Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018) Review

Ant-Man and The Wasp Quantumania is released today and before having a chance to go and see it, I decided to go back and rewatch the previous film Ant-Man and The Wasp and here is my review for it. 

The premise of the film sees after the events of Captain America: Civil War, Scott Lang is under house arrest when he is recruited to once again venture into the Quantum Realm. 

Main Character

Paul Rudd and Evangeline Lily play the roles of Ant-Man and The Wasp and they are both really good here. They get more screen time together in this film and their dynamics are great. Their romance at the end of the previous film didn't quite work for me but it progresses nicely here and feels more earnt. They are both entertaining and it feels like a natural development from the first film. 

Supporting Characters

Michael Douglas is back as Hank Pym and he is really great. As I mentioned in my previous review, it seems like he really cares about the role and wants to sink his teeth into what he is given here. He has to provide quite a lot of the emotion here and his character has plenty of the limelight shined on him. Hannah John-Kamen plays Ghost and I thought she was an okay villain, I think she is better then Yellowjacket but not by much. Everything was there for her to be a great villain but she feels a bit like an afterthought and something that just didn't quite click. Michael Pena is back as Luis and this is a film where I actually found him quite annoying, they took everything that I liked in the first film but ramped it up and made it too obnoxious and like they didn't quite understand what he was good at in the first film. Walter Goggins plays Sonny Burch and he was a bad villain, he is just some businessman but there is nothing unique about him and he comes across as quite annoying throughout. Laurence Fishburne plays Bill Foster and he is fine but completely underutilised in a role that could have been really good. Fishburne is a great actor but for me he wasn't given enough to work with. 

Story

The story has a mixed time, it is interesting seeing our 3 main characters trying to get back into the Quantum Realm and showing how the effects of a previous film affected the story being told here. There is some heart and emotion, though I do feel like this is more of a Wasp film then an Ant-Man one but maybe that is just me. There is just way too much going on here, there are multiple villains that have nothing in common and are just there and the rushing of the final act also didn't really work for me. 

Script 

The script is decent, there is good humour as you would expect and also some decent drama. But this film does fall fowl of a common MCU trend of not really knowing how to balance humour and drama. It clashes at times and considering the stakes of the film I felt like this was a bothersome thing. 

Style 

The film looks great, the action scenes are still fresh and unique. The addition of The Wasp adds some freshness and seeing the pair fight Ghost is some of the more entertaining parts of the sequences. This is a pretty short film and it does fly by, but the pacing isn't that great with the focus being in the wrong places at times. Also, I don't know if it is just me but I really struggle with films that constantly change aspect ratio and this film does it a lot, I would rather a film pick one or the other. 

Overall

Overall, Ant-Man and The Wasp is an above average entertaining film. It is a bit of a let down of a sequel but I think fans of the original film will like this one. 

Rating - 6/10