Loosetooth Reviews: Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018)

Avengers: Infinity War saw the culmination of ten years of movies, all the characters from a decade’s worth of movies coming together to take on biggest of the big bads. But while the likes of Dr Strange, Iron Man, and Starlord are all seen taking on the mighty Thanos one hero is noticeably absent.

But before we get into why Ant-man was missing in action we need to recap what went before.

In Ant-Man recently released convict Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) stumbles across ‘one last job’, a local residence housing a safe containing untold valuables. Lang breaks in to find an unusual suit which gives him the ability to shrink down to the size of an ant. The suit belongs to Dr Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) who needs Lang’s help to stop his shrinking technology falling into the hands of his former protégé Darren Cross (Corey Stoll).

Pym’s daughter Hope van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly) has been working closely with Cross, under the pretence she is estranged from her father, a rift that’s occurred since the disappearance of Hope’s mother Janet van Dyne.

It’s later revealed that when Hope was young Hank and Janet performed numerous covert missions for the U.S. government as Ant-man and the Wasp. During one mission the duo are attempting to stop a Soviet missile from destroying an American city. Unable to remove the missile casing the only option is to shrink down between the molecules of the casing and destroy the guidance system, but the only way to do that is for either Hank or Janet to sacrifice themselves. As Hank’s regulator is already damaged Janet draws the short straw.

Scott, Hank, and Hope, with the help of some of Scott’s former convict friends stop Cross, and all is right with the world. But not before Scott pulls the same trick as Janet, shrinking down so small he enters the Quantum Realm, but unlike Janet Scott has a return ticket.

The next time we see Scott is in Captain American: Civil War, where he joins Captain America (Chris Evans) and his comrades against over members of The Avengers. The opposing sides fighting for their right to protect their identity and work autonomously from any government/world agency, Cap’s side feel they should be free to choose while Iron Man’s side believe they should adhere to an accord signed by the majority of nations that all enhanced beings should be registered and regulated.

Unfortunately after a smackdown in a German airport Cap’s side loses and are imprisoned, which leads us to Ant-man and the Wasp.

Ant-man and the Wasp starts with Scott near the end of his two year house arrest for his part in the Captain America/Iron Man fisticuffs, when suddenly he has a vision of Janet and promptly tries to contact Hank & Hope, who he hasn’t seen since he left for Germany. It appears following Scott’s return from the Quantum Realm Hank & Hope have been working on a device to rescue Janet.

…and this is where it gets complicated for our heroes, while Scott is under house arrest and Hank & Hope are on the run, and trying to rescure Janet, they also have to deal with a black market tech dealer and his goons who wants the Quantum realm device to sell to the highest bidder, and a masked character named Ghost who can phase through anything and likewise after the device although for a completely different reason.

It’s this set-up that makes Ant-man and the Wasp different from it’s predecessor, where Ant-man was essentially a heist movie, and this is the great thing about these Marvel movies they can imitate any genre, Ant-man and the Wasp has more in common with crime capers like Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch. Various groups with various goals all getting in each others way. The film’s light hearted approach and lower stakes plot make for a perfect palate cleanser after the intense universe shattering events of Avengers: Infinity War, and the inevitably intense, game changing events of Avengers 4 still to come.

So where was Ant-man during the events of Infinity War? He was in San Francisco dealing with federal agents, gangsters, ghosts, and parenting. Don’t worry though the post credit scenes link the two films together in a magnificent way.

Have you seen Ant-man and the Wasp yet? What’s your verdict? Let me know in the comments below