Movie Review: Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018)

Director: Peyton Reed
Distributor: Marvel Entertainment
Runtime: 118 minutes
Released: October 16, 2018
Availability: On DVD, 4K blu-ray, blu-ray, and digital download, streaming on Disney+

Scott Lang tries to make amends with Hank and Hope Pym after he stole the Ant-Man suit to go fight alongside Captain America in Captain America: Civil War (2016). He tries to help them retrieve Janet Van Dyne from the Quantum Zone where she’s been trapped for 30 years.

Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018) are a fun and entertaining film. I enjoyed Ant-Man (2015) a lot and I didn’t get the chance to go see this in theaters but it was on Netflix so I decided to watch it.

This is a sequel that lives up to the first film, but can’t quite top it, even though I really enjoyed the movie, it can’t quite surpass the first film. It’s not a bad Marvel movie by any means, but I think I enjoyed the first film just a little more.

The story is interesting since the team isn’t really getting along that well, and it makes the character dynamics entertaining as well.

The plot is a nice follow-up to both Captain America: Civil War (2016) and Ant-Man (2015) as well.

The visual effects for Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018) are a visual spectacle when it comes to the film and how the action scenes look. The fight scenes look cool and are unique for these characters. The other effects also look good for the villain Ghost.

The film is entertaining because of the set-piece action sequences and fun superhero chase scenes. It is an entertaining film but not my favorite Marvel superhero film.

Paul Rudd did a great job as Scott Lang/Ant-Man. They gave him character development while still giving him funny lines and great action scenes. He did a great job and I liked him in this film.

I really enjoyed Evangeline Lilly as Hope van Dyne/Wasp. I’ve always enjoyed her work since I saw her on the TV show LOST and I was very happy when she got this role in the Marvel movies since I thought her role in The Hobbit trilogy was just Peter Jackson trying to be diverse when there weren’t any female characters in the book. At least in this film, she’s not there to just be there, she’s there because she’s an important character to the story.

She gave a great performance and I hope to see her again in another Ant-Man sequel.

Michael Douglas did a great job and gave a great performance as Hank Pym. He played a great part and had an interesting role in this film. I liked his performance and I think he was great.

Michael Peña is hilarious as Luis. I always love the humor he brings to the movie by being the entertaining comic relief for the story. And his signature rambling storytelling makes a return as well.

Walton Goggins was a good villain as Sonny Burch. He did a great job with the acting but he seems to fall under the typical evil CEO villain these kinds of stories tend to have. He was still entertaining.

The acting is great for the movie and all of the cast did a great job. I did enjoy the acting a lot.

Christophe Beck’s soundtrack was good. It fit the film and sounded good too. I liked the score for Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018). It might not be the most amazing superhero score ever, but it was still fun and entertaining.

I love the humor in this film. It’s funny, there are jokes that are set up and pay off really well. There are some great visual gags used during the climax that is just fun to watch.

Luis’ glorious rambling storytelling makes a hilarious turn without being annoying, by having it become a plot point in the story where he as to tell a rambling story because of being given truth serum.

It’s also a great movie because it just has fun and uses humor to do it.

As a female critic, I have always been annoyed by blatant attempts to pander to the female audience with an obligatory “female empowerment” scene. You know, the scenes where the writers and director go, “Look at this women do this awesome thing, see, see? Women can do awesome things like the men can! Look at how inclusive we are!”

The problem with many writers is they usually make the men look stupid and incompetent then the women have to come in and save the day! It’s so annoying, and the audience knows when they’re being pandered to because these moments don’t feel earned or genuine, they feel shoehorned and that was a huge problem in Captain Marvel (2019).

Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018) does not have this problem, both Hope Van Dyne and Janet Pym are integral to the story in ways that are natural and not forced or shoehorned.

Hope does have great fight scenes but she doesn’t overshadow Scott, they both have balanced scenes between them both and they both have great character dynamics and chemistry.

Janet Pym is also an important part of the story and she’s not just a plot point either.

This film shows female empowerment done right, where women get great moments that highlight them are not shoehorned into the story.

Plus, there’s also great character writing, which Captain Marvel (2019) didn’t have.

The pacing of the film does feel slow at times, but the action scenes do pick up the pace, but it can sometimes feel like they’re taking too long for some things to happen.

The pacing is uneven and it can be annoying.

This film is a lot of fun, but it can’t quite top the first film, although it does bring back the things that were fun, it does feel a little repetitive when it comes to the villain.

I enjoyed that the supporting characters got to do more and that everyone had an important role to play in this film. It was a superhero movie that I enjoyed watching. It was worth my time, but not necessarily my money.

Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018) is fun and enjoyable. It’s also a good sequel to the first Ant-Man (2015) film but it can’t quite surpass the first film, but I had a blast watching it. It was a fun and enjoyable film that did many things right.

It does feel repetitive with a similar villain to the first film, they just changed one motivation so it does feel like they could do better with giving Ant-Man more interesting villains to fight in his own films, apart from appearing in Avengers: Endgame (2019).

I watched this film on Netflix and it was worth my time, I probably won’t be buying it, but I did enjoy it a lot. I do recommend watching it at least once, it will be up on Disney+ and you can stream it there if you have a subscription.

It might be worth your money if you enjoyed it. I enjoyed it, but not enough to pay for it when I can borrow it from my library if I want to watch it again.

Only buy it if you really enjoyed the film. It’s a fun superhero film and I did have a good time watching it.