While perhaps one of the essential members of The Avengers, Marvel's own self-titled films - even their own titular films - still relocate Ant-Man as a small hero (ahem, this is not a word game). And if his way goes on like in Ant-Man and the Wasp, then he will hold the prediket for a long time.

So, we already know that Ant-Man is a simple hero. Ant-Man's super strength is in fact a dime and ridiculous when compared to, say, the lightning god or billiards dressed in sophisticated robots or captains who are boosted by super steroids; he can only get smaller and bigger, even with a loan costume from someone else. His latest film, Ant-Man and the Wasp is also a simple film; too light so it almost feels like a filler of a great design of Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). After the spectacular ruin at Avengers: Infinity War, we really need a break for a moment. And before the next epic disaster comes, we also need to get acquainted with the new characters that will come up later.

Ant-Man and the Wasp perform their duties quite competently and do not try too hard to do anything else. Plot is not important-very important, the chemistry is quite crude, villain does not provide a significant threat, its stakes are relatively low. Instead, he uses the most basic but powerful cinema tricks to move the plot, a special effect and a MacGuffin. And his MacGuffin is a laboratory building that can be reduced to the size of a travel bag, which is contested by various parties until the end of the film.

Ah sorry, I really direct bablas.

The story, of course, took place in the main fabric of the MCU saga. After the battle of fellow comrades in Captain America: Civil War, our hero Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) had to serve a sentence as house arrest and certainly no longer could use Ant-Man costumes. The sentence is only a few days away. So far, Scott has managed to be the ONLY father who is good for his only child. However, nothing goes too smoothly if you are a good father.

The problem was brought indirectly by Scott's mentor, Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) and his son, Hope Van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly). Hank believes that during this time his wife, Janet Van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer) is still alive. If you didn't remember the Ant-Man movie that Janet, who was also a hero with Wasp, disappeared in the quantum universe many years ago, then this film will remind you more clearly. The two then build portals to a quantum universe that cannot be accessed without Scott's help.

Unfortunately, this portal is desired by many parties. The first was the mafia led by Walton Goggins, who of course had a malicious intent because he was played by Walton Goggins. Next, a mysterious man nicknamed Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen) who had the power to penetrate any object, which apparently had a deep wound caused by Hank. For one reason or another, this also involved Hank's old partner, Bill Foster (Laurence Fishburne). Still strong? Okay. Meanwhile, Scott had to act without the knowledge of his supervisor police (Randall Park). For that, Scott had to ask his friend, Luis (Michael Pena). Eh, for that or for others?

At least until the end of the first half, this movie is a matter of mere exposition, and there is a strange sensation that I feel when the characters and motifs revealed all when we were just in the middle of the film. The plot points seem to be sewn as blindly as possible, so there are no new characters embodied in sip. But when he is no longer tied to the exposition, the movie can eventually become what he wants: a simple superhero movie that content entertains enough. We are then brought to MacGuffin's grabbing story where nothing is of the utmost importance as he moves agile.

The ability to shrink is the main attraction for me in watching films featuring Ant-Man. Well it must be admitted, that size is indeed important for you brothers. Directed Peyton Reed has successfully presented several sequences of action to shrink-enlarge the fun in the first Ant-Man movie. This time, he returned to playing skillfully with the possibility of a scale change, whether for action or comedy or both. Although no one can make us as impressed as when seeing Ant-Man riding ants, there is quite a sequence of action exciting in this film, including involving Hot Wheels and Pez Hello Kitty candy. There is also a battle scenes kayokan in the kitchen that requires Wasp resized with agile, occasionally shrinking running at the end of the blade to then acrobat beat the villain.

The scene was cool too, until we might miss realizing that it should be the peak moment of the disclosure that Hope is now Wasp. Well you know, in the previous movie Hope has not been Wasp right? The introduction feels B. Evangeline Lilly is pretty committed to her role, but she has not been given a chance to do much. The movie is entitled Ant-Man "and" the Wasp, but the dynamics between Ant-Man and Wasp are not so exciting except for some callbacks on their relationship already established in the first movie. When they are cool themselves, but when they join them become a bland hero.

Even so, this movie is still working, I'm also surprised. Ant-Man and the Wasp is a perfect example of a Marvel production machine capable of producing something very standard and forgettable, yet competent enough until we feel bad ourselves to call it a bad movie. The movie is quite entertaining, although we finally know that what people will talk about after the movie is finished is Avengers: Infinity War Part 2 (or whatever the title later).