By JASON GUYER
By JASON GUYER
E
veryone knows ants can carry a lot of weight proportionate to their body weight. To be accurate, an ant can carry up to 5,000 times its own body weight. In a nutshell, this feat or ability also explains “Ant-Man and the Wasp” the film.
“Ant-Man and the Wasp” is Marvel’s second offering in the Ant-Man franchise. To start “Ant-Man and the Wasp,” Scott Lang or Ant-Man (Paul Rudd) is struggling with the consequences of his actions in Marvel’s “Captain America: Civil War.” When he finds out that Hope van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly) and Dr. Hank (Pym Michael Douglas) need help once again, Lang must push aside those consequences to become Ant-Man once again and fight alongside the Wasp.
Ant-Man and the Wasp soon find out secret revelations from the past all while trying to battle a new enemy, Ghost. Ghost is the newest edition to Ant-Man and the Marvel universe. In “Ant-Man and the Wasp,” Ghost is played by Hannah John-Kamen and is a she instead a he, the more common and well-known comic book version.
Kamen does a wonderful job as Ghost, especially the “Ant-Man and the Wasp” version. As this version of Ghost is meant to be sympathized with more, rather than being straight villain. That sympathy is where John-Kamen’s strengths lay. She is never menacing as the villain but she fits the Ant-Man paradigm.
As the first Marvel film after “Avengers: Infinity War,” it is a good thing that “Ant-Man and the Wasp” villain is not a menacing winner take all villain. Ghost and her sympathetic and circumstantial villainy fits the Ant-Man universe where the hero himself is considered a villain/criminal when he is not Ant-Man.
Ant-Man is not your anti-hero type like Deadpool is. In fact, Ant-Man the character and “Ant-Man and the Wasp” the film are the exact opposite. “Ant-Man and the Wasp” is a hilariously witty film full of heart and is a movie for the whole family. Paul Rudd and Evangeline Lilly, the two lead actors make“Ant-Man and the Wasp” a family film.
Paul Rudd always feels like the funny family man. Paul Rudd from “I Love You, Man” is how Paul Rudd feels in every film. Type casting probably is something actors hate but sometimes a person has specific vibe they give off and it is hard to change that, even when they try things out of the box, as Rudd did in Netflix’s “Mute” where he plays a bad guy named Catus Bill but never feels like the bad guy the film deserves.
Ant-Man is the character Rudd deserves and Rudd is the actor Ant-Man the character deserves. The chemistry between Ant-Man and Rudd himself is almost as good as the on screen chemistry between Rudd and Evangeline Lilly. Lilly complements Rudd very well, even exceeds him at points throughout the film. As far as pairs go in the Marvel universe, there is no better than Rudd and Lilly. Their banter is on point, their witty comebacks and pointed jesting between characters is spot on.
The only thing not on point is the position of the relationship dynamic between the character Scott Lang and Hope van Dyne. Lilly fought and demanded her character be more than a side story to Ant-Man. Hence the title of the film “Ant-Man and the Wasp.” Equal in name and in stature throughout the film, not just Ant-Man but Ant-Man and the Wasp. A pair or duo, partners.
Partners is a theme throughout “Ant-Man and the Wasp” and for the most part Lilly gets exactly that. There are moments where The Wasp carries the tilm and moments where Ant-Man carries the film, where Ant-Man saves the Wasp and where the Wasp saves Ant-man.
However, in the end it falls to conventional and societal norms. Ant-Man wants and essentially asks The Wasp to be his partner. Even with the hint of allowance behind it, that the male allows the female to be his partner. In a near flawless film, this is a big one. One line of dialogue would have fixed this. When Ant-Man says, “Will you be my partner?” the Wasp should have said, “I think the question is will you be MY partner.”
Acquiescing to societal norms in a film where the Wasp has command or leads the majority of the film, doesn’t fit the narrative the film presents. For all Evangeline Lily’s fighting and push to not be a side character, that one line made her the sidekick.
The duo’s dynamic is still the best in the Marvel universe. The actors make their characters and the audience feel like they are watching and apart of their budding relationship. A relationship not built in the very normalized sexual attraction that cinema usually does, but in the more pc and often better mental attraction. It is all presented in a very family-oriented way, especially with Scott Lang and his daughter who, as any great father should, talks to his daughter, especially about his life and the events in it that are affecting his daughter and his daughters life, and he asks her opinion, creating a wonderful family dynamic in “Ant-Man and the Wasp.” These two character dynamics, the budding girlfriend dynamic and the father-daughter dynamic, give “Ant-Man and the Wasp” heart.
There are a lot of films with heart. There are even some Marvel films with heart. “Ant-Man and the Wasp” gives you 5,000 times more heart. “Ant-Man and the Wasp” gives you ant-size heart.
IRATE SCORE: 4/5
Jason Guyer is an avid moviegoer and works in the Graphics Department at the Eagle Times. For questions or comments he can be emailed at [email protected]
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