Ant Man and The Wasp Review - A Fantastical Journey With Wild Special Effects and High Speed Hijinks

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Category: Film

Published on Friday, 06 July 2018 07:58

Written by Janet Walker

Ant Man and The Wasp, from Marvel Studios and Walt Disney Studio Motion Pictures, presents an incredible journey of time, space, quantum physics, humor, sharp edgy dialogue, and great on-screen chemistry for one mind-blowing, fantastical buzz.

Directed by Peyton Reed, Ant Man and The Wasp stars Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lily, Michael Pena, Walton Goggins, Bobby Cannavale, Judy Greer, Tip T.I. Harris, Hannah John-Kamen, Abby Ryder Fortson, and Randall Park.  Ant Man and The Wasp also stars Michelle Pfeiffer, Laurence Fishburne and Michael Douglas.

Ant Man and The Wasp begins with Janet, played by Michelle Pfeiffer and her husband, Dr. Hank Pym, played by Michael Douglas, saying good-bye to their daughter Hope, played by Madeleine McGraw, as they are called away on an urgent business trip.

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We find the business trip involves stopping a nuclear strike as a rouge nation somewhere has launched the missile and as Janet is a Wasp and Hank is an Ant, the two need to shrink themselves to penetrate the casing of the bomb.

Dr. Pym is unable to manipulate his suit and Janet determined to save the world forces her way beyond the solid steel barrier and manages to deactivate the threat. She paid the dearest price for saving the world, we find, as the story unfolds in voice over by Michael Douglas.

Simultaneously we meet Scott Lang, played by Paul Rudd, whom is also known as Ant Man, well retired Ant Man as he had some "problems" and took a plea deal which had him on house arrest, with an ankle monitor for two years. And today marks the beginning of the final three days. What could go wrong?

With his daughter, Cassie, played by Abby Ryder Fortson, helping him get beyond the 'what am I going to do' blues and so together they built an inside explorer’s cave complete with a indoor/outdoor slide. As they pick up momentum sliding down the steps, Scott’s foot punches through his fence and technically he is out of the allowable parameters which summon the FBI which is where we meet Agent Jimmy Woo, played by Randall Park.

Finding everything intact, Woo and his team exit the home reminding Scott they’ll be back in three days to set him free.

With only time on his hands, and the house now empty, Scott decides to take a long hot bath and as he begins to relax and release his mind a vision, with the clarity of a videotape plays in his mind, a scene of a girl, a child, hiding in a wardrobe closet and a women, who is not seen, playing hide and seek with her and the voice, clear and distinguishable, is Janet’s, who disappeared nearly three decades ago.

The vision startles him awake and he decides to call the top two people listed on his do not contact or you’ll go to jail for twenty years list, and explain the vision.

This is where Ant Man and The Wasp comes full circle essentially with a now adult Hope, played by Evangeline Lily, and her father Dr. Hank Pym, still hoping to pull their mother out of the Quantum galaxy where she has been trapped for the last thirty years.

Of course anything with quantum attached to it has got to have a legion of bad guys following to steal all the exciting technological advances the best and dedicated minds have developed and tested or not. Enter black market tech dealer, Sonny Burch, played by Walter Goggins. During the execution of the sale a ghost, an anomaly casualty of a quantum experiment, Ava, played by Hannah-John-Kamen, appears and steals the technology.

Ant Man and The Wasp is pure fantasy, with a sprinkle of plausible reality, and built around San Francisco's Silicon Valley, where any technology advancement no matter how fantastical may have some use somewhere.

As it is MARVEL, one can expect a story that creates, even in the fantasy, character driven archs and performances. The humor sprinkled throughout that diffuse the tense situations and played to the Michael Douglas’ straight man character works really well.

Paul Rudd mind take-over scene is very funny. He captured his feminine side with authenticity even down to his stance.

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Ant Man and The Wasp, even as it is purely fantasy incorporates into the story the negative effects of any advance science or technology if it falls into the wrong hands. The dangers of annihilation of a complete destruction and loss of everything one holds dear, home, family, futures, finances, freedoms, is a very real possibility and is uniquely added into the storyline.

Michael Pena plays the ex-con business partner to Scott Lang and is very funny in his banter with The Wasp and the truth serum scenes. Lawrence Fishburne, who always delivers, appears as Dr. Bill Foster  a scientist dedicated to Ava.

Ant Man and The Wasp mixes the super science with the common folk for a fun, fantastical, trip with high speed hijinks through the streets of San Francisco. With mind blowing MARVEL special effects.

You’ll be stung by the Ant Man and The Wasp! Opens in theaters everywhere July 6, 2018.