In the film business, as in any other, one of the key factors for success is often choosing the right moment. Many titles that might otherwise be expected to be films of the year end up as disappointments or mediocre products that quickly fade from memory. Not even the money-printing machine known as the Marvel Cinematic Universe is immune to this. Ant-Man and the Wasp, one of the films in that cycle, had the simple misfortune of arriving in cinemas after Infinity War, up to that point the biggest and most spectacular instalment of the saga. After that, even far larger superheroes than the tiny Ant-Man would have looked small, especially when it comes to a plot that involves no saving the world from a great calamity, and a character who somehow managed to stay on the sidelines during the most spectacular of all battles in the history of real or fictional universes.
The titular protagonist, electrical engineer and ex-con Scott Lang (Paul Rudd), first appeared in Ant-Man in 2015, and a year later as one of the participants in the Avengers’ internal conflict in Captain America: Civil War. The plot of the new film begins at the moment when Lang, because of that little adventure, is punished by the government - forced to spend all his time under house arrest, without the suit that gives him the power to manipulate dimensions, but still determined to entertain his young daughter, whom he shares with his ex-wife and her new husband. His monotony is interrupted by a vision of Janet van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer), the wife of scientist and his mentor Hank Pym (Michael Douglas), who in 1987, while shrinking, ended up at the quantum level. When Lang is kidnapped by Pym and his daughter Hope (Evangeline Lilly), it turns out that Janet sent a message from the quantum realm, and Lang teams up with them to launch a rescue operation. This, however, requires special laboratory equipment that can only be obtained from black-market dealer Sonny Burch (Walton Goggins), who turns out not to have the best intentions. Matters are further complicated by the arrival of a mysterious woman called "Ghost", who can manipulate phase shifts and is desperately trying to get her hands on Pym's lab.
Ant-Man and the Wasp is by no means a worse film than the first instalment in the series, but that's not much of an achievement, because the first Ant-Man wasn't anything special. The script still sticks to the motto "less is more". Lang's character, along with that of his friend and former prison "cellmate", played by the excellent Michael Peña, are far more attractive as a comic duo than the spectacular but often overly mechanical action scenes, which mostly take place on the thousand-times-seen and, by Marvel standards, prosaic streets of San Francisco. On the other hand, the script no longer needs an "origin story" and can focus on the action. However, on the flip side, the relationship between Lang and Hope van Dyne has been neglected, and the lack of "chemistry" between Rudd and Lilly doesn't help. The character of the Wasp, who was supposed to be one of the few female superheroes in the Marvel universe, is not at all memorable. The screenwriters' lack of inspiration can also be seen in the villains. Sonny Burch, as a crooked dealer with government connections and a Southern accent, is a role that Walton Goggins plays in the same way Rade Šerbedžija played Russian gangsters. Ava Starr, alias Ghost, is a much more interesting character and is much better portrayed by Hannah John-Kamen, star of the TV series Killjoys, but the screenwriters simply didn't leave enough time for her to develop. That doesn't mean it's not an entertaining film and that it doesn't have its bright moments, for which Randall Park is mostly responsible in the role of Jimmy Woo, an FBI agent who pursues and monitors Lang in a way that leaves doubts as to whether his motives are professional or romantic in nature. These moments, however, will not stop the tiny Ant-Man from once again being overshadowed and becoming unnoticeable next to his more massive superhero colleagues.
RATING: 5/10 (++)
(Note: The text in the original Croatian version is available here.)
Blog in Croatian https://draxblog.com
Blog in English https://draxreview.wordpress.com/
InLeo blog @drax.leo
LeoDex: https://leodex.io/?ref=drax
Hiveonboard: https://hiveonboard.com?ref=drax
InLeo: https://inleo.io/signup?referral=drax.leo
Rising Star game: https://www.risingstargame.com?referrer=drax
1Inch: https://1inch.exchange/#/r/0x83823d8CCB74F828148258BB4457642124b1328e
BTC donations: 1EWxiMiP6iiG9rger3NuUSd6HByaxQWafG
ETH donations: 0xB305F144323b99e6f8b1d66f5D7DE78B498C32A7
BCH donations: qpvxw0jax79lhmvlgcldkzpqanf03r9cjv8y6gtmk9