Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018)
July 5, 2018 8:50 PM - Subscribe

As Scott Lang balances being both a Super Hero and a father, Hope van Dyne and Dr. Hank Pym present an urgent new mission that finds the Ant-Man fighting alongside The Wasp to uncover secrets from their past.
posted by Brandon Blatcher (47 comments total) 7 users marked this as a favorite
 
Like the first Ant-Man, a helluva lot of fun is had, while expanding the cast and giving a bit more depth overall. Good direction, with a wealth of visual gags that play on size.

Interesting that there’s two villains and why is clearly portrayed sympatheticly.

There are two end credit scences, one that appears at very end of the credits.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 8:55 PM on July 5, 2018 [4 favorites]


Marvel spent years around the 1980s publishing micronauts comic books, they've got to have the raw material for a few seasons of a semi-canon animated "Janet Vs the Microverse!" tv show even if they lost half of the rights. Get a couple of writers from one of their well received MCU shows to run it and go fucking wild.

Also, for those that don't know, in the comics Scott Lang's daughter is a member of the Young Avengers, Stature, alongside fan favorites like gay couple Hulkling and Wiccan, time-displaced descendant of Mr Fantastic Iron Lad, and grandson of a victim of racist super soldier experiments Patriot. They are definitely setting her up to found and lead that team.
posted by fomhar at 10:07 PM on July 5, 2018 [5 favorites]


Wow. That was silly and a lot of fun. The Ghost/Wasp fights made great use of their abilities. And the first credit clip! (the second? meh, especially after the first.... I wanted something a little more on point).
posted by kokaku at 10:45 AM on July 6, 2018 [2 favorites]


I can't see the freaking title without hearing it in my head sung to the tune of the Pinky and the Brain song.

ANT-MAN AND THE WASP, ANT-MAN AND THE WASP, ONE IS AN ANT-MAN... THE OTHER'S A WASP!

(Now you've probably got it in your head too. Sorry.)
posted by Ursula Hitler at 3:22 PM on July 6, 2018 [20 favorites]


After Scott is released from house arrest, the Pyms have time to make a van-sized quantum tunnel. So had been free for a minute before the events of Infinity War, but the Avengers still didn't call him. Poor Ant-Man.

When are they going to make a Lady Avengers movie, starring Wasp, Valkyrie, Okoye, Nakia, Scarlet Witch, and Black Widow? I want it so bad.
posted by donajo at 8:25 PM on July 6, 2018 [5 favorites]


I had a lot of fun, even with 0% Edgar Wright content. Ghost was done well, balancing desperation with real scariness. (And the flashback montage makes me wonder if she was used and abused by the HYDRA part of SHIELD, or if regular SHIELD was also a bit more like real security agencies with their plausibly-deniable black ops divisions.) Walton Goggins' character was a lot more one-note (and more so than the first movie's Darren Cross), but that was OK, he was playing a stock character with stock functions. (I liked his "one... billion... dollars!" bit, as if coming up with a revolutionary new energy source wouldn't be worth more like a cool trillion, at least.) Also, of course, Baba Yaga, and the drum-playing ant.
posted by Halloween Jack at 9:09 PM on July 6, 2018 [4 favorites]


Fun popcorn muncher. The "Michael Pena talks super fast and the rest of the cast has to lip-sync his ranting" killed. Also, the digital fountain of youth is really getting impressive. And the end title sequence was great! I kept going back and forth if they were actual shot models or if the whole thing was digital.

I really like that Marvel movies have room in the epic franchise universe for movies like this. Slightly smaller stakes than saving the world/galaxy it's just "we need to save my mom". It's great.
posted by ssmith at 10:48 PM on July 6, 2018 [9 favorites]


I really enjoyed it! The fight scenes were a lot of fun, I enjoyed pretty much everybody in the cast, and I liked the story that had such personal stakes. I also appreciated that they showed that while some people love him, Hank does leave a lot of destruction in his wake because he's a jerk. And I like Hope and Scott together but I also love all the other relationships that are foregrounded - mothers and fathers and their sons and daughters and stepfamilies and found families and friendships.

