If you’re STILL debating on whether to see Ant-Man & The Wasp, this post will be perfect for you. I had the chance to see the movie Thursday night and have been writing this post since. Here’s a non-spoiler review with additional information to get a feeling of what to expect and whether or not you want to see the movie!
The Hype
This year has only got to the half-way point but it the folks at Disney/Marvel have already released a lot of new films. In my perspective, I do think that they overdid it and got a little greedy with their scheduling.
The reason why I say this is because there was not a lot of time between the release of Black Panther and Avengers. Although both movies were highly successful, I believe that more time should be given for fans to resonate with the film and to build more anticipation for the next release in the line-up. Instead, they released Solo: A Star Wars Story, that absolutely bombed. Once again, my opinion, is that if Solo was released in December like the prior instalments in the Star Wars franchise it would have performed better in the box office. Nevertheless, we have yet another release with Ant-man and the Wasp.
Below is the first trailer that was released during the Super Bowl this year. Based on the people I talked to and the buzz (pun intended) that the movie was getting, I would say that the hype for the movie was fairly low. Once again, I believe the main reason for this is because of the excessive film releases. However, another reason would be is that Ant-Man is generally not a name in the comics world that many fans get excited about.
Nevertheless, the Ant-man series faced doubt before when the released the first film in their series in 2015 and still proved skeptics wrong! I would say that they are almost in the same position now and have earned the same response with the second instalment!
The Cast
Although it has been only two years since the last Ant-Man film I totally forgot that certain actors were in the original. Nevertheless, I’m glad that they reprised their roles in the new film. The specific characters I’m talking about is Tip “TI” Harris & David Dastmalchian. The guys
Of course, the main cast of Paul Rudd, Michael Douglas and Canadian actress Evangeline Lilly definitely came through with humour and bad-ass moments.
In addition, the two supporting actors that really stole the show in the last film still did well. The actors I’m referring to is Michael Peña and Abby Ryder Fortson.
Also, there are several new characters that enter the series (not too sure if it is a spoiler) but Michelle Pfeiffer, Randall Park, Lawrence Fishburne and Hannah John-Kamen.
Overall, Paul Rudd was still the main character and with so many characters present none of them were useless to the story.
The Different Elements
The Story
The timeframe for this movie is set right before infinity war and sometime after civil war. So yes, expect it to be a little awkward between the Pyms and Scott Lang. Nevertheless, we do see growth with other characters including Scott’s crew. Of course with the release of this film being after avengers infinity war, a lot of fans were confused and skeptical on how this movie works out as well as how to perceive it.
Well, there’s something Paul Russ mentioned in an interview with Seth Meyers when promoting the film a couple days prior to the movie actually being seen to the general public. What he mentioned is actually the first search result that appears when you type in Ant-man & The Wasp.
The End Credit Scene
By now everyone who has seen the film have been left in shock after watching the first end Credit scene. Like Paul Rudd mentions below, it does make total sense and Marvel once again will pull your heart strings and make you anticipate heavily for their next release! Also, if you’re cut for time the last end Credit scene is a fun gag so if you’re in a rush I recommend not staying for it but heck, you waited this long so why not!?
Comedy
The one aspect that Marvel heavily depends on when promoting this film is comedy. When you have Paul Rudd as the main character it is well expected you are in for a good laugh. However, as mentioned earlier guys like Michael Peña, Randall Park and T.I. have great comedic scenes as well.
If I’m being honest, I did find the first film more funny but that’s not to say this movie didn’t have well written scenes featuring comedic reliefs. The movie definitely had humour and you can definitely expect one of Michael Peña/Luis’ EPIC story telling!
Family
Besides comedy, there is another critical element for why fans gravitate to the Ant-Man films, family. We saw the importance of family and our hearts melt when we saw Scott’s relationship with his daughter, Cassie Lang.
In this film, we still get to see that cute relationship develop. However, this movie focuses on the Pym family which is great to see since it is very complicated. In addition, there are other characters that can be considered extended family which adds to the overall fun and enjoyment when watching this movie.
I know I gravitated to this character because of this element and plus, I thought his helmet was cool which is why I wore it for Halloween two years ago!
Final Verdict and Score
The movie was absolutely fun. Funny, yes but it was fun to watch! That is a feeling that is often missed when going to the movie theatres, especially for a comic book adaptation. The chemistry of the cast and screen writing makes the film enjoyable and allows the movie to focus on the characters directly from the Ant-Man comics.
It was fun but not heavily engaging or heart stringing like Black Panther or Avengers which is why I still give it a score of eight out of ten. I think a lot of people are sleeping on this film but trust me you will enjoy it and wouldn’t want to miss that important end credits scene. Although I wasn’t fully amazed by the film due to the entertainment value I would probably check it out again with a couple of friends who haven’t seen it yet.
Since it’s been a while since I saw the film and maybe a while since you had to check out these clips below from Looper ONLY if you have already seen the movie!
Here’s my score but let me know what you think in the comments below! Make sure you follow and subscribe for more!
Final Score: 8/10 Must Watch: Yes Watch Again: Maybe