Ant-Man and the Wasp Official User Review Thread - SPOILERS

[pixen]

Can't be. They already have Pym Particles (which Hank mentions by name) in the first film.

My bad. Totally forgot that!

 

[rashad]

Pretty weak film coming off Black Panther and IW. While it has it's moments, there is something off about this movie. It came off a little uninspired and feels like filler. It's not some "palette cleanser coming off IW" most of these reviews are calling it.

6.5/10

 

[KRYPTON INC.]

Over all, fun but... Yeah, it didn't quite do it for me. Review as follows:

Spoiler

Ant-Man was a nice tight little super hero heist film that leveraged it's conceit pretty well and while a trifle was an entertaining enough trifle that had a great end battle between hero and villain that was creative with it's use of shrinking. It did what it did well and had some organic laughs. It wasn't particularly deep but it didn't have to be and Rudd as Lang, Lilly as Hope and Douglas as Pym were engaging enough to carry things along.

Now we get the sequel with all returning (Even Luis and friends... More on them later) to continue the breezy exploits while on another light and airy story and given the praise around the Hype and elsewhere I was expecting a really funny movie with a truly great chase scene as it's big set piece and... I'm sorry, but while entertaining I just had the impression that it all felt pretty flat. I'm serious. Yeah, it's supposed to be breezy, yeah it's a "gag" film in the sense that the gags, either the verbal comedy or the action gags are the point I suppose but... I was entertained but not necessarily engaged. There's nothing on paper that's wrong with all the elements (save maybe one and again... I'll get to that later). Nothing is done badly per se but it does feel awfully perfunctory. Yeah, the jokes work, and the SFX is flawless but it also wasn't all that amazing either and combined with a script that didn't make anything else all that tension filled or dramatic, even with literally two lives hanging in the balance, it left me feeling like a lot of Marvel films have. I laughed a lot in the theater but don't feel much of anything else and it all comes off as though it's just hitting a check list of what needs to happen in this type of story. Even frankly the performers feel off in a strange way. I for sure can tell that the cast had "fun" making this movie, but... There's also an element of, well I wouldn't go so far as to say "Phoned in" because no, it's not that level but it feels a bit like both director and cast are doing "just enough" and are satisfied that's all required. Again, given the supposed stakes that's not to the benefit of the film. The character of Ghost came off the most compelling to me in that the actress invested her performance with a bit more spark than just about everyone else, and the story even on bare bones face value of it as it relates to her comes off with more of a compelling and direct motivation that works. Everyone else, again, while not bad just kinda feels like they are marking time in between the next gag. Rudd as the co-lead is in particular a reverse stand out if you will. His performance to me had a feeling of a car with the emergency brakes engaged trying to get over the speed limits. I felt he was holding back a good and engaging take on all his lines the entire run time of the film. Is it funny when he's stuck at "kid" size? Yeah, it's funny. He says funny dialogue. Okay... What else you got? Is that all there is?
And while it's all funny, even with some real howlers here and there, I have to honestly say that it wasn't THAT amazing as a comedy either. It had about the same overall comedic impact as say some of those late 70's Disney live action films more or less. Cute. Inoffensive. But hardly a block busting comedy behemoth either.

Now I will get to Luis, and the truly perfunctory nature of so much of the film. It's almost impressive how they used Luis' signature stories in the movie but then I thought about what he was actually telling and realized this was literally a case of telling and not showing. Luis' story is tied up quite a bit in talking to the audience about Lang and Hope's romantic involvement. And to be sure if you cut that out and one scene where Scott and she make allusions to being in a relationship you'd never get much of a true romantic connection between the two characters. It's all presented to the audience in a literal exposition dump as supposedly having meaning but nothing else in the film really communicates it. Was it funny? Yeah it was funny but again, amounted to not much else and was almost a crutch to important or what should be important character relationship material.


Finally I think that the use of the size changing and other powers in the film while realized on a technical level are done really well, they also didn't quite reach a level where I thought they were amazing either. There were some bits that I did find rather inspired, such as the way Hank Pym uses giant ants to construct his Quantum portal. That was a genius touch. Sadly for myself it's one of maybe two or three really eyebrow raising moments in terms of power use in the film. There are some fan boy type nit picks as well I could go on about (Healing energies form the Q-realm? How was Janet alive at all? How was she breathing?) that I find less pressing than the general lack of engagement on an emotional level, but their existence doesn't help in my overall impressions either.