I really appreciated Ghost, and the way she was sympathetic but also scary and desperate and apparently now someone they're helping.

Also I got really mad at the end credit scene so I think that shows how invested I am in these characters.
posted by PussKillian at 6:33 PM on July 7, 2018 [5 favorites]


This was great fun! I took my kid, who was uncertain because she hadn't seen the first movie, but the movie itself took care of that (and in a quite amusing way). A lovely shot of Sather Gate for the Cal fans, and all the family plotlines were quite sweet. Happy ending, la la la....and then that end credit scene. Oof.

Also, Stan Lee is looking much frailer than in the past few movies.
posted by mogget at 6:52 PM on July 7, 2018 [2 favorites]




When are they going to make a Lady Avengers movie, starring Wasp, Valkyrie, Okoye, Nakia, Scarlet Witch, and Black Widow? I want it so bad.

Well, they're going to have to get a new Black Widow, given that ScarJoe is going to be trying out for the role of Shuri....
posted by happyroach at 3:09 PM on July 8, 2018 [9 favorites]


> Slightly smaller stakes than saving the world/galaxy it's just "we need to save my mom". It's great.

As we exited the theater I told my wife, "It sure was nice to see a superhero movie without a dastardly villain and the destruction of an entire major city and the deaths of thousands (if not millions) of people*. This was a nice lighthearted movie about daughters. I really enjoyed that."

* which is why the mid-credits scene really got me down what with the whole Thanos tie-in. I had almost forgotten about all that.
posted by komara at 8:14 PM on July 8, 2018 [8 favorites]


This guy is really mad about that mid-credits scene.

I get where he's coming from, to an extent, in that a stinger like that can add a feeling of... necessary completeness to watching an MCU film, and that the AMatW stinger is very different from the earlier scenes, like The Avengers' schwarma meal. But I think the Avengers' stinger is actually the odd one out - most of the mid-credit scenes, especially for the stand-alone hero stories like Captain America, Ant-Man, and Thor, have played to the larger, building story line instead of being an extraneous bit of fluff to keep people in seats a few minutes longer.

Disney/Marvel didn't make their money by playing stuff to the occasional mom who likes Paul Rudd - their base is the completionists, the guys and gals who are going to do their best to see every MCU film, not just because they love the characters, but because they all build together to make a world.
posted by hanov3r at 2:37 PM on July 9, 2018 [5 favorites]


I fully expected one of the two title characters to get vaporized by Thanos in a credits scene, as that was the most obvious and poignant way to tie in to the broader plot.

But I also expected that the other one would remain available to participate in the events of Infinity War part 2 and help the Avengers alter the timeline or whatever they're gonna do—not be stuck in the quantum realm.
posted by Syllepsis at 9:40 PM on July 9, 2018 [1 favorite]


I mean, I was pretty mad at that mid-credits scene too.

Capping off a really fun movie full of good characters and enjoyable, real relationships by being like "oh hey, remember that time we decided to plow ahead with a pretty stupid crossover plot we planned a decade ago that really doesn't translate well from comics and we should have probably written ourselves out of when we realized that our shared cinematic universe works in a very different way for the audience than our historical comics continuity? well now we've killed again! " was a pretty big downer.

Really good movie, pretty shitty taste in the mouth during the credits.
posted by tocts at 5:43 AM on July 10, 2018 [4 favorites]


The snappening end credit scene was surprising, even though I was expecting it! Possibly it was because it was all three, where as I was only thinking one or two.

But combined with the ant playing drums, it was odd tonally, as if Marvel wanted to shock you, but not too much. Toss in the declarative sentence turning into a question mark, it felt very much like they were wink wink messing with us. Which is disappointing, but we all know Marvel is killing off half of their cash crop. Or rather they will, but they won't stay dead, at least not two summers in a row.

