Ant-Man and the Wasp Movie Review

Good Heroes come in small, ant-sized Packages. That is the lesson that Marvel taught the world in 2015. When another member of the Marvel Superhero family is introduced, the world takes notice. Especially when the new character is a little bit off the beaten track. “Ant-Man” was a big success, and did not reflect its minimal-sized name. For a lower-tiered Hero, Ant-Man got the bigger jobs done (especially at the Box Office)

In the first movie, many characters were introduced and became a vital part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) had become ‘Ant-Man’ with the help of a ‘Quantum-shifting’ suit developed by Hank Pym (Michael Douglas). Pym is working with his daughter Hope van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly). Pym is missing his wife, Janet van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer). She had worked with the scientist when he developed his size-shifting suit that made him the original ‘Ant-Man’ and his wife the original ‘Wasp’.

Scott is under house arrest (due to what happened at the airport in Germany – see ‘Captain America: Civil War’ for details). And Hank Pym and Hope Van Dyne are on the run. His time under the watchful eye of the FBI is almost up, so the time is right that something weird should happen. Hank and Hope are working with a shady criminal named Sonny (Walton Goggins) who wants to steal the Pym technology. There is a strange woman named Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen) who is dying from a massive exposure of those darn Quantum rays. But it gives her ability to ‘phase-shift’ right through walls and such.

Sonny has a bunch of low-life thugs to help him. Ghost has Bill Foster (Laurence Fishburne), who is a Physics professor and old friend of Pym’s. But Forster is now turned away from Pym and wants to bring him in. Scott Lang has help from Hank and Pym, but also from his good friend Luis (Michael Peña), who is an ex-con like Scott, but is now in charge of a start-up security company.

The only one not helping is Janet Van Dyne, because for over thirty years she has been trapped in the ‘Quantum Realm’. This is a sub-atomic level world that Scott Lang briefly encountered in the first movie. Scott has been there, and could help Hank Pym find his wife. Hope will get also help because she wants her mother back. Bill Foster has decided that the Quantum Realm visit that Hank Pym is going to make might bring back enough Quantum Healing crystals to heal the Ghost and make her normal.

So everyone is on the run, from the FBI, from the low-down thugs, from the Ghost and from anything that that would make the movie boring. Scott Lang becomes Ant-Man again, and Hope van Dyne becomes the Wasp. They fight to free Janet from her Quantum prison and to beat the bad guys who only want to use the technology in the wrong way. There are great hand-to-hand battles, with Ant-Man shrinking and expanding and the Wasp able to use her suit to fly right into a flight.

The movie on a whole takes a welcome break from the normal Marvel fare. That means that not every movie needs to have an ultimate villain ready to snap his fingers and end the world. It’s also good to have a Superhero who is humble enough that he can become as small as an ant. The fights are fun to watch, when they use all the special abilities to win. There are even great car chases that go through ‘The Streets of San Francisco’. That is something that Michael Douglas knows very well.

Perhaps with a name like ‘Ant-Man and The Wasp’, audiences will assume that this is not a fun adventure movie. Those people would be wrong, because this ‘Ant’ has earned a place at the Marvel picnic.