So we’ve gotten 2 solo Ant-Man movies in the last 4 years and zero Batman movies in the last 6………
After Marvel dropped Infinity War earlier this year, it was pretty hard to get yourself psyched up for the next Ant-Man outing. Rightfully so, after the events of Infinity War how could anyone really care what Scott Lang and the gang were up to? Let me tell you this, I have completely forgotten this entire movie. You look up bland and meh in the dictionary, well this might fall under it.
I like the Ant-Man character, I think Paul Rudd was perfectly casted. Just the whole movie was an excuse to show us an after credits scene. I’m not lying, the whole movie was a set up for a 90 second scene that – spoilers, shows Hank Pym (Michael Douglas), Janet Van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer) and Hope Van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly) disappearing just like half the universe, all while Scott Lang is now trapped in the Quantum Realm. Pretty much indicating that Ant-Man once again will not be suiting up with the rest of the Avengers in next years Infinity War finale. That’s my biggest takeaway from the movie. It’s predictable, dull and I don’t understand the science behind anything that goes on and Marvel just decides not to explain this science to us. I’m not picky when it comes to this kind of stuff, but for this movie, where the laws of physics are just being thrown out the window, a little education would be nice. I was totally fine with the first Ant-Man it was a fun time, and I actually really liked the villain from it. Yellow-Jacket is a underrated bad guy, and their fight sequences were a ton of fun. This time around, Hannah John-Kamen suits up as Ghost and well, yikes. Marvel had kind of been on a hot streak for villains, but Ghost is so forgettable and she’s almost not even a villain. It’s murky with her, so that’s where Walton Goggins character of Sonny Burch comes in. He’s like a bad cartoon character come to life. A lot of the new characters introduced are just god awful. This might be one of the worst MCU villains.
So if you’ve seen the first you know a little bit of the backstory. Hank Pym was once Ant-Man and Janet was The Wasp, now after a rescue mission gone wrong, Janet has been stuck in the Quantum Realm for over 30 years. When Scott went into the realm himself at the end of the first movie, some how they became connected. Now Hank and Hope have the technology and the means to rescue her from the Quantum Realm. That’s pretty much the entire movie, Scott is on house arrest because of the events of Civil War, so when he has a dream in which he sees Janet, Hank and Hope bust him out and try to rescue her before it’s to late. Just like the first one, this has a ton of comedic moments and Michael Pena steals the show, because the only time I was really having fun with this movie was when he was on screen. There’s a whole bit about truth serum and it’s so great, and when he tells his stories, you can’t help but burst into laugher, but that simply can’t save the entire movie. The action sequences are just boring, I enjoyed them much more in the previous incarnation. The movie is kind of a blur, because everything really isn’t making sense and it’s almost like one long game of hot potato. They are able to shrink an entire building down, and it turns into a suitcase on wheels pretty much, and that’s where their lab is located. So it keeps going back and forth between the good guys and the bad guys, and that goes on for 90 minutes. Don’t get my wrong, this is a Marvel movie, it’s enjoyable, Ant-Man is a great character and you’ll laugh really hard in certain spots. But this shouldn’t have come out after Infinity War, it just felt so underwhelming. Knowing what we know now, and what’s to come, a solo Ant-Man adventure is just something I wasn’t really looking forward to. So I think they dropped the ball big time with this release date, and I honestly think this shouldn’t have taken place when it did. Like I previously mentioned this just felt like an excuse to tell us again why Ant-Man wasn’t around during Infinity War and that he sure as hell won’t be suiting up next summer. They could have just made this post credit scene after Infinity War and saved themselves a ton of work hours and money. This didn’t even crack 80 million dollars on it’s opening weekend. For a Marvel movie, that’s not great. I don’t see this movie having much legs either, because word of mouth won’t be great.
If you’re a fan of these movies go see it, if you’re on the fence about it, you should probably sit this one out. Movies keep disappointing this summer, we haven’t had to many hits on our hands. I didn’t expect much from Ant-Man & The Wasp but I expected just a little bit more.
Nate’s Movie Tour Reviews – Ant-Man & The Wasp = 65/100
