Paul Rudd is a perfect fit for Ant-Man. He’s a funny pretty unassuming guy who’s just happy to be there, which is basically a metaphor for Ant-Man and the Wasp. This latest Marvel entry is having fun just hanging out with itself, and builds its story around trying to help out other family members. Let the Avengers deal with world altering agendas: all Scott Lang and Hope Van Dyne want to do is make their families happy.
Scott (Rudd) is under house arrest from the events of Captain America: Civil War, being watched like a hawk by FBI agent Jimmy Woo (Randall Park). The FBI is making sure Lang doesn’t talk to Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) or his daughter Hope (Evangeline Lilly), who have been on the run since Lang’s German trip. The Pyms have been inspired by the events of Ant-Man to try to find their long lost mom/wife, Janet (Michelle Pfeiffer). To find her, they need Scott’s help along with maybe the help of his best friend Luis (Michael Pena), because a mysterious stranger (Hanna John-Kamen) is also hoping to use the quantum realm, perhaps for nefarious purposes.
Keeping the stakes low gives Ant-Man and the Wasp unusually large amounts of freedom for an MCU movie to mess around and be free. In addition, director Payton Reed didn’t inherit someone else’s movie and have to fix it: this Ant-Man movie is totally his. As a result, the story more smoothly rolls along. Ant-Man and the Wasp, even moreso than other MCU films, uses humor and irreverence first and foremost. There are some great running gags like most stellar comedies, including Randall Park’s agent’s obsession with magic and truth serum storytelling 101. Paul Rudd is more unleashed here, getting to show off his effortless charm and charisma, as well as his cute relationship with his daughter Cassie (Abby Ryder-Fortson). This smartly makes Evangeline Lilly the badass straightwoman, Rudd’s bad cop if you will. Most of the action setpieces revolve around Lilly owning everyone in the room aided by the goofy Rudd, using the strengths of both leads. The best part of the first movie was the very clever setpieces using size differentials, and here, we get more of the same, making even the action a punchline to a joke as well, keeping the movie light and fun.
So because the world is not on the line. Reed and his plethora of writers make the stakes more personal. I learned from Ant-Man and the Wasp that that technique works if the movie isn’t overburdened with “technical” jargon. Paul Rudd’s storyline is simple: he wants to make his daughter proud of him and help his friends fix their family or their lives. You only need about 3 minutes to understand and invest in Scott’s actions. It’s the rest of the story that’s WAY too complicated to be emotionally satisfying. The attempted rescue of Janet van Dyne has to 1) explain the quantum realm with lots of made up words, 2) get a lab running with parts from an arms dealer (Walton Goggins), 3) explain why Hanna John-Kamen needs the lab and get the audience to care about her, 4) show us how important Janet is to Hope and Hank, 5) give Michael Douglas something to do before the search gets going. That’s a lot of stuff to do in about 2 hours, so you’re gonna sacrifice chunks of these stories to make the timeframe you want, but limiting any emotional impact your’re going for. Personally, I would have combined 2) and 3) into a heist that would have been fun to execute, and then build the story around 1, 4, and 5. The movie however gives LOTS of time to 3 and keeps 2 around to create a fun car chase. As such, the search for mom never lands as hard as it is supposed to, and makes you hope Michelle Pfeiffer has at least a 2 movie deal so we get more of her in the 2nd film.
Do you like giant salt shakers and Pez dispensers, suitcase sized buildings, and ex convicts trying to pitch a salesperson while on truth serum? That’s what Ant-Man and the Wasp wants to do, and does very well. I also hope they give Michael Pena a series of explanations of things in the MCU he has to monologue about with the MCU cast lip synching what he says. That sh*t is gold.