(Photo Credit: Warner Bros. Pictures)
Fun and Funnier
Try raising a daughter when the court system has you on house arrest.
That dilemma hits Scott Lang/Ant-Man (Paul Rudd) head on in “Ant-Man and the Wasp,” the sequel to the highly successful “Ant-Man.”
Scott has to get creative in his own home after his antics in “Captain: America Civil War.” But raising his daughter only indoors will not represent Scott’s biggest challenge.
In “Ant-Man and the Wasp,” Scott’s biggest challenges will come from his own dreams when those visions cannot be contained within the four walls of a home.
While “Ant-Man and the Wasp” is fun and funnier than its predecessor, it still has to rank below recent Marvel instant classics like “Black Panther” and “Avengers: Infinity War” and that is no slight to the film.
In “Ant-Man and the Wasp,” Janet Van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer) and Dr. Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) have mastered the art of shrinkage to help out the world when it is in danger and about to be adversely affected by evil.
When they become aware of a planned bombing, they jump on the case and try to prevent the world from utter terror and destruction.
However, when a difficult decision has to be made to shrink, Janet is lost in the quantum realm forever after a huge quantum explosion.
Regardless, putting their lives in danger is nothing new for Janet, Hank and their daughter, Hope.
Their daughter Hope hates when her parents have to leave her alone to go to work, but she has kind of gotten comfortable with their absence.
However, nothing can prepare her for the reality of possibly having her mother absent from her life forever.
But when Scott begins having dreams about the quantum realm and begins seeing visions of Janet, Hope and Hank believe that there is a possibility that she is still alive in the quantum realm.
And if they could get more clarity about Scott’s vision, they might have the opportunity to save her before she is really lost forever.
Hope and Hank have been secretly working on the technology needed to reach the quantum realm.
But there invention or discovery becomes a hot commodity for people on the black market and for those who think the technology can correct the wrongs committed against them in the past.
Gangsters like Sonny Burch (Walter Goggins) want what Hope and Hank have created.
And Ava/Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen) desperately wants what Hope and Hank have to offer too.
Ava got injured in an industrial catastrophe as a child, which has affected her positively and negatively ever since.
The industrial blast caused Ava to lose all feeling and physicality like normal human beings enjoy.
Furthermore, Ava lost her parents in the blast and has been orphaned ever since, confined to living in a laboratory, which does not allow her to enjoy the regular everyday benefits of life that she had grown accustomed to as a child before the accident.
Nevertheless, the blast gave Ava, also known as Ghost, superpowers like speed and elusiveness, which makes keeping Hope and Hank’s discovery away from her that much more difficult.
Ava hopes she can extract some energy from the quantum realm that will restore her to being a normal, functioning and feeling human being.
And Hank, Hope and Scott hope they can keep the technology away from their adversaries long enough to achieve their monumental goal of recovering Janet from the quantum realm.
“Ant-Man and the Wasp” is hilarious as to be expected with Rudd and Michael Pena who returns as Luis.
The most hilarious scene of “Ant-Man and the Wasp” has to be the truth serum scene when Luis begins spilling the beans about Scott’s whereabouts.
Although those who administered the truth serum only want the truth that pertains to Scott’s whereabouts, Luis (Pena) tells them the truth about their entire friendship starting with the beginning and hopefully ending with Scott’s location sometime before the film ends.
When the administers of the truth serum sigh in frustration about Luis’ long-winded storytelling, Dave (Tip “T.I.” Harris) informs them that they put the money in the jukebox so they have to just let the entire song play.
Furthermore, any film that can boast of the tremendous talents of Laurence Fishburne has to be a good movie.
As an actor, Fishburne is like Samuel L. Jackson on steroids.
Fishburne has mastered serious Academy Award nominated roles like as Ike Turner in “What’s Love Got to Do With It” and Furious Styles in “Boyz N The Hood” (not nominated).
But he also knows the benefit of accepting lighter roles in summer blockbusters.
He is just as brilliant as a serious actor as he is in an action film or superhero movie.
Furthermore, having the equally talented Douglas and Pfeiffer only adds to the star power in “Ant-Man and the Wasp.”
Like Fishburne, rapper T.I. knows the significance of accepting roles in summer blockbusters because it only increases his star power past the sphere of hip-hop heads and aficionadas.
Although, T.I.’s best roles to date are in “ATL” and “American Gangsters,” he continues to challenge himself even though “Ant-Man and the Wasp” does not necessarily allow one to spread their wings dramatically.
Getting to play opposite of Denzel Washington in “American Gangster” and now Fishburne in “Ant-Man and the Wasp,” should only help the Atlanta rapper reach his potential as a thespian.
“Ant-Man and the Wasp” succeeds because it combines the best possible comedy for a superhero movie with the pulsating car chases and violence of a good action film.
Additionally, the movie is visually stunning during the scenes in the quantum realm.
Furthermore, the undeniable chemistry between Scott and Hope is amusing to everyone but Hank.
Their attraction almost leads to destruction of their efforts because that attractions almost causes distraction from their true mission, which is to see if it is at all possible to rescue Janet from the quantum realm before it is too late.
But the storyline in the movie could have added a little more uniqueness, but that does not stop it from being a dope film.
However, the fact that Scott and crew are even able to attempt to pull off a recovery from the quantum realm while Scott is technically on house arrest might be creative enough to please fans of this franchise.
REGAL RATINGS
FOUR CROWNS=EXCELLENT
THREE CROWNS=GOOD
TWO CROWNS=AVERAGE
ONE CROWN=POOR
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