Ant-Man and the Wasp

With its confident approach, better team dynamics, and the abilities of the main hero expanded by a hair better than the first installment, it is also surprisingly a strong part of the whole universe. Given that it has not deviated from its heist schemes, family pathos, or even purely physical comedy, Scott Lang himself (and now perhaps Hope van Dyne) is an easily fitting piece of the puzzle that can shine on its own. (07/07/2018)

Ant-Man is a bit second tier in the Marvel universe, but purely feeling-wise I’m a bit more satisfied with the resulting product in many aspects than I with the A-list blockbusters about destroying the world in a number of ways. It's more intimate script-wise, emotionally lighter, and at the same time fresh and mostly funny. An exceptional Marvel movie with a good script that is full of twists and turns, but at the same time the core makes sense, without any twists pulled out of thin air. Bombastic visual effects that culminate brilliantly in the most breakneck action scenes, but the digital rejuvenation is good too. It’s still mass-produced stuff from the M brand, but it’s watchable, at least once. (10/10/2018)

Lots of funny situations just like in the first installment, but this time we also get a whiff of humor at all costs. Perhaps I was expecting the main protagonist to be a little more adult and that the plot would be a little more serious - more fateful (I was much more interested in the story of Hank and Janet than the main story), but this did not happen and by the ending I figured out that something like this might not actually suit Ant-Man. Maybe. (07/07/2018)

More of the same, you could say. I wasn't particularly interested in the first Ant-Man, I don't really like Paul Rudd. Visually, the film reminded me of a more expansive episode of a TV series and I rank it as one of the last among the Marvel movies. On the other hand, I can easily respect it as popcorn entertainment that's supposed to be for the whole family. And that's what Ant-Man and The Wasp is. If you liked the first one, the second one won't disappoint you because it relies on the same things. Logically, I wasn't that blown away by it. Peyton Reed still can't do anything that is visually interesting and relies on Rudd, jokes and weird side characters. It's a shame, because he's got a very interesting villain that someone more skilled and with a more serious approach could have pulled off much better. Here, though, he crams in a lot of fun up front, which was unnecessarily too much for my taste, plus it often teetered on the edge of awkwardness. I don't want to be unfair to the film, however. With Marvel, I appreciate that they try to make the films somehow genre-specific. And for me, this genre simply doesn't fit well. (07/27/2018)

Ant-Man is one of the few films in the MCU that can be watched as an independent comedy almost without losing its shine. The second film is also enhanced by the return of Michelle Pfeiffer to comic films (everyone is still bowing down to her Catwoman from Batman Returns), and this is also the first time Michelle and Michael Douglas meet on screen, something that people have been awaiting for three decades. As the cherry on top, film connoisseurs may be warmed by the knowledge of a romcom in which Paul Rudd dates Michelle (even though there is an 11-year age gap between them). I recommend that people go and re-watch I Could Never Be Your Woman. (12/28/2018)