Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018)
IMDB Rating : 7.5 /10 ( as on 21.07.2018)
PG-13 | 1h 58min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
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.
Director: Peyton Reed
Writers: Chris McKenna, Erik Sommers
Stars: Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Michael Peña
Movie Rating : ★★★★☆
Marvel's small-scale superheroes-next-door go big on
fun
Tim Robey
Measured
against the intergalactic teaming-up and cosmos-saving of their fellow avengers
in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Ant-Man and The Wasp – whose second film
together takes that name – are pleasingly occupied nowhere but in their own
back yard. They’re like the superheroes next door, affably tinkering around
with the quantum mechanics that let them miniaturise or enlarge each other at
will.
Scott Lang
(Paul Rudd) is even a dad, with a regular home life in San Francisco raising
his pre-teen daughter Cassie, and finds himself under house arrest by the FBI
as this film begins. Alone among the MCU fraternity, at least until Spider-Man
grows up to find his calling, he makes superheroism feel less like a vocation
than an illicit hobby.
The first
film, with its levity and self-containment, was a breath of fresh air in the
crowded Marvel pantheon, succeeding in being zippy, a little weird, and
increasingly unmoored as it went along. Peyton Reed, returning to direct,
pushes the sequel even further away from the kind of pitch-invasion antics so
beloved of the genre, with those cameos crashing in all over the shop and plot
threads flapping about across multiple instalments.
By way of
merciful contrast, the story here is clean and personal: it involves The Wasp
(Evangeline Lilly) trying to get her mother back, after the realisation of her
physicist father (Michael Douglas) that it may be possible to retrieve her from
the molecular purgatory into which she vanished years earlier.
The real
masterstroke of the script, though, is announced when Douglas presses a button
on his remote control, and miniaturises his whole laboratory down to the size
of a large wheelie case (with helpful handle poking out). Only here can the
quantum rescue be performed within a narrow window of opportunity, but “here”
is anywhere that the lab-case happens to be – the back of a speeding van, quite
often, with everyone else charging up to nab it.
This single
idea, borrowing a trick from the Christopher Nolan school of nesting one zone
of action inside another, keeps things constantly dancing: whichever of the
film’s multiple screenwriters (including Rudd) came up with it should probably
have asked for an immediate raise.
Though Rudd
and Lilly spark off each other just as appealingly as before, the more urgent
point is for Lilly to earn The Wasp her equal billing, which she very much
does, especially during a kitchen scrap with Goggins’ goons, diving through
bags of flour and under tenderisers while she flings supersized salt shakers in
their path.
This is a
delirious highlight. So are the multiple chase scenes up and down San Fran’s
famously wobbly roads, which only look wobblier when the car in front keeps
pinging down to Matchbox size.
At least until
a post-credits gasp linking it back to the rest of the Marvel mythos with a
rude jolt, Ant-Man and the Wasp competes with Thor: Ragnarok for being the
closest to pure, throwaway fun of the recent crop. But in place of that film’s
aggressive flippancy, it supplies something warmer and cosier: a Marvel film
giving off the repeated vibe that in some other space and time, Pixar might
have made it.
Read complete review at Telegraph
Movie Rating : ★★★☆☆
Paul Rudd impresses once again
Shalini Langer
Marvel
finally has a female in the title role, with a better suit and better wings
than her male counterpart, and Michelle Pfeiffer enters the franchise, grey and
wizard-like, from beyond the quantum realm. Who else but Marvel’s most
self-effacing hero, Ant-Man, to accommodate both without a stretch in his
spandex?
Having
delivered a surprise hit with Ant-Man in 2015, director Reed again banks on the
fact that the biggest strength of his Marvel superhero, as it tries to find a
place in the Avengers mega-universe, is his ordinariness and likeability. Rudd
personifies both, and the most heroic part of his Ant-Man remains his heart,
whether beating for his little daughter or his angry partner, Hope (Lilly).
Without that, Rudd’s Scott is a man under house arrest wearing an anklet
monitor, hoping on a fellow ex-convict to put his business on its feet, and on
an old scientist to power up his suit.
As
we connect with Scott again after his last outing in Captain America: Civil
Wars, he isn’t having much luck in either of those efforts. The ex-convict and
friend, played with typical show-stealing elan by Pena, is largely doing his
own thing. And the scientist, Pym (Douglas), remains angry with Scott for
having traipsed off to adventure with Captain America in that ant suit he had
built — the adventure having earned Scott both world rebuke and that house
arrest.
But
then Pym thinks he can bring back wife Janet (Pfeiffer), who was lost to the
quantum world 30 years ago — counting on the fact that Scott had managed to do
it. So, Pym and Janet’s daughter Hope, with whom Scott had developed a little
something in the last film, go to get him back. By now Hope has a suit of her
own; hence ‘the Wasp’ of the title.
