Ant-Man and the Wasp was given an unenviable task – following on from the juggernaut that was Avengers: Infinity War.
The third Avengers film blew audiences away across the globe, raising the bar for superhero movies and bringing in millions upon millions of box office dollars.
How could such a tiny superhero possible shoulder the weight of expectation in the wake of Infinity War?
Well, there’s no way he could, so Marvel smartly made the Ant-Man sequel significantly smaller in scope than most of the other films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Ant-Man and the Wasp picks up with Paul Rudd’s Scott Lang in his last days of house arrest following the events of Captain American: Civil War, where Ant-Man illegally joined Cap in a hero on hero battle in Germany.
Scott has barely spoken to his scientist buddies Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) and Hope Van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly) since being arrested, but that quickly changes when he has a strange dream of the quantum realm.
Scott visited the quantum realm in the last film and has now found himself psychically connected with Janet Van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer), Hank’s wife and Hope’s mother, who has long been lost in the realm.
That sets off the main aim of the film – running a high-tech, custom-made machine to retrieve Janet from the quantum realm.
Along the way, Ant-Man and Hope’s Wasp run into Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), who is doing everything she can to prevent them from running the machine.
Outside the plot you’ve got plenty of fun, hilarious moments with Scott and his ex-con offsiders, played by the ever-fantastic Michael Pena, Tip ‘TI’ Harris and David Dastmalchian.
Randall Park is also seriously funny as the FBI agent tasked with making sure Scott finishes his stretch under house arrest.
Ant-Man and the Wasp is perhaps not as laugh-out-loud funny as its predecessor, but it still has plenty of laughs (mainly thanks to Pena) and a lot of fun playing around with Ant-Man’s size.
If you’re a Marvel aficionado you cannot miss the mid-credit sequence – it will be vitally important for the next Avengers film.
Rating: 7/10
