Ant-Man & The Wasp
Ant-man & The Wasp is the follow-up to 2015's "Ant-Man" and takes place not long before the events of Avengers: Infinity War which was released earlier this year. Ant-man was the first Marvel movie released after Infinity War, and it much more light-hearted and fun adventure that I thought was refreshing after all of the seriousness revolving around the Avengers first encounter with Thanos.
This movie starts after the events of Ant-Man and Captain America Civil War, where Scott Lang now tries to balance his life as both a father and a superhero. Hope and Hank, who gave Scott the Ant-Man suit in the first movie come to Scott looking for help with a mission to uncover secrets from their past. They team up together with Hope as the Wasp and him as Ant-Man in a MacGuffin type movie where they race and battle against enemies seeking to use the secrets for their own plans.
The movie has received positive reviews as a fun exciting summer adventure with thrills and equal laughs. On IMDb, it currently sits at a 7.6, and on Rotten Tomatoes with an 86%.
I looked forward to this next entry in the MCU even though chronologically it came before the events of Infinity War. For me, the first Ant-Man movie stood out as a unique heist film within the MCU and I was excited to see how the studio would approach a sequel.
My first thought as the movie ended was that it was even funnier than the first one, which is saying a lot because the first one is hilarious! I was laughing almost constantly. This is not to say laughing is the only thing you will do throughout the film; there are some great heartfelt moments that we get to experience along with the characters, and I appreciated that they didn't throw in any quips to take away from those moments.
One criticism I read about during my research about the movie was that there really wasn't a main villain and that somewhat hurt the movie. I while I do agree that I would have like one of the multiple "villains" to have been more prominent, it wasn't so bad that it ruined the movie. I will say that the story for this movie was not quite as strong as the first one as well. Yes, we are rooting for our heroes to win, but the content of the story wasn't quite as compelling as the first.
Between all of its humor and action sequences, Ant-Man & The Wasp still manages to add in some good takeaways and themes for its viewers. The first that I noticed is that of "consequences". At the beginning of the film, we meet up with Scott playing with his daughter in his apartment. We find out that he has been under house arrest there because he broke the Sokovia Accords and worked with Captain America back during "Civil War". Even though he went because Cap is his friend, and he believed what he was doing was right, he still faced and owned up to the consequences of his actions.
James 2:10 tells us that "whoever keeps the whole law but fails at one point has become accountable for all of it." Just like Scott, we are all subject to obeying the law. When we break it, even if we see it as a bad law, we are still responsible to answer for our actions. The beautiful thing about it all for us is that God will forgive us of our disobedient actions if we want to receive that forgiveness. Daniel 9:9 says "to the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness." We may sin against God, but if we desire redemption, God will give it to us.
Overall, I would rate Ant-Man & The Wasp at a 7 out of 10. I think the best aspects of the film are its humor, character interactions and the faster-paced story. The movie slightly lacks in that there is no main villain, and the story doesn't feel as compelling as the first movie. But the MacGuffin style story works well for these characters, and the fast pace makes for a fun ride! I am excited to see what will come next, and how the ending of the movie will play into the events of Avengers 4 next year!
God bless! 😃
Austin
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