4 stars out of 5
When the first Ant-Man came out, I was somewhat intrigued. Paul Rudd as a superhero? And yet, not quite intrigued enough to actually go see it. I can only take so many of these movies.
Ah, but now Ant-Man and the Wasp was coming out. Intrigued again! Figured I should watch the original to get up to speed, so when it aired on TNT a couple of weeks ago, I tuned in. It was… mediocre at best. Very few laughs, an absurd evil villain dude, and a whole lot of trying too hard. My verdict: 2.5 stars, and my sequel interest plummeted.
But, I promised a couple of pals I’d go, and with MoviePass it wouldn’t cost me anything, so, no harm no foul. Of course, I then got zapped with failing MoviePass’s desperate “peak pricing” Hail Mary for the first time, so the ticket cost me $5.84. (Because Sunday night, third weekend of release, 15 people in the theater equals… $5.84. Nice algorithm, assholes.) Now the pressure was on: Marvel really better entertain me.
And entertain me they did! What a pleasant surprise, because this was a significant upgrade on Episode 1. Same director, so I’ll credit a new batch of writers. They quickly recapped the original, so you don’t actually need to see that one. And then they summarize some Captain America nonsense, which is good because I didn’t see that one, either. There are many more laughs this time, more dynamic action (very clever work with shrinking and expanding, and a malfunctioning suit), and a strong sense of place — they really take advantage of (apologies to Michael Douglas) the streets of San Francisco.
Nice cast additions, too. Laurence Fishburne brings some gravitas, and Hannah John-Kamen has a real feral intensity as a scary new baddie. Randall Park from Fresh Off the Boat is a hoot as an FBI agent. Walton Goggins, so great on Vice Principals, is an entertaining villain. And I was real happy to see Divian Ladwa from Detectorists in a small but hilarious role. There are also a few alt-comedy cameos to enjoy, I don’t think I should mention Michelle Pfeiffer even though her name and image are on the poster, and Tony-winner Michael Cerveris is in this for about 12 seconds, so I guess we’ll be seeing him again in a prequel.
Of the returning cast, Rudd is reliably Ruddy, Evangeline Lilly kicks butt and has a much friendlier hairstyle, Bobby Canavale gets to be funny this time, and Michael Peña and his crew are less annoying than before.
Yes, there’s much stupid pseudo-science mumbo jumbo (“Do you guys just put ‘quantum’ in front of everything?” Rudd asks), but hey, it’s a comic-book movie. And a very good one at that, with a strong ending. I’d even pay 6 bucks next time around.
Jack Silbert, curator