Was it cute at times? Yes. Funny enough? Sure. Were there some passable ot good action moments? Yeah. Did I end up caring one bit about any character outside of Ghost and what they felt or experienced? On that the film failed.
And even as a film with action I was expecting a much more visceral and fast paced end set piece. While not a bad movie, it's also one that didn't move any other meter I had. Sad to say I put it on a pile of quite few Marvel films that are far from offensively bad but barely hover above mediocre.

 

[javonstokess]

Damn man, that's sad if that's the case. Try to out-dark that, DCEU!

It COULD be dark, but I trust Marvel to not depress the hell out of us.

Other "future" happenings: Shuri is the new Black Panther and ruler of Wakanda. Stark & Pepper are married with a 10 year old kid. Steve Rogers is now President with Rhodey as VP. Black Widow has regressed to being an assassin. Bruce Banner is now a recluse trying to cure himself/control the Hulk. Thor/Rocket/Nebula are scouring the universe searching for revenge on Thanos.

I also think, at the end of the movie, Cap ends up getting the gauntlet and being the one to reverse the Snappening and then he, and the gauntlet, are destroyed in the process.

Other possibilities: Vision is repaired, but without the mind stone, is the semi-emotionless "white version". Stark retires from active duty and marries Pepper. Captain Marvel takes over the Avengers who now consist of herself, Scarlet Witch, Black Widow, Vision, War Machine and the new "Professor" Hulk. Bucky picks up the shield to become the new Captain America with Sam tagging along to help him find his way.

 

[Frodo]

Pretty weak film coming off Black Panther and IW. While it has it's moments, there is something off about this movie. It came off a little uninspired and feels like filler. It's not some "palette cleanser coming off IW" most of these reviews are calling it.

While I liked it more than you did, I agree a bit with you on the palette cleanser thing.

I can see why people would say that given that its lighter and has smaller stakes than BP and IF.

But for me, after BP and IF which were both creative milestones for Marvel Studios, following it up with a film that's just " fine "can feel underwhelming.

Its kinda like having a filler episode after being left on a major cliffhanger by the previous episode.

The filler may serve its purpose, but what you really want is to get back to seeing how the cliffhanger from the previous episode is resolved.

 

[inomilan]

A lot of the youtube reviewers didn't like the film, even some of my favorites. This is like the first time my opinion differed from most of them.

 

[honestbharani]

If the purpose is to drum up expectations for the next big movie, I will say its already succeeding. People under rate this factor.

 

[Webfoot Hero]

A lot of the youtube reviewers didn't like the film, even some of my favorites. This is like the first time my opinion differed from most of them.

I noticed that as well. It's almost like after BP and IW, having such a small-scale film was a big letdown for them. I think they should understand that not everything can or needs to be on such a grand scale.

 

[Havok83]

I give it a 9. MUCH better in every way over the original

 

[Stark Bauer]

Just watched it in IMAX 3D. I thought the beginning was good the middle was a little dull and then as soon as they went back to the quantum realm I perked up. The movie has flashes of the Incredibles with the family dynamic...makes an MCU FANTASTIC FOUR even more exciting to look forward to.

At times it felt more like an episode of SHIELD rather than a Marvel Studios Feature Film - the script, stakes and pacing was much like a TV show- the ABC ones since the Netflix shows are easily better than this movie.

It wasn’t as bad as TIH but not as good as IM3...probably about on par if not slightly better than Thor 2 I thought AMATW humour wasn’t as good as the first one as many jokes fell flat especially when there was the awkward moment in the end between Randall Park and Scott Lang about seeing you again.

 

[javonstokess]

I 100% agree that this movie showed me that Marvel would do a kick@$$ Fantastic Four movie when given the chance.

 

[scarlet-witch]

I liked it. Not as much as I loved the last three MCU releases but this was a joy.

The biggest issue was I had no idea what Walton Goggins' characters motivations were. It felt like he was just there.

 

[Thome216]

I liked it. Not as much as I loved the last three MCU releases but this was a joy.

The biggest issue was I had no idea what Walton Goggins' characters motivations were. It felt like he was just there.

He was playing 'third-wheel' villain, though there has been some wondering if the person he was trying to steel the Pym-tech for may have a bigger role in a later film.

 

[Pink Ranger]

I 100% agree that this movie showed me that Marvel would do a kick@$$ Fantastic Four movie when given the chance.

MCU is good at showing scientific heroes that have done some bad **** in the past to get where they are. Reed Richards would make Stark and Pym look like Gandhi by comparison.

