Jan 31, 2019
Another month, another Marvel movie to review. I'll be honest with you guys, am I ever NOT honest, I wonder what the point is gonna be for me where I just get sick and tired of these movies. Perhaps not sick and tired to the point where I stop watching them, but there is such a thing as franchise fatigue. The thing is that, despite this only being the second movie in this 'sub-series', so to speak, it's part of the larger Marvel Cinematic Universe, which is its own massive franchise. Marvel has been able to get away with 21 movies (Captain Marvel and Avengers: Endgame later this years bumps that number up to 23) in the same franchise over the course of 10+ years because of the fact that, for the most part, you're not seeing the same characters over and over again. For example, if Iron Man 2 releases this year, you're not gonna get an Iron Man 3 that same year. They give it room to breathe and, say, the next movie might be centered on Captain America or Thor, as an example. Yes, they appear in each other's movies from time to time, but not enough to where you're seeing too much of them at one time. I think that's been a smart decision on their part. But, in my opinion, I'm just getting to the point where that doesn't really matter, where I just need a break from all this superhero action. This is a problem with the MCU in general, but all of their films tend to feel alike. Perhaps not visually, but in terms of tone, they're all practically similar. While the DCEU hasn't gone swimmingly, I have to give them props for, at the very least, trying to differentiate things up from the formula. I'm not saying Suicide Squad was a good movie, because it wasn't (even if it wasn't as bad as some claim), but at least that film took a more novel approach to the concept. And DC, in a way, has something great in their hands, because while Marvel is concerned with their own massive universe and keeping it all in check, they could do one-off stories that aren't a part of their universe. That opens up a lot of different ways to tell stories that, say, Marvel might not even bother. Like this Joaquin Phoenix Joker movie, that looks really interesting and something different from this type of genre. Birds of Prey (the Harley Quinn movie that was just announced) could also be really interesting. I assume Matt Reeves is gonna take Batman in an interesting direction as well. DC has failed to catch up with Marvel, but they can do more interesting stories as a result, they can do one-offs while still maintaining their shared universe. It's just something that I wish Marvel would do. Just take a step back and do something that's a little smaller and not necessarily so much about saving the world and whatnot. Neither here nor there, I suppose. As far as this movie is concerned, this is interesting. I find this to be an improvement over the original in pretty much every way. I felt the original was hurt by the fact that Edgar Wright, who was meant to write and direct, left the project due to creative differences with Marvel. Like, seriously, can you imagine how fucking great the original Ant-Man would have been if Marvel would have given Wright more creative freedom. I guess it's for the best, since we probably wouldn't have gotten one of the freshest and cleverest action movies (in Baby Driver) as soon as we did. Anyway, I felt that Wright leaving sort of put them in a tough spot and they were just trying to get it done for its assigned release date. Not to say it was rushed, but it's just saying that there was something missing from the movie. Scott Lang didn't really have much of a personality, as good as Paul Rudd was in it. He's just a good dad trying to do right for his daughter. It didn't feel like up to what Marvel usually does. Then again that may be the fact that Ant-Man, realistically speaking, is a B-level Marvel hero. I don't mean that as an insult, because you can't really put Ant-Man on the same level of Captain America, Iron Man, Black Panther or Thor. He's just not on that level. I'd even put him below Spider-Man and Marvel shares the film rights to the character with Sony. Like I said, that's not an insult, just like every villain can't be Thanos or the Joker. Ant-Man helps fill a void and that void is a lighter, less serious one than most other films in the same universe. Marvel films always have humor in them, and that really is an integral part of their success, but most of the stories around them have been more serious in nature and I think Ant-Man and the Wasp's sense of humor and lighter tone was probably the best choice to follow-up the biggest movie Marvel has ever done (up to this point), Infinity War. After that, where plenty of heroes died, the next movie really did need to be lighter in tone and this was a great choice. With that said, at the same time, I can't seem to shake the feeling that this is still a B-level Marvel movie. Something that's really not as important to them as others. They're still investing hundreds of millions of dollars into the production of the film, so I guess they DO feel it's important, in a way. Like I said, however, this sequel is an improvement in every possible way. It's not a great movie, mind