Ranking the different side stories and plot devices of Marvel’s latest
Even though fans have had more than two months to digest and deal with the trauma surrounding the events of Avengers: Infinity War, the impact of the film’s many shocking moments are still lingering. With the next installment not due out until 2019, the release of this week’s Ant-Man and the Wasp comes as something of a well-deserved breather for Marvel folk. A sequel to the 2015 sleeper hit, Ant-Man and the Wasp sees Scott Lang/Ant-Man (Paul Rudd) living a mundane existence under house arrest following his involvement in the events of Captain America: Civil War. However, a vision stemming from his experience in the quantum realm causes him to re-team him with Dr. Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) and the newly-minted Wasp Hope Van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly) as the trio battles new enemies and challenges in their quest to venture back into the Microverse and find original Wasp Janet Van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer).
Ant-Man and the Wasp never had a prayer of coming close to the level of laughter, pathos, and overall enjoyment of the original film, despite everyone wishing it could. While that Edgar Wright humor is missing this time around (replaced by nearly half-a-dozen screenwriters, including Rudd himself), it’s not the laughs, but rather the bloated plotlines that make the movie come across as a lesser sequel.
Because of the many different narrative strands at play here, I thought a ranking of all the plots, from most throwaway to most vital, would work best in sizing up Ant-Man and the Wasp.
6. Southern Fried Sonny Birch – Hands down the movie’s most useless sub-plot takes a skilled character actor and gives him the most cartoonish storyline in an already highly animated film. The casting of Walton Goggins as evil industrialist Sonny Birch, who wants Hank Pym’s technology for monetary gain, comes across as more annoyance than menace. Not for one second does the audience feel any kind of threat from this oafish wimp, whose motives and backstory could’ve been literally written on the way to the set. Stranded with no real character to play, Goggins makes believe he’s in Tennessee Williams land rather than in the the Marvel universe as he tries in vain to salvage the movie’s most taxing element.
5. Scott’s House Arrest – While the re-introduction to Scott Lang gives us a good taste of what house arrest is like for someone like a Marvel superhero, revisiting the scenario quickly tosses it into the area of tired plot device. Time and time again the audience is asked to pause the action going on so that Scott can switch over from fighting Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen) or helping to rescue Janet to make sure he’s back at his house before Agent Woo (Randall Park) turns up with the intent on busting him. Don’t get me wrong, the scenes contain a few hearty laughs and do give Park a chance to have some fun. Still, watching Scott slip in and out of that ankle bracelet that many times cannot help but get old.
4. The Boys Are Back in Town – One of the best features of the first Ant-Man, and of the character in general, was the idea of redemption and the real-world struggle faced by those individuals who have paid their debt to society. While Ant-Man and the Wasp doesn’t altogether abandon this valuable theme (Scott is now co-owner of a small time security company with his former prison cohorts Michael Pena, T.I., and David Dastmalchian), it doesn’t prop it up in quite the same telling way. Instead, it merely uses the business as an excuse to (awkwardly) insert the side characters into the story for what appears to be no good reason whatsoever. Sure, Pena’s presence garners more laughs with each successive scene (the actor’s comedy timing is pure gold), yet there’s little reason to have him or T.I. and Dastmalchian around as much as the film does, and the filmmakers eventually struggle to make any of them relevant in the final act.
3. Scott and Hope Remake Moonlighting – Although Ant-Man and the Wasp was billed as a romantic comedy of sorts, much of the trailer footage featuring the title duo gave off the makings of a solid buddy team. The actuality is closer to the rapport shared by Bruce Willis and Cybill Shepherd in the classic TV series Moonlighting. Just like the characters on that iconic show, Scott and Hope spend most of the film dancing around their past romance, not really delving into what went on between them and carefully avoiding discussing their future. In the meantime, however, the two share enough sexual chemistry and yin and yang momentum throughout their adventures here to make you hope that a real love story between the two is in the works.
2. Ghost Busting – Ant-Man and the Wasp takes a decidedly melancholic turn when it focuses on its main villain. Ava/Ghost is the daughter of a scientist whose molecules allow her to shift imperceptibly, but will soon lead to her demise unless she steals Hank and Hope’s technology. In Ghost, Marvel has one of its most compelling villains. Someone who doesn’t just believe she’s doing good, but who actually has a case for her actions. Without getting into specifics, Ava’s backstory is one filled with despair and hopelessness, giving way to deep anger and resentment. It’s no wonder she dares to go to the lengths she suggests since she is one of the rare heavies with both nothing lose and everything to gain.
1. Finding Janet Van Dyne – If there’s a driving force which makes up the heart of Ant-Man and the Wasp as a movie, it’s in the rescuing of Janet from the quantum realm. The most frequently visited of all the narrative threads is bolstered by the emotional investment the audience sees within Hope and Hank. When Janet is found, that emotion comes out in spades as personal chapters are closed and the movie’s theme of family hits home. Much of this is due to Pfeiffer’s miraculous work. The actress may only have a handful of scenes in Ant-Man and the Wasp, yet she offers up the most solid example of finding the human truth within every scripted moment.
In spite of its scattered nature, Ant-Man and the Wasp contains far more plusses than the skeptics would lead you to believe. The effects are all perfectly on point, with the scenes set within the quantum realm coming off as spectacularly beautiful. The leads are more in sync with their characters than ever and as busy as the film may be as a whole, Ant-Man and the Wasp manages to retain that self-contained feeling and is certainly never boring. Even the traditional, if obligatory, Stan Lee cameo feels more fresh and alive than his previous few. It isn’t until the first post-credits scene when the audience was painfully reminded of Infinity War’s existence at which point another crushing blow was instantly dealt, pulling the group into the devastating saga. Until then however, Ant-Man and the Wasp proves the kind of summer movie escapism that is very much needed…and not just in the world of Marvel.