But otherwise, I really like the small scale of the Ant-Man universe, hope it stays that way.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 6:19 AM on July 10, 2018 [1 favorite]


Marvel spent years around the 1980s publishing micronauts comic books, they've got to have the raw material for a few seasons of a semi-canon animated "Janet Vs the Microverse!" tv show

Hasbro, who now own the rights to the Micronauts, have been talking a shared universe movie series with Micronauts and its other properties (Transformers, GI Joe, MASK, Visionaries) for a few years now but the latest rumour is that the Micronauts will be an animated series next year. I suspect it might be too close to the mark for Marvel. But who knows.
posted by Ashwagandha at 9:26 AM on July 10, 2018


My 10-year-old dragged me along to see this, and it was a kick seeing her enjoy it. I'm not a particular fan of the Marvel universe, so links to the other movies in the franchise are kind of lost on me (and frankly, I was glad that the explanation of backstories was relatively quick). What resonated with me was how "Ant-Man and the Wasp" was so heavily about restoration and relationship, and in particular about healing the parent wound and trying not to inflict it in the first place. In that light--I saw the final stinger in the credits and felt like it undermined a lot of what had gone before it. Like haven't we just established that abandonment doesn't lead anywhere good? The best scene for me was the scale-of-vehicle reveal, and the Matchbox car zipping down the street. A movie full of special effects--and the best was a tiny toy moving at high speed. That's some good magic, right there. The supporting actors were better than I was expecting (and did anyone else see shades of "Magic Mike XXL" in the last scene about Scott's business? No? Just me? Another nice bit: a small but happy resolution for the guys at the office. A human-scale moment.), especially Luis. Nice to see Walton Goggins on the big screen--agreed that he's pretty one-note here, but he's got great menace going on. Pretty good for a summer movie.
posted by MonkeyToes at 4:54 PM on July 10, 2018 [4 favorites]


That last scene in particular came from an entirely different movie. The type of movie I've been known to enjoy from time to time, but not the one I had just watched and was reasonably enjoying the vibe of, so, yeah. Left the theater with a bit of a bad taste in my mouth.

My favorite line was actually Walton Goggins's "And many health code violations. Some of them would shock you."
posted by praemunire at 9:17 PM on July 10, 2018 [10 favorites]


This was fun!

Rudd did a pretty good job of looking out of his element, but eager to help almost throughout without it getting stale.

Kind of weirded out by the lack of concern or even cursory mention of Janet's mental health after being stuck in the quantum realm for all that time. Though I guess they did say that time works differently.

I hadn't gotten around to seeing the latest Avengers movie in theatres, mostly because it looks like a bore. So it wasn't great to see that first post-credits scene. I guess it doesn't really count as a spoiler at this point since I've basically absorbed the basic plot points through the web, but come on, the movie isn't even out yet!

Overall though, good movie!

the digital fountain of youth is really getting impressive.

Nah, that's just how Paul Rudd looks.

I like Hope and Scott together but I also love all the other relationships that are foregrounded - mothers and fathers and their sons and daughters and stepfamilies and found families and friendships.

It's gotta be at least a little weird being in a romantic relationship with a guy who your mother spoke to you through.

The supporting actors were better than I was expecting

Where they got to shine were hands down my favourite parts. The FBI agent's dinner invite, Scott's moments with his daughter, the fence chewing scenery, the security firm shenanigans...
posted by ODiV at 8:42 AM on July 11, 2018 [8 favorites]


Oh yeah and the affectionate husband of Scott's ex!
posted by ODiV at 8:43 AM on July 11, 2018 [10 favorites]


The credits scene just felt so perfectly comic book. We just spent six issues retrieving Mama Van Dyne and poof - crossover! I loved it because everyone knows half the universe isn't going away for good so it adds both setup for IW2 and explanation for why Ant Man wasn't part of the fight (though it hand waves over why nobody mentioned the big fight in NYC or Wakanda that must've happened during the events of AM&tW). I do hope Ghost survived to get Scott out of the quantum realm so he can be part of the action.

The real flaw is that Disney is waiting so long to put out part two and there's only Captain Marvel on the MCU slate and that's not until next year just before IW2.
posted by kokaku at 9:20 AM on July 11, 2018 [1 favorite]


the digital fountain of youth is really getting impressive.

