Ant-Man And The Wasp

Following Thanos’ snap in Infinity War was always going to be a daunting task and the short (or should that be microscopic) straw has been drawn by MIA Scott Lang and Ant-Man And The Wasp.

His lack of involvement in April’s epic suitably addressed (he’s under house arrest after breaking those damned Sokovia Accords after Civil War’s airport battle) this sequel squeezes into the space pre-Thanos, as Scott teams back up with Hank Pym and Hope Van Dyne, finally unleashed as the Wasp, to try and retrieve Hank’s wife and original Wasp; Janet, from the Quantum Realm. Their exploits interrupted by a mysterious and sympathetic new villain: Ghost.

Allusions to his Purple-ness are scant and this slots in nicely as one of those ‘MCU-story’ films. Akin to Guardians Vol. 2 that means this is a fun and hilarious romp through a side story that wouldn’t usually be the sort of thing to get Captain America out of bed.

Bar, SLIGHT SPOILER, a whopper of a post-credits cliff-hanger that means the stakes here are comparatively low when set next to the rest of the immaculate Phase 3 (indeed this stands more with Phase 2 sequels like Iron Man 2 and Thor: The Dark World.)

As we are now Phase 3 though (shouldn’t Thanos’ snap have signalled the start of the next Phase Marvel?) It does mean the action and plot are exponentially better than those aforementioned examples. Marvel have this superhero lark down to a fine art now, which means side-line missions like this still rank higher than what DC are churning out currently as flagship titles.

The best thing about the first Ant-Man is kept intact for the sequel and that’s the core characters. The venerable Michael Douglas is joined by esteemed colleagues Laurence Fishburne and Michelle Pfeiffer who are able to add gravitas with little screen time. Janet teasing how she’s “not the woman I used to be” is an intriguing prospect.

Paul Rudd wears this role as snugly as his Ant-Man suit (or perhaps we should only refer to him as Giant-Man now, as he is in a newscast here), his comedy chops stealing clever scenes (acting as Janet is a particularly hilarious example) and what more can be said about MVP Michael Pena as Luis; the guy could make the proverbial phonebook funny.

The film is a victim of circumstance and timing though as it’s probably the weakest, and certainly the slightest, film we’ve seen in Phase 3. Ant-Man And The Wasp, though, still proves the MCU’s veritable genius and sails past previous, non MCU, superhero fare like The Amazing Spider-Man series and the rest of its ilk as a standalone picture.

A brilliantly fun and funny palette cleanser ahead of the mouth-watering arrival of Captain Marvel.

4 stars ****