The first Ant-Man was a runaway success on its own terms. Paul Rudd was one of the cleverest pieces of casting singlas)ce Robert Downey Jr as Tony Stark, aka Iron Man. I'm please to see that Paul Rudd's second outing in Ant-Man and The Wasp, with Evangeline Lilly joining him, also plays on it's own terms. One does not have to have seen the countless other Marvel Cinematic Universe films to follow along. Indeed, only the first of two post-credit scenes might leave you with your head scratching however there is enough exposition to carry the casual viewer along.
Paul Rudd is effortless as Ant-Man. His screen presence is warm and genuine and we feel the tug of emotions between his family and his duties as a reluctant super-hero. This tie around, he is joined by Hank Pym's (Michael Douglas) daughter as The Wasp. We met her in the last Ant-Man movie. Keeping up?
The plot is simple and also full of holes. If you recall from Ant-Man, Hank Pym's wife, we were told, was lost in the "quantum realm" when she shrunk too small. Most of the science here revolves around "putting the word quantum in front of every word" as Ant Man declares at one point. I"m with him in that. Anyway, our titular heroes set out to try to find Hank's wife. Getting in the way are villain Sonny Burch played by an under-used Walton Goggins and a super-villain Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen). Laurence Fishburne turns up to move the plot along as does Michelle Pfeiffer - no spoilers here!
The film is fun and does not take itself too seriously unlike the last MCU outing - Avengers: Infinity War. Michael Pena returns as the comic foil and his sidekicks provide a lot of the comedy. It's not as funny as Thor: Ragnarok but nothing could be. Ant-Man and The Wasp stands on its own and is the better for it. I hope they continue this formula.
Enjoy!