Nah, that's just how Paul Rudd looks.


a) *guffaw*

b) I just rewatched Ant-Man last night. I actually think they did a better job with Young Hank Pym at the beginning of that one than they did with Young Hank And Janet in AM&tW (although both are LEAGUES ahead of Young Kevin Flynn/CLU in Tron: Legacy).
posted by hanov3r at 11:12 AM on July 11, 2018 [1 favorite]


This was a lot of fun. I don't know why, but all the tiny cars zooming around on the streets just cracked me up.

I'm bothered that Scott seemed to have been dumbed down a bit. I understand that he and Spidey are the main Everyperson characters of the MCU, but I'd have liked to have seen more of the guy who figured out how to crack Hank Pym's safe.
posted by MrBadExample at 10:03 PM on July 11, 2018 [3 favorites]


And Judy Greer was once again criminally underused.
posted by MrBadExample at 10:05 PM on July 11, 2018 [6 favorites]


I like Greer (a goddamn national treasure), but there really wasn't much for her to do here, her character was definitely supposed to be in the background.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 5:46 AM on July 12, 2018 [1 favorite]


I loved pretty much all of this. I think a lot of what made it fun is that, after the first Ant-Man's heist movie, this was like one of those madcap "Who's got the MacGuffin?" comedies. They weren't up against some overwhelmingly powerful foe, but running around chasing and being chased by people who were mostly more annoying than frightening, with lots of fun reversals. Wasp and Ghost were able to punk each other in similar ways without having Ghost be just another size changer.

It was surprising when they fairly easily escaped being tied up and got the base back, it felt like this movie has a different rhythm than other superhero adventures. Oh, wait, now they lost it again...

I loved that they refused to threaten Cassie. I loved how naturally they wove the best comic bits into the story -- the truth serum as an excuse for Luis's amazing storytelling, Rudd channeling Janet Van Dyne, Scott's size-changing mishaps (especially his toddler size). Rolling my eyes at how Scott Lang is such a Great Dad he makes this ridiculously elaborate fort for his daughter...oh, right, he's been under house arrest for two years. Scott calling out the writers for just putting "Quantum" in front of everything.

I think my only disappointment was that the Quantum Realm was pretty boring, both visually and conceptually. How did Janet stay alive? What did she do? Did she stop needing to eat? The Tardigrade Realm was more fun.
posted by straight at 12:20 AM on July 13, 2018 [11 favorites]


It's gotta be at least a little weird being in a romantic relationship with a guy who your mother spoke to you through.

That whole business could have been played strictly for laughs, but Rudd plays it straight and nails it, even though it had comedic aspects to it.

How did Janet stay alive? What did she do? Did she stop needing to eat?

I kind of liked that they didn't go into all the fine details and just had her come out with some kind of cloak and a big ol' spear strapped to her back, in the very finest "trapped in a world I never made, but made my own" tradition.
posted by Halloween Jack at 6:59 PM on July 14, 2018 [2 favorites]


Really good movie, pretty shitty taste in the mouth during the credits.
posted by tocts at 5:43 AM on July 10 [4 favorites +] [!]


I don't view the post credits scenes as part of the same movie, so much as ads for the other movies or part of the 'Cliffhanger!' tradition of serial dramas.

And, much like the old cliffhangers, we all know that the hero didn't really drive off the cliff and burn to death....
posted by eustatic at 10:03 PM on July 14, 2018 [1 favorite]


It's 100% true to reading comic books. Every issue ends either with a cliffhanger (if it's in the middle of a story) or a shocking hook for the next story. OH NO, IT'S THAT GUY! is the most common type, but having all the characters who just triumphed on the previous page disintegrate, except for Scott who is now stranded in the Quantum Zone, is exactly the sort of thing that would happen on the last page after the previous story has wrapped up.

FIND OUT MORE ABOUT WASP'S FATE IN AVENGERS #4
FOLLOW SCOTT'S ADVENTURES IN THE QUANTUM ZONE WITH ANT-MAN:INFINITY WAR SPECIAL #1
posted by straight at 10:58 PM on July 14, 2018 [8 favorites]


Regarding:

The credits scene just felt so perfectly comic book.

and

[the credits scene is] 100% true to reading comic books.

Yeah. So. That's basically why I don't like it.

