Phillip Ellis
Star – Paul Rudd
My Rating ****
Genre – Drama> Biopic
Run Time – 2 Hr 1 Min
Certificate – PG13
Country – U.S.A
Awards – 8 Nominations
= = = = = = = = = = = = = =
So ‘Ant Man & The Wasp’, Marvel Studios 20th superhero movie released under the Marvel Universe banner. Needless to say they have made an insane amount of money in that universe.
Ant Man was not that appealing to me when it first came out as what can a superhero really do when they are really really small, and if they have super strength and stuff, who are they using it on, other than roughing up spiders and Beatles. Well a tweak made it interesting and a surprisingly enjoyable film with the likable Paul Rudd in the lead bringing plenty of comedy to the role. The sequel is as fun.
===Cast===
Paul Rudd … Scott Lang / Ant-Man
Evangeline Lilly … Hope Van Dyne / Wasp
Michael Peña … Luis
Walton Goggins … Sonny Burch
Bobby Cannavale … Paxton
Judy Greer … Maggie
T.I. … Dave
David Dastmalchian … Kurt
Hannah John-Kamen … Ava / Ghost
Abby Ryder Fortson … Cassie
Randall Park … Jimmy Woo
Michelle Pfeiffer … Janet Van Dyne / Wasp
Laurence Fishburne … Dr. Bill Foster
Michael Douglas … Dr. Hank Pym
Divian Ladwa … Uzman
===Plot===
So the film is set two years after Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) was put under house arrest due to his involvement with The Avengers in violation of the Sokovia Accords, the superhero code around humans, Lang becoming the Ant Man when he puts on a suit invented by Hank Pym ( Michael Douglas).
Hank and his scientist daughter Hope (Evangeline LIlly), who also has a suit and called The Wasp, are building a quantum realm in a secret lab .They believe Hank’s wife, Janet (Michelle Pfeiffer) may be trapped in the quantum realm after shrinking to sub-atomic levels in 1987 through a previous experiment with husband Hank, when they had previously visited the quantum realm. Scott has also been there and somehow become quantum entangled with Janet, and now he receives an apparent cryptic message from her.
Scott’s house arrest is nearly up but contacts Hank about the visions of Janet. Hope and Hank zap Scott to the lab, leaving a decoy so as not to arouse suspicion from FBI agent Jimmy Woo (Randall Park). Hank and his daughter believe the message if from Janet and proof that she is alive, the trio finalizing a stable quantum tunnel so they can take a vessel to the quantum realm and retrieve her. But they need one more important part, which they arrange to buy from black market dealer Sonny Burch (Walton Goggins), who has twigged the potential profit that can be earned from Hank’s research and steals their money and keeps the part. When they try to retrieve it as the Ant Man and Wasp they are attacked by a time flipping third party, Ghost. The clock is ticking on retrieving both the part and Hannah’s wife.
===Results===
So not the biggest grossing Marvel Universe film and maybe the small concept does put people off, Its $162 million dollar budget bringing in a very healthy $662 million. Size does matter, of course, and so plenty of fibs and cheats are used to make the superheroes normal size on screen for most of the film, and somewhat bigger in some scenes. As we are dealing with super powers in the quantum world you can get away with pretty much any plot hole, as is the case here, some ridiculous. But the jokes keep coming thick and fast so you don’t have to think about it and very much in that increasingly unintelligent superhero film approach to draw a bigger worldwide audience. These movies are made so Chinese and Indian kids get and like them and so buy the toys.
Decent on time and doesn’t sag as we get into the action pretty quick although not quite sure why we needed a comic gay Asian FBI agent in the movie chasing them around for so many scenes. I know there are boxes to be ticked but that seemed forced. We need gay authority figure in this movie! Get me the director! Rudd enjoys bouncing jokes of all the cast and so a breeze for him, as does is sidekick Michael Pena here. It’s also fun to see Michael Douglas on screen still commanding a picture.
It’s a PG 13 and fine for the kids and no swearing, naughtiness or graphic death and injury. It skillfully ticks all the Marvel boxes to make that mega money and you will feel entertained, rarely the case when you watch The Oscar winners…
===RATINGS===
Imdb.com – 7.1/10.0 (190,332votes)
Rottentomatos.com – 88% critic’s approval
Metacritic.com – 70% critic’s approval
===Trailer===
https://www.imdb.com/videoplayer/vi4137138969?playlistId=tt5095030&ref_=tt_ov_vi
Sounds both interesting and fascinating.