Ant-Man and the Wasp

Wasp and Ant-Man

Ant-Man and The Wasp

Hank Pym is one of the oldest Marvel characters, he even predates the Marvel Universe, appearing first in Marvel's predecessor Atlas Comics anthology Astonishing Tales (see our review of that story here). And Pym is one of the most interesting superheroes in the Marvel Universe, having created more of The Avengers' tech over the years than even Tony (Iron Man) Stark. But he also had a very tumultuous relationship with his wife, the independent Janet Van Dyne, who kept her maiden name, flirted mercilessly with the other male Avengers. Their relationship eventually deteriorated into spousal abuse.

So it was huge lost opportunity when Marvel chose not to make a movie about Ant-Man, hero by day, wife abuser by night - possibly one of the darkest, most nuanced superhero movies imaginable, and instead go the complete opposite direction, making Pam the old scientist on the sidelines with goofy Paul Rudd as Scott Lang, the new Ant-Man. In the sequel to 2015's Ant-Man, Pym, Lang, and Pym's daughter Hope decide to rescue Janet who's been living in the quantum realm for 30 years (apparently eating and drinking subatomic particles?). Seriously, don't try think too hard about the science in this movie - it kind of makes sense in a comic book way for the first half hour, then it's like the writers just gave up - at one point Scott even says, "Do you guys just put the word 'quantum' in front of everything?".

Anyway,  Pym is the crotchety old guy. Hope when we first see her is the spitting image of the classic Wasp, bob haircut and all - obviously a wig, though, as a few minutes later in the film she inexplicably has long hair. Janet is played by Michelle Pfeiffer (who bears no resemblance to Janet in the comics), and despite her presence in the story there's once again no indication that Pym and Van Dyne's marriage was anything less than perfect. Lang is the wacky but lovable rapscallion who's under house arrest, but still has the nothing less than perfect relationship with his own daughter and with his ex-wife, and with the ex-wife's new boyfriend. And he also has some wacky but lovable rapscallion friends, and they all have a jolly good, wacky but lovable adventure together.

This is a long way of saying that Ant-Man and The Wasp is goofy fun. That's great and all, but it could have been so much more.

The Good:

• the humor - plenty of laughs, as you might expect from a cast comprised of stand-up comedians

The Bad:

• the science - it doesn't even adhere to the "comic book physics" rules it set up for itself - for example, it's been established that Ant-Man is dangerous because although tiny he still possesses all the mass of a full-grown man, making his punches devastating. Yet in this film a whole building is shrunk to luggage size and tossed around from person to person.

Stuff to watch for:

• the requisite Stan Lee cameo
• the inter-credits sequence is one of the best ever in a Marvel movie, adding a twist ending
• there's also a post-credits sequence

The Verdict:
***1/2 out of  *****