Movies are not comic books. The MCU has for sure brought some important aspects of comic book publishing into movies (specifically the shared, ongoing universe), and for that they should be commended. However, not everything that works in comic book publishing works in movies. In particular, the release cycles are much different, and the audiences (even some like me who are familiar with comic books) are not nearly as primed to be happy to buy into the kayfabe, so to speak, of, oh, I dunno, "killing" half the characters you just spent a decade building up.

Bluntly, I think Infinity War was a bad idea that they came up with over a decade ago before they really understood how the transition from comics to movies would work. They should have adjusted course when it became apparent that particularly for the most recent MCU films (Spider-man, Black Panther, Ant-Man, and Thor: Ragnarok) that the "smaller" movies matter way more to the audience (from my read of things) than the big crossover movies we're supposed to be so invested in.

So, ending this movie, a smaller movie with characters I really like, by being like: "oh but don't worry, this gets hit with the Infinity War stick too, and you're supposed to be happy about it!" was not a great finish.
posted by tocts at 2:01 PM on July 15, 2018 [2 favorites]


I enjoy the size changing adventures of Ant-Man, so that's fun. The fight scenes are always great to watch. Cassie is always sweet.

Scott calling out the writers for just putting "Quantum" in front of everything.

BWAHAHAHAHAAHAH can someone please explain to me what the hell quantum even is? Oh, never mind. I'm too dumb to understand this and they seem to be going with this anyway. But anything involving that word is sure vague. I'm still not sure what the hell Ghost was actually trying to do other than fumble for SOMETHING to cure her issue, whatever it was. Kill Janet, or not, or um, whatever?

I think my only disappointment was that the Quantum Realm was pretty boring, both visually and conceptually. How did Janet stay alive? What did she do? Did she stop needing to eat?

Yeah, how the hell did she eat and get new clothes and makeup and what the hell do you DO for 30 years? How fucked up would you be to get out of there and be 30 years behind on technology? How messed up you would be, daaaaaaaaaaamn.
posted by jenfullmoon at 8:41 PM on July 15, 2018


But I also expected that the other one would remain available to participate in the events of Infinity War part 2 and help the Avengers alter the timeline or whatever they're gonna do—not be stuck in the quantum realm.

I thought the bit about making sure to stay out of time vortexes or whatever was pretty heavy foreshadowing to his involvement in the next avengers movie. We shall see!
posted by flaterik at 11:37 PM on July 15, 2018 [1 favorite]


I loved the domed cities in the Quantum Realm, blurry background detail, but wow! There's a lot implied about Janet's time down there... which means she doesn't want to leave to leave, she wants her husband and daughter back.

Her husband! I love how Michael Douglas doubled down on Hank as mean and petty and unlikable despite his charismatic wit and heroic intent. He had to go a long way to alienate Bill Foster, and realized his error only way too late.

Scott is Hank's opposite, hell, all of X-CON's staff is Hank's opposite, while still being brave heroes, and in the end, it's why his chemistry with Hope works. Scott isn't about facades or huffy confrontations. Scott is about his friends and family and doing the right thing even at great personal risk... and he isn't a jerk about it.

The first stinger means that Scott has to get Luis to Thanos at all costs. Yeah, he beat the Hulk, but he will be told why his dream of "balance" is bullshit in a five minute monologue involving FAD vs FEE economic theory and the best Chicago Deep Dish in San Fran and is Boston Pizza Different than New York pizza and Kierkegaard and "The Care Bears", and then go down like a chump when Luis jacks his jaw in mid-snap and Stan Lee is there to say, "Oh, snap!"
posted by Slap*Happy at 6:43 PM on July 18, 2018 [9 favorites]


I'd pay good money to see that.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 7:08 PM on July 18, 2018 [1 favorite]


Scott has to get Luis to Thanos at all costs

"You gotta take that Time Stone and just baaaack it up. Back it up slow. Backitup. What you do, you baaaaack it up. Just back it up..."
posted by MrBadExample at 9:35 PM on July 18, 2018 [3 favorites]


5 words about why I really liked this movie: Giant Hello Kitty Pez Dispenser.
posted by pianissimo at 6:18 AM on July 22, 2018 [7 favorites]


THIS IS WHAT I WANT FROM SUPERHERO MOVIES.

