Ant-Man and the Wasp – Movie Review

Directed by Peyton Reed, Ant-Man and the Wasp is the 20th movie in the illustrious Marvel Cinematic Universe and stars Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Michael Douglas, Michael Peña in recurring roles and Hannah John-Kamen portrays the villainous character of Ghost alongside with Walton Goggins.

Facing few repercussions due to his involvement in The Civil War, Scott Lang is in house arrest spending quality time with his daughter and his helping his waggish gang in running a security company. On the other side, Hope and Hank Pym were in a hideout trying to find, explore and create the possibilities of going inside the quantum realm in hopes to find Janet (Hank’s wife) who is lost and trapped in the abyss. But, they soon find trouble with the arrival of the Ghost, who has her own agenda when it comes to capturing something significant.

Also Read: ‘Black Panther’ Review

Let’s start with the positives, as always, much like every other MCU movie, the action sequences were a delight to watch. They’re enough exhilarating scenes sprinkled all throughout the film to keep you entertained despite few storyline issues. Furthermore, the visual effects is another noteworthy positive of the film, as it is amazing to experience the marvel of CGI and the up-and-coming de-aging effect on the silver screen.

Advancing to the characters, the relationship between Scott Lang and his daughter Cassie is once again one of the primary highlights of the film and it is heartwarming to watch them together on-screen. But, Evangeline Lilly as the Wasp is the stand-out character as she had much more delve into in this film and she served as the perfect counterpart for the Ant-Man.

However, here are the negatives. Back in 2015, in my review of Ant-Man, I openly wrote that I’m not a huge fan of the film’s storyline cause it’s too ordinary or orthodox for me. Now, with this film, the story felt much more uninteresting, unimportant and overall mundane to watch. You might make a point or even argue that MCU needed a much lighter toned film coming off the chaos of Infinity War, but, if you take this as an individual film or maybe watch it after few years, I’m sure that you’ll most probably find it lackluster.

Also, due to the insipid plot, the screenplay also suffered substantially as the writers tried to narrate the story in a perplexing fashion which did not do any favors. The villains were once again disappointing as nothing felt like a serious threat to Ant-Man, Wasp or even Luis. Likewise, Michael Peña’s comedic act quickly got stale and unhumorous after a certain point as it carried on hit to the same beats again and again.

Also Read: ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ Review

Overall, Ant-Man and the Wasp felt like the majority of the Marvel films; packed with entertaining action scenes, quick-fire comedy and a minimal intrigue added to the plot. I consider this as dumb fun cause it appealed more to the 8-year old sitting next to me who flabbergasted when the Hello Kitty Pez dispenser came out flying from the back door of a van and I have to say that he started to annoy me after a while with his buddy by screaming and jumping out-of-the-seat several times. Anyhow, back to my verdict, fortunately, there’s plenty of fun that you can have with this film but it just felt like an ordinary film which is easily forgettable the next day.

Rating – 2.75/5 | Grade – C+