It has been a roller-coaster lately with the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). It went up with Thor: Ragnarok, down with Black Panther, up again with Avengers: Infinity War, and now back down with Ant-Man and the Wasp.
Yes, I wasn’t big on Ant-Man and the Wasp—sequel to 2015’s Ant-Man—and that’s not meant as a pun. There are multiple ways I can look at Ant-Man and the Wasp: as a comedy, as a piece of the MCU, as a film, and as a true formal introduction of Wasp. In all four areas, Ant-Man and the Wasp falls flat to various degrees—some worse than others. Let me go over the plot first before examining where exactly the film falters.
Scott Lang/Ant-Man (Paul Rudd) has been under house arrest since Captain America: Civil War, where he assisted the losing side and is now paying the price. On the plus side, Scott has less than three days until his house arrest ends. Things are looking bright until Scott experiences a dream where he is a woman playing hide-and-seek with a young girl. Scott calls his past…mentor? Colleague?...He calls the former Ant-Man Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) to discuss the dream. Hank and his daughter Hope/Wasp (Evangeline Lilly) have been on the run since Scott’s past debacle as the Ant-Man suit was their creation. In the meantime, the father-daughter team has been trying to build a tunnel into the quantum realm to save Hank’s wife/Hope’s mother/the Former Wasp Janet (Michelle Pfeiffer) who has been stuck there since the 80s. It’s discovered that the woman in Scott’s dream is Janet, who Hank theorizes may be trying to send them a message. Scott gets wrapped into their adventure, being chased by various groups while still pretending to be in his house.
I recently read a good article discussing how the MCU’s comedy has evolved throughout its run and how Ant-Man and the Wasp almost obsessively puts comedy first. I agree. The film’s lighthearted joviality throughout certainly overshadows any serious dramatics (save for its mid-credits scene which ties into Infinity War’s plot). I’d go so far as to say the Ant-Man series has, overall, been the most lighthearted MCU series, even more so than Guardians of the Galaxy (which has had far more somber and/or darker moments). And yet, when viewed as a comedy, Ant-Man and the Wasp is funny, but not too funny. It’s amusing, but nowhere near the levels of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2., Thor: Ragnarok, and even Avengers: Infinity War—which has one of the darkest, most tragic MCU endings yet.
Paul Rudd plays the screwball here, with almost everyone else playing the straight man (or woman). Rudd’s comedy is good with some solid jokes throughout. I laughed at Scott crying while reading The Fault in Our Stars, when he notes how a younger Hope didn’t get the gist of playing Hide and Seek, and when Janet takes over his body and Rudd has to act as Michelle Pfeiffer. Yet it’s only Rudd who brings the effective comedy, with the few other comedic characters being decent at best. Guardians Vol. 2 has an entire cast of comedic gems, Ragnarok reinvents Chris Hemsworth’s character while bringing in Tom Hiddleston and Mark Ruffalo to work off one another, and Infinity War has all these people, plus Robert Downey Jr., plus Benedict Cumberbatch, plus Tom Holland, etc. Ant-Man and the Wasp, a comedy, only has Ant-Man to bring the humor. Even Scott’s friends/colleagues are written making a major comedy no-no by recycling the same and/or similar jokes from the previous film.
As a piece of the MCU, Ant-Man and the Wasp feels incredibly underwhelming. Being released right after Avengers: Infinity War definitely has an impact there, but it’s not just Infinity War that casts a shadow over Ant-Man and the Wasp. The last few non-Avengers, MCU films have all utilized previously established characters outside their respective series. Spider-Man: Homecoming features Iron Man and Happy Hogan, Thor: Ragnarok has Doctor Strange and Hulk appear, and Black Panther involves Ulysses Klaue and Everett Ross. Ant-Man and the Wasp focuses solely on its previous film’s cast and newly introduced characters, making it feel isolated from the MCU's other series.