Friendship! Blended families loving each other (Bobby Cannavale eagerly and sincerely joining every family group hug and loving and supporting Scott brought me to the verge of tears every time)! Found family too, both with Luis and the gang and Hank and Hope! Ex-cons making their way in the world and talking openly about how hard it is to be employed! Wacky FBI agent relationship! Veiled references to how dumb the Accords are! Hollywood admitting that it just wants to sometimes inject a dose of Boyd Crowder magic into random movies! Multiple homages to Paul Rudd’s unnatural dose of charisma! Ant friends! Closeup Magic University! Getting bigger and smaller and having fun with it! Malfunctioning devices! Passing the Bechdel test! THREE sets of father-daughter relationships being taken seriously (actually four if you count Cassie and her stepdad who wants the best for her)! World’s Best Grandma!
posted by a fiendish thingy at 8:53 AM on July 30, 2018 [14 favorites]


Loved the movie for all the reasons above, plus the shout out to tardigrades.
posted by mmoncur at 3:24 AM on August 5, 2018 [2 favorites]


THIS IS WHAT I WANT FROM SUPERHERO MOVIES.

Me too. Normally, I leave a movie or TV watching experience with notes. Like, 'I hated this because of [x],' or 'I loved this, but wish they fixed [y].'

This movie is on my short list of 'yep, this was precisely what I wished to see, good job, please do similarly well next time.' Everything from the comedy to the underlying message about family to the brilliant action sequences was on the money for me. (The crossover stinger was kind of a bummer, but one thing I appreciated is that the setup is that they are still helping Ghost.)
posted by mordax at 10:51 AM on August 12, 2018 [7 favorites]




That is very obviously the Bottle City of Kandor, setting up the top secret MCU/DCEU merger.
posted by hanov3r at 12:03 PM on October 2, 2018 [2 favorites]


Finally just got around to watching it. I liked it better than the first, but these generally aren’t my gig. Maybe it’s my intense dislike for Michael Douglas that makes me not like them. But I suspect I’m just a sucker for the higher stakes plots, like Thor Ragnarok or Civil War.

I had forgotten that A:IW came out before this, so I was ill-prepared for the mid-credit scene. But damn, it was effective. It just knocked me for a loop the way it brought them all back into the rest of the MCU. It had been easy to forget it was even the same universe, other than the couple Cap jokes. I approve. I mean, come on. No one thinks the deaths are permanent, so I really don’t get the hate.
posted by greermahoney at 8:52 PM on December 7, 2018 [1 favorite]


My very favourite bit is near the end where the steely eyed FBI agent says
"You got away with it this time Lang...... {ominous pause} .... but I'll see you again."
which results in the whole "Where, like at a party?","You wanna get dinner?" bit which is played all pretty straight without any snark.

Can someone go check Paul Rudd's character sheet, because I think he cheated and got like a 36 in Charisma.

Oh also, earlier when that same agent is learning close up magic from the same site as Scott was when the corrupt agent comes in and says:
"Boss, we've got a lead!"
and he replies
"ooh! I love leads!"
posted by Just this guy, y'know at 3:05 PM on December 20, 2018 [5 favorites]


Finally got to see it and I'm glad that I didn't take the time to see it in the theater last summer. I mean it's a fine little diversion but it seems like such low stakes after Infinity War. I'd admit that I laughed out loud in my living room during the end credits when after all that running around, everyone just got snaptured with the rest of the universe.
posted by octothorpe at 3:48 PM on January 21, 2019


I mean, come on. No one thinks the deaths are permanent, so I really don’t get the hate.

This is from ages ago, but that makes it even worse!
posted by ODiV at 3:47 PM on March 18, 2019


I was sick last week and watched this movie and felt much better. I can confirm this movie is delightful start to finish, maybe the most purely entertaining movie in the MCU.

Having a villain say, "No, I will not cross that line" is so much more interesting and fun to watch than finding some horrible new line for a villain to cross.
posted by straight at 3:10 PM on July 19, 2021 [1 favorite]


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