That
is the extent of what is at stake in Ant-Man and the Wasp, with no bigger
worlds than that family to be put back together. Even towards that, the film
expends very little screen time. What it does is fill up this loose and even
woozy plot at times with characters with warmth, and people who interact.
If
Pym and Hope, and Scott and his daughter, are not enough of a father-daughter
parallel, the film has another lost girl and another father figure to the
rescue. The only reason the two otherwise superfluous distractions work is
because the girl, played by John-Kamen, manages to draw surprising empathy. She
is the daughter of an old colleague of Pym, who got injured during a quantum
lab accident gone wrong, and now suffers from “quantum disequilibrium”. In
simpler words (so to speak), her cells keep breaking and repairing all of the
time, leaving her in deep pain. Somehow, she thinks that a quantum tunnel that
Pym and Hope are building is her only salvation.
Those
may appear too many ‘quantums’ in the above paragraphs. But that’s just a
minute reflection of how many times the word pops up in the film, with its five
writers, including Rudd, rolling out a lot of what passes for scientific
jargon. Scott, speaking for all of us, even asks at one point, “Do you guys
just put quantum in front of everything?”
Still,
the film goes into atomic, sub-atomic, quantum, factorisation, quantum energy
and, finally, quantum void. How that passage plays out is also disappointing,
with hints that it may be a misconceived adventure born of hubris never
amounting to much.
However,
bigger themes is clearly not the thing of this film with its small people. And
yet, as Scott and Hope fight with and against each other, the film deftly
enlarges and shrinks them with a whoosh while in battle, and traps Scott once
mid-size at her daughter’s school, you wonder… Could there be a comment there,
on the politics of size?
Read complete review at Indian Express
It's
hard to say which is the most lightweight, evanescent and inconsequential of
the bunch — Ant-Man, the Wasp or Ant-Man and the Wasp. But while pondering this
conundrum for two hours, it becomes increasingly difficult not to notice that
this latest entry in the unstoppable Marvel Studios takeover of the world is
probably the most amusing film the company has made since the Kevin Feige reign
began a decade ago. With a domestic haul of "only" $180 million in
2015, the original Ant-Man stands as the company's second-lowest grosser during
that period, so Black Panther and Avengers: Infinity War will not feel threatened.
Black
Panther instantly became a landmark by placing black characters and culture
front-and-center in such a mass audience attraction. Now it seems as though
Ant-Man has exerted a strong influence of its own by demonstrating that actors
of a certain age can once again play characters decades younger. Having passed
70, Michael Douglas, submitting to the miracle of digital facelifting, three
years ago paved the way with his entirely convincing turn as the fortysomething
downsizing genius Dr. Hank Pym. Michelle Pfeiffer and Laurence Fishburne
clearly took note and told their agents, "Hell, get me some of that stuff,
too." And here they are, looking (part of the time) as ready as ever for
their close-ups.
Trying
to slip these wispy little insect characters into a world dominated by the
likes of Thor, Thanos, Iron Man, Hulk, Drax and so many bulging others was
always a long-shot challenge, so it was a smart move to push a disarming sense
of humor to the forefront in this series. Star Paul Rudd is the only returning
writer from the original's team of four, and replacing the departed ones are
four more — Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers (The Lego Batman Movie, Jumanji:
Welcome to the Jungle) along with Andrew Barrer (Haunt) and Gabriel Ferrari —
whose marching orders clearly mandated coming up with as many jokes and gags as
possible for returning director Peyton Reed to spin into the action.
The
result is an effects-laden goofball comedy in which anything goes and nothing
matters. Not that this is an entirely plot-free extravaganza or just an excuse
for comic riffs. But the filmmakers are so cavalier about the idea that any of
this is supposed to make any sense that there's a certain liberation in not
burdening two human-brained insects with the fate of the entire universe. If
the filmmakers don't pretend to take the proceedings too seriously, you don't
have to, either.
It's
refreshing to feel that the little corner of the universe known as San
Francisco hasn't yet come to Thanos' attention. All that really matters for
good-natured goofball Scott Lang (Rudd) is to serve out the remaining three
days of his house arrest without lapsing back into his superhero guise. Given
all the hubbub in the household, you can bet it won't be easy.
Scott
is under strict orders not to re-enter the Quantum Realm, but this is like
telling Eve not to eat the apple — especially since the Realm's pioneer
explorer, Dr. Hank Pym (Douglas), believes his beloved ex-wife, Janet
(Pfeiffer), the original Wasp, remains in limbo there, and Hank and Janet's
daughter, Hope (Evangeline Lilly), is also a quantum physicist keen on helping
out. Part of the film's antic comedy grows out of Scott's slippery maneuvers to
elude the authorities on this score, and another part of it rests in the sort
of flippant attitude that allows one character to snort to a scientist, “Do you
guys just put the word 'quantum' in front of everything?”