The film’s plot is incredibly small scale, with its only notable objectives being bringing Janet back and making sure Scott doesn’t get caught being outside the house. Spider-Man: Homecoming showcases that small-scaled storylines can work effectively, but it does so by focusing on character development and Peter’s dynamics with its other characters. Scott goes through zero-character development in Ant-Man and the Wasp. He doesn’t learn any new lesson, experience any new trauma or tragedy to overcome, or make any lasting relationships with new characters (he doesn't even get any new powers). The only development Scott goes through is mending his relationship with Hank and Hope, which was dented in Civil War and only brings them back to where they were at the end of Ant-Man. I also really, really couldn’t care less if Janet was saved or not. The film spends minimal effort in developing and showcasing Janet—Paul Rudd may actually get more screen time pretending to be Janet than Pfeiffer gets playing her—making her feel more a plot objective than an actual character.
Ant-Man and the Wasp shines its dullest as a film. This is a poorly put-together film. The editing is shoddy at best, hastily jumping from scene to scene without any fluency. There’s a scene where Hank, Scott, and Hope escape the antagonists by trapping them with giant ants. The scene immediately cuts from the antagonists trapped by the ants to the trio working on the quantum tunnel without any transition whatsoever. It’s incredibly jarring, but the film manages to top itself by doing the exact same cut again—going from the antagonist being, once again, trapped by giant ants to Hank suddenly in the same room despite having just been in a van outside. The film has a similar issue whenever Scott gets on an ant. The man goes to shrink and is immediately shown riding an ant. It’s almost like a video game where the player can suddenly summon an item out of nowhere.
The film also has a habit of satirizing clichés that itself falls for. Scott mocks Hank for disguising themselves in hats and sunglasses ("It looks like we’re out for a baseball game") with them getting spotted as well, yet Hank pulls the same stunt later in the FBI headquarters—wearing only a hat, glasses, and jacket—and somehow gets out without any agents noticing (guess the jacket is the key). There’s a scene where Scott’s phone goes off during the antagonists’s lengthy monologue. It would have been a witty subversion to the monologuing trope if it hadn’t occurred near the end of their speech—the trope being played straight for the previous several minutes.
And then there’s Wasp. Over its ten year span, the MCU has been making tiny leaps in progress towards female prominence—progress I find to be slow and overly cautious. I understand why back in Phase One the MCU wouldn’t risk a superheroine lead—given the past superheroine films’s track records—but by the time Guardians of the Galaxy succeeded, I think they could have taken a risk there. But no, the studio decided to wait, and wait, until 2019 where Captain Marvel will be getting her debut. Such hesitancy cost them with the DCEU’s Wonder Woman claiming the prominence and innovation of the first successful superheroine lead. Now, for the first time, the MCU finds itself catching up to the DCEU, starting with their first film to have a superheroine’s name in the title—giving Wasp her official costume debut…and she is just not fun.
The writer’s focus seems to be designing Wasp as a competent fighter and partner to Scott. They succeed here but fail with making Hope a likable character. Throughout the film, Hope is cynical and dry in personality. She’s meant as one of the primary straight faces to Scott’s screwball antics but comes across as overly mean-sprinted—mocking Scott’s action without getting any real screwup moments herself. Hope’s actions are also highly questionable and occasionally downright idiotic. When confronted by armed goons in cars, Hope has the choice to shrink their vehicle and make a stealthy getaway, but chooses to, instead, take the “scenic route” through a populated area—in turn, endangering many civilian lives and causing lots of property danger (Hope making a fine argument as to why the Sokovia Accords exist). Wasp comes across as mean-spirited and thoughtless to other lives, not a good way to formally introduce the superhero.
Ant-Man and the Wasp is an average comedy, an extraneous piece to the MCU, a poorly crafted film, and a bad formal introduction to Wasp. On a mindless, popcorn experience, the film will entertain with its occasional good humor and creative action sequences (the one area it does deliver). Yet on all other fronts, Ant-Man and the Wasp does not succeed what it sets out to accomplish, leading to an underwhelming and mildly disappointing experience.
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