441: Ant-Man and the Wasp

[00:00:00] 148, let's get to Ant-Man and the Wasp, the second film in the trilogy. This one came out in 2018, is once again directed by Peyton Reed. It stars Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, basically everyone from the original as well as Walton Goggins,

[00:00:18] Hannah John Kamen, Abby Rider Fortson, T.I. is in there briefly, Michelle Pfeiffer, Laurence Fishburne, and the synopsis is, as Scott Lang balances being both a superhero and a father, Hope Van Dyne and Dr. Hank Pym present an urgent new mission that finds the Ant-Man

[00:00:39] fighting alongside the Wasp to uncover secrets from their past. I remember, I think I saw this one in theaters, I'm pretty sure I did because yeah I think we reviewed it on the show when

[00:00:49] first came out and at the time I really liked it you know when I first saw it I liked it because I was already a fan of Ant-Man and I was looking forward to seeing what they did with the Wasp

[00:01:00] because even with the first one as well which I didn't mention I knew nothing about this character I'd never heard of him before it had been announced so I knew nothing about Ant-Man,

[00:01:09] knew nothing about the Wasp, none of that. So all this was new to me and very excitingly so and I've seen this one probably maybe three times over the years and I think it's

[00:01:20] almost as good as the first, maybe a little, I think it went down a little bit when I watched all three of them together but the first thing I wanted to get off right out of the gate is

[00:01:31] one reason that this movie is elevated or really sticks with me and always kind of makes me want to go back and revisit it and I mentioned this in my Letterboxd review,

[00:01:41] follow me there if you haven't, is I think this movie has one of the best villains of the MCU. I don't know if that's a hot take or not and there's not a really high bar for great villains

[00:01:54] in the MCU, I think Winter Soldier is by far the best but especially when it comes to standalone movies the villains are typically not great which to me I'm a huge villain guy, I love a good villain

[00:02:05] in a superhero movie and I don't know the exact reasonings as to why it works so well or you know whose idea it was or you know how it all came to be but the villain played by Hannah John Kamen,

[00:02:19] I guess the character's name is Ava, I think that design of the character like the costume, the face mask with the red eyes, the hood, the silver suit, the performance by that actress who she's

[00:02:32] hasn't been in a whole lot, she was in Ready Player One for a little bit, Tomb Raider the reboot film so she hasn't been in a whole lot I think she is fantastic and then also what makes

[00:02:43] it all work the best is the motivation where she's basically been given this death sentence by this I don't even know how to explain it, this cell destruction reformation thing that happened and

[00:02:56] so she's basically doing what she's doing to avoid death you know not the worst motivation and so she's not really an inherently evil person but of course I don't defend her but what makes a

[00:03:08] great villain work especially is when there's a decent motivation and reliability to them so all three of those aspects really really work for me every single time I watch it and I feel like

[00:03:19] it's kind of an underrated swept under the rug villain and movie I guess because it's a sequel to Ant-Man and so people don't really take much stock in that but I think if you looked

[00:03:29] at all the MCU and all of the villains to me this is by far one of the best and so I just wish that she was in the movie more or she had reappeared in other films because

[00:03:41] I loved whenever she was on screen I love the look of her cell forming reforming where it's like kind of a mirage hazy look to her character and her never really being able to have peace from all

[00:03:53] that so I think if she wasn't as good the movie would be much lesser for me but she definitely keeps the movie afloat a lot of the time but besides that I think the rest of the movie is

[00:04:06] still good like it's very a light tone it's comedic good chemistry and overall performances from everybody and I love the wasp I think Evangeline Lilly is so good in that role and

[00:04:19] I love the design of the wasp the wings I think all that stuff is looks so good and personally it's just a subjective thing I love seeing it's almost like the toy story effect where it's seeing things from a miniature perspective you know everything is huge around

