Three years the first installment, comes the second Ant-Man movie, the Wasp added. Paul Rudd reprises his role as Scott Lang a.k.a. Ant-Man, an ex-con-turned-superhero-turned-ex-con-again after the events of the Captain America: Civil War movie. He is once again joined by Hope Van Dyne a.k.a. the Wasp (Evangeline Lilly), Dr. Hank Pym (Michael Douglas), and his associates led by fast-talking Luis (Michael Peña). Their objective this time around is to attempt to retrieve Janet Van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer) from the elusive quantum realm, and thwart anything that, or anybody who, might stop them.
AMATW gives the viewer a more enhanced experience of what is is like to be both minuscule and enormous (I personally recommend you watching this in IMAX just for that). It gives us a glimpse of a hidden world outside of what our human eyes can see, and also gives us points-of-view of either being a bird, an insect, or a toy, to name a few.
Plot-wise, AMATW is pretty much straightforward with not much in terms of a convoluted set of twists and turns. Also, it serves as a way to answer some questions that may have come up in the Marvel Cinematic Universe in terms of lore as well as character developments. The cast provides for their comic counterparts a lot of character, so much that you start to empathize with them by just looking at what happens. They also exude a lot of chemistry with each other, be it romantic, familial, or friendly.
In the topic of casting, I remember personally a conversation that transpired among us DAGeeks. It is that the leading men of Marvel have certain qualities that the have to meet to become one, which are as follows:
- Scruffy;
- Beautiful eyes;
- With sense of humor; and
- With a nice set of abs (alright, this was my idea).
In this case, Paul Rudd met them all, and thus making him a great choice to be Scott Lang. (/end bias)
Almost three months after the soul-wretching Avengers: Infinity War, AMATW serves as a good palate cleanser and a breath of fresh air. While it still has its signature sense of humor, it also tackles serious issues such as trust, family, and camaraderie. It’s not exactly the type of fix we want after IW, but it should distract us from the anguish until the next Avengers film.