But
even more of the mirth springs from the fact that, in this installment
especially, size matters. A lot. Part of the minute lead characters'
effectiveness stems from their minuscule stature and consequent
near-invisibility, hence their ability to zip around mostly unnoticed. But now
they can get really large on a whim as well, and so instantaneously that the
filmmakers' decision to essentially dispense with justification and
explanations becomes part of the romp's charm.
But
the main benefit of this devil-may-care attitude is the running gag relating to
the size of Dr. Pym's top-secret lab headquarters. Since size-changing is the
central given of this series, why not then logically extend it to a building,
specifically the one where all the secrets are kept? Possessing this edifice
becomes the prime concern of bad guy Sonny (an amusing Walton Goggins), and the
sight of the building repeatedly being reduced from the size of a city block to
that of a suitcase that can be stolen and carried around provides a droll kick,
both for its own comedy value and for the way it intermittently pushes the
silliness to the level of quasi-inspiration.
By
Marvel standards, the film is reductionist in every way, and what's at stake
couldn't be further from what lies in the balance at the conclusion of the
studio's recent mega-blockbuster Avengers: Infinity War. But therein lies most
of its modest charm. Almost by necessity, it takes the low road, but its
underdog status is embraced, even exulted in.
Rudd
does more than anyone to set the mood by walking a tonal balance beam with a
seriousness shot through with an irrepressible edge of goofy insubordination.
While the sincere grownups in the room are played by Lilly, Douglas and
Fishburne, the latter as a brainy former academic colleague of Pym's,
counterbalancing them with antic comic relief are Scott's former small-time
criminal cohorts (Michael Pena, Tip 'T.I.' Harris, David Dastmalchian) trying
to make a move into the security business.
Given
that there's really nothing that the filmmakers could have done to disguise the
truth of the matter, which is that Ant-Man really is a pipsqueak compared to
the A-cast of Marvel superheroes, Marvel has done a pretty good job with its B
team. After the heavy lifting involved in the studio's most recent
blockbusters, Black Panther and Avengers: Infinity War, Ant-Man lays out a
welcome picnic.
Read complete review at Hollywood Reporter
Movie Rating : ★★★☆☆
Even
with a new partner, Paul Rudd's superhero easy to forget
Sandra Hall
In
the Marvel Universe pantheon of unlikely superheroes, Paul Rudd's Ant-Man is
right up there – or rather, down there – as his special talent lies in his
ability to shrink to the size of an insect.
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.
At
times, he grows instead and rather likes it. Sixty-five feet, he announces
proudly in Ant-Man and the Wasp when asked the maximum height he had been able
to achieve when wearing his super suit. Rudd's default expression, however, is
haplessness. His face spells out the question: "Who? Me?", as if
astonished that anyone could choose its possessor for anything more arduous
than washing the dishes.
Ant-Man
fans hooked on the geography and chronology of the Marvel Universe will already
know that the action takes place two years after the events which unfolded in
Marvel's Captain America: Civil War. But the script makes allowances for the
rest of us by filling in the back story with large dollops of exposition which
also incorporate a tutorial on the heavily Marvelised version of quantum
physics which powers the plot.
Director
Peyton Reed concentrates on keeping things light – as he must. Along with the
absurdity inherent in the idea of a superhero who can drive a Matchbox car,
there's the fact that he commands a cheesy-looking army of animatronic ants.
When off duty, he also hangs out with a bumbling trio of petty crooks played by
fellow comics Michael Pena, David Dastmalchian and Tip "T.I." Harris.
Rudd
co-wrote the script but it doesn't do his own comic gifts any favours. While he
and Lilly show signs of developing a promising line in banter, they lose
interest before it's properly under way.
Lilly's
Wasp is a much more poised operator than her colleague, with no need of extra
entomological back-up. Her performance is invested with a neat blend of
elegance, irony and athletic confidence. And she has a better suit than Scott,
as well as a superior intellect. He regards her with a heady mixture of lust,
awe and profound gratitude as she extracts him from yet another misadventure.
But
neither of them is a match for the film's newly introduced villain, Ghost
(British actress Hannah John-Kamen), an angst-ridden mystery woman whose powers
are mightiest of all.
Marvel
movies have long since passed the point where the stunts can be seen as the
main attraction. We've been watching people in Latex suits with CGI accessories
battle for supremacy for so long that these days they have to possess something
really original to stand out from the crowd.
The
most recent example to meet this criterion was Black Panther, the first black
superhero. Ant-Man isn't that kind of ground-breaker – despite the help he
receives from Lilly. He gets by on his propensity for knockabout humour, his
child-like enthusiasms and the company he keeps. He's likeable, his films are
kid-friendly, and that's about it.
Read complete review at Sydney Morning Herald
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