To Infinity & Beyond: Ant-Man & The Wasp

OK it’s been long enough, I can write this with spoilers and feel no remorse about it! After Thanos snapped his fingers and destroyed all of our happiness, Marvel thought they’d be nice and give us some lighthearted fun with someone who was noticeably absent from Infinity War! It’s finally time to talk about Ant-Man and the Wasp!

Plot

Life’s been tough for Scott Lang. After helping Captain America and protesting the Sokovia Accords, Scott was arrested and placed on house arrest. Unable to leave his home, he’s used the time he’s had to rebuild a relationship with his family, primarily Cassie. Hank Pym and his daughter Hope Van Dyne have been on the run due to Scott’s actions, but have also been researching how to reenter the Quantum Realm and find Hank’s wife Janet. Scott begins having strange dreams of Hank’s wife and suddenly finds himself teaming up once again with Hank and Hope for what seems to be an impossible rescue mission. The mission itself is impossible enough but to add fire to the flame, a mysterious being simply known as Ghost is out to ruin their plans for some mysterious reason.

Villain

It seems wrong to categorize Ghost as a villain. She doesn’t hold any specific grudge against Scott, Hank, and Hope. They just happen to be in the way of her achieving a normal life. Ghost got her powers after an experiment to enter the Quantum Realm went horribly wrong. She was then used as a weapon for SHIELD due to her ability to phase through matter. Eventually with the help of Bill Foster, she learns that absorbing quantum energy is the only way to get a normal life back. She plans to use Hank’s quantum tunnel to find Janet and steal her quantum energy even if it kills Janet. Yeah, killing someone’s wife is definitely evil, but her reason for the risk is understandable. She just wants a normal life back before she phases away forever. While not as amazing of a villain as Loki, Thanos, and Kilmonger, Ghost is definitely better than the typical Marvel villain fare.

Best Scene

There’s a great car chase/fight scene towards the end of the movie where Scott, Hope, Ghost, and mobster Sonny Burch are all fighting over a shrunk down version of Hank’s lab. This is where we get the best display of Ghost’s powers phasing in and out of cars. Hope as the Wasp has some of her best action sequences here as well showing just how powerful Scott could be with the same training and discipline. At the end of the chase when everyone ends up near the ocean we get to see just how huge Scott can be with the suit. He becomes absolutely MASSIVE! Also there’s plenty of the typical Ant-Man humor spread throughout that we’ve all come to love.

Stan Lee Cameo

This happens during the same chase scene mentioned above. While everyone is barreling down the street, things are being shrunk left and right and at one moment we find Stan Lee about to get into his car. Out of nowhere it shrinks down so small Stan can’t even see it which is when he says this hysterical line, “Well the 60’s were fun but I’m paying for it now!” Absolutely hilarious!

Post Credits Scenes

Remember how I said Marvel gave us a nice lighthearted movie with lots of laughs? Yeah they only did that for the actual film. I guess they didn’t TECHNICALLY promise anything for the post credits scenes. In the first post credits scene we find Hank, Hope, and Janet sending Scott into the quantum realm to gather more quantum energy. Hank says they’ll pull him back to the regular world after a few moments of gathering quantum energy. Scott is shrunk down, gathers some quantum energy then tells Hank he’s ready to go back to normal size.

…there’s no response.

Scott calls out again.

…nothing.

HOPE, HANK, AND JANET ALL WERE TURNED TO ASk DUE TO THANOS’ SNAP!!! SCOTT IS TRAPPED IN THE QUANTUM REALM WITH NOBODY KNOWING WHERE HE IS! WHAT THE HELL IS GONNA HAPPEN!?!?!?!?!??!?!?! (This scene was excellent, definitely one of the best Marvel has ever done).

The other scene was short and sweet, we find the ant that was covering for Scott playing drums. However, if you watch the scene closer you’ll notice that there are news reports and screams being heard in the background due to Thanos’ evil snap of death! Just when we thought we were done with Thanos for the summer, Marvel pulled us back into his genocide. AGH. I love it though.

Final Thoughts 

This sequel was better than the original in almost every way. The comedy and heart were still there thanks to Luis and Scott’s bond with Cassie. The action was better with the addition of Wasp and Ghost, and I liked how this movie stayed on a smaller scale like the original while feeling more connected to the rest of the MCU. I don’t know what’s going to happen to Ant-Man in Avengers 4 though! Maybe he’ll end up going back in time? Janet DID warn him about that just before he got shrunk down…………….. we’ll just have to wait til next year to find out. That sounds way easier said than done.

To Infinity & Beyond: Ant-Man

Phase 2 has been full of crazy moments. SHIELD fell, Infinity Stones are popping up everywhere, and Ultron nearly wiped out all of humanity. With all that said though, it’s time to finally close out Phase 2 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Phase 1 ended in a bang with the Avengers, but Phase 2 goes out a bit… smaller. This is the highly underrated Ant-Man!