you, but it is a lot of fun to watch. Having said all of that, however, I do think this movie features one of the MCU's worst villains. I don't mean that she's a terrible character, like poorly written one or anything of the sort, I just don't find Ghost that interesting of a character and her motivations are far too generic to make for a compelling villain. Ghost's father worked for Hank Pym, Hank fired him and had him discredited. Ghost's father continued working on his experiments, one of these experiments went very wrong and Ghost's parents ended up dead and she ended up with her powers. Somehow she blames Hank for this. I get that she's resentful that Hank got her father fired and discredited, but her father performed the experiments on his own. Why IN the fuck would you, as a parent, let your child go to a place where they're performing experiments that could immensely backfire. In a way, Ghost should blame her own father for continuing his experiments. And I get that sometimes villains aren't rational in their motivations, but this one, especially, doesn't really make sense. Basically, long story short, Ghost wants to extract Hope's mom from the quantum realm, which she's been in for 30 years, in order to cure herself. For, you see, her powers are also causing her great pain and, sooner rather than later, are going to kill her. Hope, Hank and Scott, on the other hand, are attempting to save Hope's mom from the quantum realm while fighting off Ghost and Sonny Burch (a corrupt businessman) and his men, as they want the tech Hope and Hank possess in order to sell to the highest bidder. Scott, on the other hand, is three days away from being released from house arrest and, of course, he has his own struggles to deal with as breaking the terms of his house arrest could land him in jail for twenty years. This leads to a running gag in the movie, when Scott is replaced by a giant ant, who wears Scott's ankle bracelet, and follows his routine down to a T. With that said, I didn't really connect with the narrative in any sort of meaningful way. I do like the idea of Hank and Hope saving Janet (and the original wasp), when Janet uses Scott as sort of an antenna to help pinpoint her exact location, but I wasn't really wowed by the story in any way. And, to be fair, not many MCU movies have incredible stories (Black Panther being one of those few), but I felt that this engaged me less than most of them. I have no real idea why, but it is what it is. That's not to say it's bad, because it's not and it leads to an emotional reunion between Hope and Janet that is more than definitely earned. I guess, in a way, you could say that the movie is about parents, in this case Janet and Scott, and the relationship with their daughters and how important those daughters happen to be to those two. The movie captures some of that here, but not as much to push this into the great category. Though, to be fair, there's a few reasons why this isn't ever great. However, like I said earlier, the movie more than makes up for that with a great cast. Paul Rudd and Evangeline Lilly are great here as are the surrounding cast members. Michael Douglas is always great. Michelle Pfeiffer, in spite of her brief appearance, is strong as well. Walton Goggins is a great addition to the MCU and he adds something different to the proceedings. He's not a man with superpowers nor is he spectacular in any way, he's just a corrupt businessman who does what it takes to get what he wants. He's never gonna be a major figure in the MCU, his character just isn't that kind, but I do wish we would see him pop up here and there in other movies, just trying to exert his influence and get his way regarding certain things. Michael Pena, much like in the original movie, remains one of the best parts of this movie. He's the comedic relief in a movie that, realistically speaking, is more comedy than action. So imagine that. While I had my issues with Ghost as a character and her being the most 'villain of the week' the MCU has produced and they're chock full of 'villains of the week', I did think that Hannah John-Kamen (who is quite lovely) was very good in her role regardless of my issues with the character just not being that interesting. Anyway, I thought the script was very strong and it focuses on the strengths of its cast. The action didn't really blow my mind, but it was more than solid and there's some clever usage of the whole shrinking and enlarging concept. I don't know what else you want to say about this movie, you expect too much of me. With that said, as much fun as I did have with this movie, I do think it just sort of BARELY crossed the 3.5 rating. It got there at the last second, but it got there nonetheless. Like I said, I wasn't really engaged with the narrative and the main villain really did nothing for me. But through the sheer power of a strong script with a lot of humor and a great cast to add their own touch what's written down, this does still manage to be a really fun movie. Just what the MCU needed after Infinity War. It's B-tier Marvel, to be sure, but that's not a bad thing. This still delivered the goods and if you're a Marvel diehard, this will hit the spot.
Verified