By this point in time, it feels like we should be suffering a Marvel hangover. It’s been ten years since Marvel began churning out movies all leading to Avengers: Infinity War which was released this year, but even after that film has passed, Marvel manages to pump out another film not entirely related to The Avengers storyline: Ant-Man and The Wasp.

The plot of most of these superhero films follows a simple formula to the point where I feel I’ve watched the same film many times over. You’re introduced to the hero in a normal setting with his friends or family, he then has a mission to follow by himself or maybe with a sidekick, they meet an adversary on the way where there’s a big fight scene and the adversary interrupts the mission. They then go on a different course to complete the overall mission, meet the adversary at various points until they’re beaten and/or kidnapped. The adversary monologues about their reasons for interrupting the mission, sometimes to make the adversary more relatable to the audience. The hero gets out of the situation and continues on a path to defeat the adversary and achieve the original goal but in a new way. Usually there’s a car chase scene here or a big fight scene or both. The villain is defeated and the hero, battered and bruised, has a relatively happy ending but he might be conflicted over something the adversary said or did. Boom, film done.

When speaking to avid followers of the Marvel franchise, you’ll find everyone has their favourites, the ones most commonly highly rated being Thor: Ragnarok, Spiderman: Homecoming, and Black Panther. What makes these films stand out from the rest? With Spiderman, I’m still unsure. It follows the same formula as the rest of the films, it might be that it was just a good Spiderman film (God knows there aren’t many of them). For Black Panther, it’s that it’s a refreshing change for a sea of white faces, and the characters were actually likeable compared to the usual self-righteousness. For Thor, it was a standalone film, funny and original and not following the above formula as much.

So did Ant-Man and The Wasp stand out from the rest? Not so much in plot. What made it more interesting was that there are genuinely funny moments and the villain is quite an interesting character.

The plot of the film follows after Captain America: Civil War with Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) under two years of house arrest for aiding Captain America in the infamous airport scene. He has a dream relating to Hope Pym’s mother/ Hank Pym’s wife, Janet (respectively played by Evangaline Lilly and Michael Douglas). This leads to him being involved in recovering Janet (Michelle Pfeiffer) from the quantum realm which can only be reached by shrinking to a size smaller than a microbe whilst being interrupted by Ghost, a woman suffering from being partially phased with the quantum realm (still with me?).

The plot was a bit dodgy and the film showed a pretty slim understanding of physics, such as being able to breathe freely while being the size of a particle in the quantum realm, as if shrinking to this size and going through different sizes of microbes and particles will then lead to a visually stunning plane of existence where humans can function perfectly well. What made it bearable was the humour, thanks to the acting talents of Paul Rudd and Michael Pena. The scenes which diverted slightly from the main plot to add a shot of silly humour brought this film to its own. There’s a particular scene involving truth serum and Pena’s retelling of events, which had me in stitches, and Rudd has various scenes where his natural talent for comedic timing and impersonation came through.

The villain of the film, Ghost, was played by Hannah John-Kamen who made a very compelling character. Her action scenes were interesting: being able to disappear and warp made her hard to fight. The action scenes throughout most of the film were fresh as Hope and Scott were able to warp in size and use this to their advantage against multiple opponents but Ghost had a very unique fighting style and became like a horror character, disappearing with a blink. She also had interesting motives, wanting to use the connection to Janet in the quantum realm to become whole again, to no longer feel extreme pain, and maybe get that hug she missed as a child. A little cringey, I know, but as someone who has dealt with chronic pain, I can see her side of going to whatever lengths to stop herself feeling constant pain.

While there are good aspects to the film and it doesn’t take itself too seriously, it still follows a formula. It falls under the subtitle of ‘it’s good… For a Marvel film’. Marvel gets a pass to have a lower standard; they churn out so many films that when you find one that breaks the mould, it’s a relief and you can add to your list of ‘good Marvel films’. For the average movie goer who isn’t the biggest fan of superhero films, this probably isn’t for you. For avid Marvel followers, you’ll probably enjoy it, but you were probably going to see it regardless if it’s good or bad, weren’t you?

Director: Peyton Reed
Writers: Chris McKenna, Erik Sommers
Stars: Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Michael Peña
Lauren Jones
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