[00:04:36] you I think that's one reason why I really like Ant-Man is that difference and freshness of perspective with characters and especially when it comes to sci-fi fantasy anything like that so I love it when they're tiny and they're flying around into little spaces and all that just works

[00:04:53] for me I don't know why exactly it just does and I think the fact that she gets to fly and then Ant-Man flies on an ant I think I that's just a really clever funny visual too so there's a lot

[00:05:07] of little things there's nothing really crazy great about any of that it's just little moments that that work but besides that Walton Goggins I didn't mention him yet he's he's good I like him

[00:05:18] and everything I don't think he's ever bad but there's not a lot to that character and at times if he was a little injected in for not much reason but it's not that bad it's not that long

[00:05:28] of a movie so not too upset about it Lawrence Fishburne always good also of course Michelle Pfeiffer amazing and everything she's fantastic but talking about some specific things that I really like one visual that I really like comedically is when they're in the school

[00:05:48] and they shrink Paul Rudd down to a sort of toddler not toddler but like kid size and then he's in this huge baggy blue hoodie and he's trying to meander through the hallways and a

[00:06:00] teacher stops him and then he just runs away the scene where Ant-Man becomes giant oh and another great comment like that's one thing about this series is it does have especially in these first

[00:06:13] two it has very solid comedy like actual good writing clever dialogue you know it's not just ridiculous crazy sequences that they try and force and it's just very little subtle moments of good comedy whether it's visual or writing or performance even so another thing though is the

[00:06:35] moment where Michelle Pfeiffer's character inhabits Paul Rudd and then you see Paul Rudd acting like Michael Douglas's wife and then of course Evangeline Lilly's mother and then it's like Michelle Pfeiffer and Paul Rudd I think that's hilarious and Paul Rudd does that perfectly

[00:06:53] the car chase where Evangeline Lilly is driving and Ghost is chasing them that's good so like there's really I think in comparison to the first one there's not as much of the creativity

[00:07:05] when it comes to Ant-Man but there's still enough to keep that going I just think that this being the sequel and they're not really being a huge difference in plot or structure

[00:07:14] there are points where it sort of drags you know the pacing falls off the comedy falls off you know it maybe gets a little too not silly I don't mind it talking about the quantum realm and all that

[00:07:25] stuff I just I don't care about that but there are points I think in having watched all three of these in succession fairly close together there are points where I'm like all right let's kind of

[00:07:35] wrap this up or give me more Ghost you know give me more Wasp so those observations bring it down a little bit not by much it's still one that I can always easily pop on it's not that hard to follow

[00:07:48] it's light on its feet you know and also brings back some iconic elements from the first like Michael Pena's monologues about the stories and flashbacks that still works for me I love it

[00:08:00] so I think in you know these movies and we'll get to the third one I think it is going steadily not steadily down but slightly down each time which that's can be kind of normal with trilogies and these cinematic universes not a big deal but I think that

[00:08:17] at the same time even though and we'll get to part three even though I didn't love part three I just wish they would make more of these movies I think that of all the characters in the MCU who

[00:08:27] I see way too often I don't see enough of Ant-Man or the Wasp I wouldn't be mind if the Wasp just got her own movie I'd be fine with that and how you really are on a completely blank slate for

[00:08:40] what you can do with that character even just from a visual creative perspective all right where are we going to go next what could he get into what could he get out of you know how big could

[00:08:50] he get how small could he get you know that sort of thing I do think that what makes these first two work better is it's mostly grounded in a reality of we're in the real world we're not

[00:09:01] in quantum mania where everything is fantasy what works is all right what if this guy what if you were this guy or the Wasp in a real world and you could shrink and get bigger etc so

[00:09:12] sadly I think they took a misstep with part three not to spoil too much but I think that's was the main issue so yeah if you haven't seen it if you haven't seen it for a while I'd give it

[00:09:21] a revisit especially for Ghost love Ghost will always love Ghost we need more Ghost just saying put it on the record so yeah that one is a heavy three and a half out of five