a decrepit corner in San Francisco but can also be shrunk to the size of carry-on luggage, no doubt driving the people at Google Street View bonkers.
The films of the Marvel cinematic universe — Ant-Man and the Wasp is the 20th, and should nudge their combined box office to more than $17 billion worldwide — have always bested their dour DC rivals when it comes to mixing humour and drama, with Jeff Goldblum’s character in the buddy comedy Thor: Ragnarok merely the most striking recent example.
But director Peyton Reed has baked a little too much funny powder into this latest cookie. Rudd’s character has always been one of the sillier superheroes, with his I-can’t-quitebelieve-I’m-doing-this patter. But Ant-Man and the Wasp also features more of the motormouthed Michael Peña heading up the three stooges that are part of his home-security company, and Randall Park as a foppish fed.
Add in Goggins’ goofy gangster and you’re left with a movie in desperate need of dramatic relief. And while the fights and stunts are occasionally eye-catching, those eyes often end up wandering off as the combination of fast editing and quick-growing-and-shrinking props makes it hard to follow the action.
Ant-Man and the Wasp is still intermittent fun, particularly for fans of tardigrades, the waterdwelling micro-fauna that had a brief cameo in the first Ant-Man, and get their well-deserved closeup in this one. And not to rush the ending, but the closing credits are beautiful, reminiscent of the 2010 documentary Marwencol and its upcoming fictional version, Welcome to Marwen.
Finally, I’d be remiss if I didn’t recommend you stay for the mid-credit scene, which does even more to tie the timeline into the larger Marvel universe. The end-of-credits sequence essentially repeats an image from earlier in the movie. If you want to shrink your movie-going experience a little, you could skip out on it.
The Ant-Man sequel LOS ANGELES may be about tiny superheroes, but the film is making a big statement about female empowerment by featuring Evangeline Lilly’s the Wasp not only in the title, but giving her a larger stake in Marvel’s sprawling movie franchise.
Ant-Man and the Wasp, the 20th film in the Marvel cinematic universe that includes Black Panther, Iron Man and Avengers: Infinity War, is the first one in the series to include a female character in a title role. The prominence of the Wasp, a character who has major roles in the Ant-Man and Avengers comic books, comes after years of fan anticipation for a female Marvel superhero to get her own film. Scarlett Johansson has expressed her desire to see her character, Black Widow, get a standalone film, but Marvel Studios has kept her primarily in its marquee Avengers films.
“You know, I’ve asked myself the same question: Are we making a mountain out of a molehill?” Lilly said during a recent interview when asked about being featured in a Marvel film’s title. She said after considering it more closely, “‘No, actually, this is kind of a big deal, and this is about time.”’
The film is the sequel to 2015’s Ant-Man, which introduced Paul Rudd as a thief enlisted by Michael Douglas’ Hank Pym to become a do-gooder. The original earned more than $180 million in North America and $500 million at the global box office. The sequel is the third Marvel release this year, but it largely steers clear of the developments in the blockbuster Avengers: Infinity War.
The Wasp was a comic book favourite of director Peyton Reed, who teased her appearance in future Marvel films with a cameo of her supersuit at the end of AntMan. He said it was important that the Wasp be a fully formed hero and not bound by stereotypes.
“I worked really closely with Evangeline, and we talked about, ‘Now we’re going to have a chance to make a fully formed hero, and we want her to be as dimensional as possible. And we don’t want her to be a hero who is always glammed up with hair and makeup. We wanted her to be a little sweaty. And we want her, like, when that helmet comes off, her hair is in a ponytail, because that’s the practical thing you would do,’” Reed said.
Lilly’s role isn’t the only prominent female character in the film. Hannah John-Kamen plays Ghost, a villain bent on sowing discord among powerful institutions, in a role that was initially written for a man.
“It’s amazing, as a female, to play such a strong character ... so that people can look up to that and see that, ‘Yeah, this is a progression,’” said John-Kamen, who is in her biggest role yet after starring in the Canadian sci-fi series Killjoys and having small roles in Ready Player One and Tomb Raider.
“There is so much more going on in this film that represents female energy, that represents female stories, that represents female struggle and that represents female power,” Lilly said. “In this film, I’m very proud to say I recognize authentic female power in that it’s powerful to be vulnerable, it’s powerful to be elegant, it’s powerful to be graceful and nurturing and kind and forgiving and compassionate and generous ... things that tend to be typically categorized as weaknesses.”
Marvel’s first film based solely on a female superhero will be Captain Marvel, set in the 1990s, which stars Brie Larson in the title role and is slated for release next year.
Ant-Man and the Wasp is the first Marvel film to be released after April’s Infinity War, which upended the franchise and set up a fourth Avengers film that will be released next summer — about which everyone is keeping mum.
Douglas said before his first Comic-Con panel about the original Ant-Man that he underwent secrecy tests — and thought he might have to give blood — to prove he could keep from spoiling that film’s secrets. While he thought it was a bit much at the time, Douglas said he’s grown to appreciate what Marvel has done and the care the studio takes to avoid spoilers for fans.
“Marvel has done this amazing job of creating buzz just for people not knowing what exactly is going to happen,” Douglas said.
“We do not want to spoil things for people. There are people out there hired to try and find things out,” Rudd said. “It’s an amazing, intense thing to be a part of.”