Plot 

In 1989 SHIELD agent Hank Pym resigns due to Howard Stark trying to recreate his “Pym Particles” which have the ability to shrink someone while also increasing their power. Deeming it too powerful, Hank vows that nobody will ever have access to his Pym Particles again. Present day, we meet Scott Lang who was recently released from prison and is trying to get back on his feet for the sake of his daughter Cassie. Unable to find a job he turns back to the one thing he’s good at: stealing. The heist he’s on though ends up being a setup by Hank Pym who needs someone to use his Pym Particles and become the new Ant-Man. Hank needs Scott to stop a tech company from militarizing what Pym tried to hide from the world almost 30 years ago.

Villain

The big bad is Darren Cross who is the CEO of Cross Technologies. Cross was mentored by Hank Pym in the tech business, but over the years Cross suspected that Pym was hiding something from him. Eventually Cross discovered the Pym Particles and became obsessed with recreating it. Years of testing made Cross lose his mind, but eventually he had a breakthrough and developed a nearly identical suit to Ant-Man’s. He named it the Yellow Jacket. Here’s another edition of “the villain is a clone of the hero,” but Cross is definitely the worst example of it. This is particularly because of the acting performance by Corey Stoll who just makes the character seem goofy. He’s also got some cringe worthy lines. He does, however, get a pretty epic fight against Ant-Man.

Best Scene 

Although the final battle between Ant-Man and Yellow Jacket is hilarious and awesome, the best scene is when Ant-Man meets an Avenger. Specifically, the scene involves Ant-Man planning to infiltrate an old Stark warehouse to steal a piece of technology vital to their final heist against Cross Technologies. Ant-Man quickly finds out that the “old Stark warehouse” is actually an Avengers base. Hank and his daughter Hope tell Ant-Man to abandon the mission, but Ant-Man continues anyways. That’s when he runs into the one leading Avengers’ security: The Falcon. The two duke it out and Ant-Man surprisingly ends up getting the upper hand and outsmarting Falcon. At the end of the fight Falcon radios in to the rest of security saying, “It’s really important to me that Cap never finds out about this.”

Stan Lee Cameo

After Ant-Man defeats Yellow Jacket and the day is saved, Ant-Man’s friend Luis tells him about a new tip he got. Falcon is looking to recruit Ant-Man for an upcoming mission, but while the story is being told by the various people in it, we come across Stan Lee who is a bartender telling Luis’ friend that the journalist he’s with is “crazy stupid fine.” I couldn’t imagine Stan Lee actually saying that which makes this particularly funny.

Post Credits Scenes

Hank Pym shows his daughter Hope a prototype suit that he and his wife had been working on. He says he realizes now that he and his wife were building the suit for Hope so that one day she could take on the role of The Wasp like her mom did years ago. Hope admires the suit, simply smiling and saying, “It’s about damn time.”

The second post credits scene is a doozy. Falcon and Captain America have finally caught up and captured Winter Soldier! Cap and Falcon then have this conversation:

Falcon: This would’ve been a lot easier a week ago.

Cap: If we call Tony…

Falcon: He won’t believe us.

Cap: Even if he did…

Falcon: Who knows if the Accords will let him help.

Cap: We’re on our own.

Falcon: Maybe not. I know a guy.

What’re these Accords they’re talking about? Why can’t they go to anyone else for help? Does Cap know that Falcon got his ass whipped by Ant-Man!? So many questions, but the answers are going to have to wait for the next movie. It’s clear though that Phase 3 is going to be massive!

Final Thoughts 

I’ve said it before about Iron Man 2 and Hulk: “They’re so underappreciated, they aren’t as bad as people say.” THIS TIME I MEAN IT THOUGH! Ant-Man is probably the most underrated movie in the MCU. It changes up the formula for a superhero movie choosing to be more of a heist movie instead of a flashy explosive action flick. It also doesn’t take itself too seriously. It’s a story about a man who talks to ants for crying out loud! The villain is a total bust, but there’s way too much to like about this movie to cast it aside to the other more popular Marvel superheroes.

And that officially concludes Phase 2! A lot has changed over the last six movies. We have tons of new heroes, a villainous threat that’s going to carry over for many films to come, AND Infinity Stones. Phase 2 does have some of the worst films in the MCU, but despite the noticeable flaws it’s still an overall fun series of films that leads into the best Phase in the MCU. Phase 3 is the final phase leading to Infinity War meaning we are getting ever so close to the big show down!

Thanos Meme of the Week

There’s a birthday party in this movie… thank goodness Thanos wasn’t around to ruin it.