 

[Galactus123]

It was great. I liked the first one more. Evangeline Lilly was great as Wasp and it was good to see Michelle Pfeiffer in a super hero movie again.

 

[Joefixit]

Just watched it in IMAX 3D. I thought the beginning was good the middle was a little dull and then as soon as they went back to the quantum realm I perked up. The movie has flashes of the Incredibles with the family dynamic...makes an MCU FANTASTIC FOUR even more exciting to look forward to.

At times it felt more like an episode of SHIELD rather than a Marvel Studios Feature Film - the script, stakes and pacing was much like a TV show- the ABC ones since the Netflix shows are easily better than this movie.

It wasn’t as bad as TIH but not as good as IM3...probably about on par if not slightly better than Thor 2 I thought AMATW humour wasn’t as good as the first one as many jokes fell flat especially when there was the awkward moment in the end between Randall Park and Scott Lang about seeing you again.

That just shows we all have our opinions. I will take TIH over iron man 3 any day . IMO it was a far superior film and you actually get to see the titular character and villain unlike iron man 3 that just teased iron man the entire time as well as the let down on the villain.

I did feel this ant man movie was a let down from the previous ant man film.

 

[TheVileOne]

I actually liked the smaller personal stakes of Ant-Man and the Wasp. I don't think you can survive with every movie being like end of the world/universe stakes.

 

[Joefixit]

I actually liked the smaller personal stakes of Ant-Man and the Wasp. I don't think you can survive with every movie being like end of the world/universe stakes.[/

You made a good point there.

 

[Stark Bauer]

I actually liked the smaller personal stakes of Ant-Man and the Wasp. I don't think you can survive with every movie being like end of the world/universe stakes.

Agreed. However, maybe I was just having an off day for some reason but it felt like a TV Episode and it like the first one - there didn’t seem to be a real sense of urgency. I may enjoy it more upon a second viewing. I know I wasn’t vastly disappointed...just a bit underwhelmed. I felt the movie ended on a high point and the mid credit scene was a wake up call and made a great final impression on me.

 

[C. Lee]

My daughter and I had already seen it twice when we got my wife to go with us yesterday to see it (she generally loves the MCU movies but was depressed by IW).....but after us talking about how much fun it was she decided to go. She loved it. She loved it so much she talked her niece into taking her kids to see it today.

This got me to wondering. Is the decent but not great BO due to the general audience being turned off by all the death in IW?

 

[Drizzle]

This got me to wondering. Is the decent but not great BO due to the general audience being turned off by all the death in IW?

I think it's just a combination of Ant-Man being the least popular of the individual MCU franchises so far, a bit of overcrowding at the box office (Incredibles 2, Hotel Transylvania 3, etc.) and people just making summer plans that don't involve going to the movies. I think had Ant-Man and the Wasp opened in November in the usual spot typically reserved for MCU movies in recent years it would have had better numbers.

 

[Deck Rickard]

Just saw it, LOVED it. Much better than the first one. It had a lot of heart, and was laugh-out-loud hilarious. Ghost was a great villain because when it got down to it, she wasn’t really a villain. You can’t help but feel for her and I’m interested to see where they go with the character next. I also loved Walton Goggins in his secondary bad guy role. He’s great in everything, and even though his part was small, he wasn’t wasted. Randall Park was also a standout. It was funny to see an FBI agent who was just a total dork. And of course, Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Michael Douglas, Michael Pena, Laurence Fishburne and Michelle Pfieffer were all awesome. Can’t wait to see what happens next!

9/10

 

[jed]

Just got back from a screening.

Favourite character has to be Michael Pena's Louis. The guy is so funny and comedic genius that he shines in all his scenes.

And Michelle Pfeffier. What happened to her? She used to be so beautiful in "Batman Returns".

A pity that....she

Spoiler

only appears in two flashback scenes in the beginning and only appears at the end finale of the movie.

 

[Galactus123]

And Michelle Pfeffier. What happened to her? She used to be so beautiful in "Batman Returns".

That was over 25 years ago. She is 60. I think she looked great in this.

 

[Kev4000]

Just got back from a screening.

Favourite character has to be Michael Pena's Louis. The guy is so funny and comedic genius that he shines in all his scenes.

And Michelle Pfeffier. What happened to her? She used to be so beautiful in "Batman Returns".

A pity that....she

Spoiler

only appears in two flashback scenes in the beginning and only appears at the end finale of the movie.

I think she was more greyed the she usually is to make a match with Douglas. In Mother! she was much younger.