Ant-Man and the Wasp

“Ant-Man and the Wasp” picks up two years post “Captain America: Civil War”, and the titular hero Scott Lang, aka Ant-Man (Paul Rudd), is under house arrest following his reckless actions during his time in Germany. With his 10-year old daughter Cassie (Abby Ryder Forston) and friend/former cellmate Luis (Michael Peña) his only entertainment, Lang is itching to get out of the house and back to his duties as Ant-Man.

An opportunity presents itself in the form of Hope Van Dyne, aka Wasp (Evangeline Lily) and her father Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) to escape the confides of his home and embark upon a mission with them to address some secrets from the past.

Hollywood’s current favourite ‘bad guy’ Walton Goggins is introduced as the film’s central crim, Sonny Burch,  and he and his crew form one third of the obstacles in Lang, Van Dyne and Pym’s way. On the other end we’ve got Ava Foster, aka Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), who is chasing the lab owned by Van Dyne and Pym, and generally becoming a pain-in-the-bum for the team – who are inches away from completing their ultimate goal.

If any of this sounds confusing – blame me for that. The premise is super easy to follow, I’m just being oh-so-vague because spoilers. In a nutshell – you’ve got three groups, all after the same thing, for different reasons. Capiche?

As with most Marvel movies these days, where you’ll be most impressed is with what Hollywood can do. CGI looks real, and if director Peyton Reed turned around and said “oh we actually bred gigantic ants and trained them for this movie”, I’d believe him. Ant-Man and The Wasp continually shrinking and growing is the new normal, as with the inanimate objects they take with them. Matchbox cars become part of the traffic, while the central lab within the key plotline is shrunk to the size of a lego building when necessary – and it all looks totally normal.

Strangely enough, “Ant-Man” impresses with a car chase sequence that would easily rival any of the “Fast and the Furious” films – particularly the latter ones in which car chases take a back seat, so to speak. Speeding through the streets of San Francisco and tackling Lombard Street and Fisherman’s Wharf, the scene is a great plug for the seaside city – destruction aside of course. From ants to seagulls, a giant Ant-Man to an ever-changing lab, every object and character in “Ant-Man and the Wasp” feels necessary. Additionally, the humour isn’t overdone or forced, and Rudd is always a testament for natural comedy.

“Ant-Man and the Wasp” lacks a lot of depth that other current films within the Marvel universe do, but it doesn’t seem to matter as it’s a fun and fairly light-hearted film that will appeal to every family member. Enjoy it for what it is, and in the meantime give a ponder to what you’d do if you could shrink to the size of an ant.

Blu-ray : There’s some good stuff on here – a heap of featurettes, deleted scenes and bloopers, an intro from Peyton Reed, and some other bits and pieces. We needed a good couple of hours to get through it all.