ANT MAN AND THE WASP IS A REALLY WEIRD MOVIE... [MOVIE REVIEW]

This movie reminded me so much of the side characters from The Scrubs tv series. Bill Lawrence the creator Scrubs himself disclosed the fact they did give a lot of special attention to the side characters as a sort of scapegoat if they're running out of jokes for the show, he dubbed them "The Weapons Chest." I felt that Peyton Reed the director of Ant-man and Wasp (He's also the dude that directed Yes Man, Bring It On, Down with Love and The Break Up) had the same idea and executed it very well. Did anyone notice that there weren't any real villains in this story? Just a bunch of characters with their own different agenda that intertwined with each other. For the most part we only almost really focus on both the Ant-man Team and The Ghost team, but we also have Luis and the Wombats/ X Cons, Scott Lang's family, Sonny Burch and his Mobs, and Even Jimmy Woo and the FBI. In retrospect having all these side characters should have been very distracting and detrimental to the story and yet that was not the case at all. Because so much thought was actually put into this characters and to how they were presented they actually ended up being more than a welcome addition to the overall movie. Sonny Burch may have been on the bland side in terms of character, but he is actually someone I kind of grew fond of. Him and his crew of misfit mobs kind of reminded me of Team Rocket from Pokemon, extremely ineffective at what they do but are just so damn entertaining. Jimmy Woo could have been nothing more than a one-note FBI character screaming "most Unorthodox!" all the time but instead they turned him into this weird awkward accidentally amusing "trying hard to be cool" light-hearted character and Luis once again steals the show with his antics. I dunno about you guys but I absolutely love these characters and will pay good money to see them again.

A Happy Ending For Everyone... Until The post Credit Scene

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Scott Lang gets to be with his family, Janeth Van Dyne is saved from the Quantum Realm, Ghost got cured of her poorly explained phasing ability/disease and Stan Lee had one of the funniest cameos ever in the MCU. It was for all extensive purposes the first time I think, that the MCU ever had such a feel-good ending across the boards. And yes, I did watch the post-credit scene, I'll talk about that in a bit but I want to focus on the actual ending first. It was great, I honestly forgot that I was watching a Marvel movie because of it. The image of Scott, Hope and Cassie shrunken down watching an old 60's monster movie on a laptop just fills me up with whimsy. The ending and resolution of the movie felt so real and well deserved by these characters that I can't really complain much. Okay, that's a lie... the ending was too perfect. Everything was wrapped up in a way that by the end of the story there is really is nothing else to do. Scott is no longer in house arrest and Hank Pym and Janeth Van Dyne can now access the quantum realm, effectively removing "plateaued" status of the Pym Technolgy. Even The Wombats/X cons actually got the business deal they ware aiming for. So It begs the question. What's next? That's where the post credit scene comes into play. I remember watching this with my friend in the theater and we were just waiting for Marvel to pull the plug and turn the world upside down with the snap. So when they eventually did, as morbid as this may sound, we were actually happy. Becuase it effectively gave ant-man more to do, It gave him a new purpose and more importantly the way the universe is going, it gave the character the importance I've always felt it truly deserved.

It's a Love Letter To 80's Adventure Kids Movies

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This movie is like The Goonies, E.T Phone Home, The Neverending Story, Back to the Future and Flight of the Navigator combined. It's fun, quirky, weird and out of this world. It also seemed very familiar, and at first, I didn't really understand why. Then after thinking about it some more and rewatching it, I realized that it's basically an 80's nostalgia movie hiding in plain sight. There are very subtle nods and references to a lot of different old schools films within the runtime of this movie. I mean really, just think about the plot. You've got a bunch of misfits running away from the law, the main character has a weird quirky ability to help them along the way, everyone is trying to save someone who's stuck in a parallel world, there's even that "having a pet" cliche in a form of a weird giant ant. This is simply every 80's adventure movie you've ever watched before but with just enough of the modern flair to truly differentiate itself. Because of this, the movie manages to shine on its own. If this movie wasn't part of the MCU I truly believe that it would still have been a hit simply with its own merit.

