Ant-Man and the Wasp is directed by Peyton Reed who also directed the first Ant-Man. This movie follows the events of Captain America: Civil War with Scott Lang in house arrest. Meanwhile Hope and Pym are trying to get Janet Van Dyne out of the quantum realm. The movie stars, Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Michael Douglas, Michael Peña, Hannah John-Kamen, Laurence Fishburne and Michelle Pfeiffer.

I’ll start by saying that I loved the first Ant-Man, it was fresh, fun and exciting but most importantly original. In my opinion the Marvel Cinematic Universe has progressed a lot since Phase 1, in fact my favourite Marvel movies are mostly from Phase 3. Lately Marvel has been putting out hit after hit with Thor: Ragnarok, Black Panther and of course Avengers: Infinity War. Unfortunately I can’t say the same for this movie. Ant-Man and the Wasp is an average, lazily written and weirdly constructed movie.

I don’t hate the movie at all. I went into this movie reluctantly if I’m being honest. From the trailers it looked like a typical good vs bad movie with some emotion sprinkled throughout. That’s exactly what I got. I can’t say anything new about this movie that you haven’t heard from other reviews so I’ll say the things I agreed with. Useless villains, annoying secondary characters, not enough action, ultimately boring and familiar. I’m going to change the style of the review this time. I’m going to list what I didn’t like first, then list the positives after.

The story itself was just messy, familiar and small-scale. They left so much unexplained. Obviously I’ll discuss those parts in my spoiler review. As for the messy part, it was a bunch of storylines, some important and some so useless, I rolled my eyes whenever they showed them. Again, like many reviews said, this movie is a small-scale movie. There are so many scenes where they could’ve went above and beyond with them but they didn’t and the worst part is that you’ve literally seen all of them in the trailers. There are no surprises in this movie. None. The story is also very predictable, I’ve seen this story so many times before. It reminded me of Black Panther which was also predictable, maybe even more so but at least that movie was fresh, colourful and energetic.

Also I really hated that the movie dialed down Scott to a comic-relief character. He was smart and witty in the first movie. Now he is just a comedic, irresponsible and dare I say a side character. Now I don’t have a problem with him being the “sidekick” if he was fighting side by side with the Wasp but that only happens twice in the movie. I absolutely hated Walton Goggins‘s character in this movie. He was the most cliche business man villain there could be. His character is so useless that it could’ve been written out of the movie and nothing would change!

Now what does this movie have to offer which is actually good?  I liked Lilly as Wasp/Hope, she was badass, direct and smart. Literally the direct opposite of Scott/Ant-Man. Peña was good, his humor felt a bit forced at times although there was this great hilarious scene where he narrates things from his point of view. Hannah John-Kamen was great as Ghost, the only problem I had with her character includes some spoilers so I’ll leave that for the spoiler review. I liked how they kept the original theme from the first movie. The visuals are great, I love the visuals representation of Ghost’s powers. They looked really cool. Speaking of visuals, this is a rare case where I would recommend spending a few extra money to watch this in 3D. It complemented the visuals in a subtle way. The scenes in the Quantum Realm are amazing to look at.

It may seen like I hate the movie but I don’t, it’s just that after these epic movies Marvel has been putting out lately, Ant-Man and the Wasp is too small to compete. It’s troubled script and odd character choices bring the movie down. It’s nowhere near as fun or clever as the first Ant-Man. It’s just a decent Marvel movie and a forgettable one at that. I do however suggest seeing it for the amazing visuals and the ridiculously important End-Credit scene. It’s a perfect movie to just shut your brain off for two hours and enjoy a blockbuster with family or friends.

RATING: C-