THE BAD
Ghost: The Antithesis of a Missed Opportunity

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Despite popular opinion, Ghost is not necessarily a villain in this movie. In fact, I would argue that there wasn't necessarily an actual villain at all. Ghost was antagonistic yes. But she doesn't really do evil things, for the most parts, she was only really trying to save her own life. Which brings me to this conundrum. Ghost by proxy should have been the most interesting character in the movie, and yet I feel she was downplayed to the point of frustration. You literally have a character who phases in and out of reality and is in constant torture because of it. Her backstory also revealed that she was a victim of a tragic experiment gone wrong. Now, I don't know about you guys but that to me is a perfect premise for an unsung hero or misinterpreted villain. And yet, Ghost felt like none of those. Ghost is nothing more than a plot element to further the Janeth Van Dyke Quantum Universe sub-plot. Her purpose is to provide a sense of urgency and conflict. And to be fair, she did it quite well, but she could have been so much more. Imagine if the story focused more on her character and her interactions with both Ant-man and the Wasp. What if she actually ended up having a conversation with Scott Lang? And what if Scott lang empathize with this character and decides to find a way to save both her and Janeth? What if we actually get to see her in pain whenever she uses her powers? Damn Marvel, this was a gigantic oversight.

If You Loved Infinity War... You're Probably Going to Hate This Movie

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Okay, hate isn't exactly the right term to use for this one. It's more like dissatisfied. Ant-man and the Wasp is the Anti-infinity war. If infinity war was about big stakes and over encompassing storylines ant-man and the wasp has almost no stake and is a much smaller and grounded story. And though I couldn't find evidence to actually confirm this, the placing of this two films in the MCU timeline is something I'm pretty sure was done on purpose. The question "where was ant-man during the events of Infinity war?" was finally answered with "preparing to make you happy after the inevitable fallout of the last movie." Ant-man was designed to erase the bitter taste of defeat at the hands (or fingers) of Thanos from the last movie. I mean, I personally think its a great idea, but the problem with that is that it encourages comparisons. Though I really don't think that's fair, it's ultimately inevitable. Most fans will still be riding the infinity war hype train by the time ant-man and the wasp hits the cinemas. Most are still in awe of the events that have transpired in Infinity war, the acting, the writing, the overabundance of characters and the world building that it provided. So when you put ant-man and the wasp into the mix (which is a much smaller scale story) it just ends up getting... well, lost in the crevasses of a much larger universe. Ultimately it puts Ant-man and The Wasp in a weird double-edged position where it gives you the reprise that you deserve but is also kinda skippable.

What is up with Janeth Van Dyke?

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No really, WHAT!? So she went to the quantum realm a place where you're not supposed to get back from but now you supposedly can. She's been there for 30 years, where supposedly time and space works differently, and yet she herself aged rather normally, also she has weird quantum powers now for reasons unexplained. Also, she has a weird blade staff thing for some reason, I mean really what is up with this person? The movie does nothing to address this questions. And Janeth just comes off as a very ineffective plot device. While I was watching this with a friend in the theater, we were thinking about a really exciting hypothesis of who Janeth really is. Maybe she was the true villain all along and the plot with her is just an elaborate plan to lure Hank Pym into the quantum realm. Or Maybe she wasn't Janeth at all but an evil Entity who was posing as her. But to our dismay, the film decided they're just going to play her straight while simultaneously explaining absolutely nothing about her. Hopefully, they give us more clarity regarding Janeth in the future.

The most predictable MCU movie to date.

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Prior to watching the movie I already made a bunch of different assumptions about what was going to happen in the movie. Ant-man and the wasp is going to ignore the events of Infinity war as much as possible, they did. Luis is going to do the story-telling bit at some point in the movie, he did. The post credit scene will have almost the entire cast turned into ash except for ant man, they did. I predicted every outcome at an almost 100 percent accuracy. That never happens to me when it comes to Marvel movies, this was the only exception. And it's kind of disappointing because if you're like me who has been a fan since 2008 with the release of Iron Man, we've been kind of hot-wired to expect the unexpected. Ironman 3 did this with the Infamous "Mandarin Twist," Captain America: Winter Soldier had the "Shield is Hyrda twist" and Infinity war was one big "what the fuck moment" all things considered. Ant-man and the wasp had no twist, no curve balls, nothing. It was played straight up to the bitter end and is less compelling and dare I say, a little forgettable because of it. Such a shame because I do believe that this is actually one of the better movies the MCU has ever produced.

In Conclusion:

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Ant-man and the wasp is a damn good time and It served it purposed well. It provided a break from all the heavy stuff that has been going on with the MCU lately, but whether it's actually worth watching or skipping over is still up for debate. I personally loved it, more than I probably should have. But I've always been a sucker for simplistic storylines executed well rather than big ominous full on epics. But that's just me. This is a movie for the entire family, yes. Whether that said family would actually enjoy the film, well I don't know for sure. Regardless give this one a try and decide for yourself. All we have to do from here on out is wait for March 2019 and see what Captain Marvel is in store for us next.

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