The first Ant-Man movie, three years ago, was refreshingly different from most of the rest of the MCU, being centered on the West Coast instead of the East and also, to a degree not shown in any previous MCU movie up to that point besides Guardians of the Galaxy, being very humor-oriented without sacrificing a great deal of heart in the process. It also served as a coda to Phase Two, following up on a game-changing episode in Age of Ultron. Here, the stakes are a little different. Ant-Man and the Wasp isn't a coda to Phase Three - that phase still has a year to go yet! Instead, it builds up to an ending that ties this latest San Francisco side trip back to Infinity War and its legendarily Rick Riordan-grade cliffhanger. But until that point, this movie continues the stylistic and emotional trend of its predecessor, heavy on heart and humor both and also managing to outdo the first Ant-Man in the visual department.
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| Golder than the gate in the center of the poster, accurately reflecting just how killer fun this movie is. |
When I first heard about the original Ant-Man movie, I had to admit at the time that I didn't think the concept had a lot of potential. Of course, I did my research and found out just how powerful he really was, and then the trailers came, and finally the movie itself. And it was clear that Ant-Man was truly a force to be reckoned with, but there were so many scenes where the filmmakers made it clear that we'd only scratched the surface of that force's potential. The Quantum Realm, in particular, was a long and agonizingly trippy sequence, foreshadowing Doctor Strange in its visual complexity while also helping set up for the hope that powers this sequel - the hope that, if Scott could come back from the Realm, where supposedly nobody could return from, then who's to say the long-lost OG Wasp, Janet Van Dyne, can't do the same?
It's a little hard for our new Ant-Man and Wasp, Scott and Hope, to get the job done of rescuing her vespine mother. Scott's joining in the airport fight in Civil War actually had even greater consequences than previously seen. He gets off relatively easy with an agreement to stick to house arrest in the city so he can still see his daughter - and also help his old buddies Luís, Kurt, and Dave start their own security business, punningly named X-CON. Pym and Hope, though, are on the run because of their company's tech - the Ant-Man suit - being used with literally nobody's permission but Cap's in Berlin two years ago. Kinda nasty that the Sokovia Accords are being used against Pym and Hope this way, but the grand tradition of government inefficiency and all that. So that puts the brakes on the budding relationship between Scott and Hope as seen at the end of Ant-Man as well, though of course their chemistry resparks when they eventually reunite for this movie.
Luckily, Pym and Hope have the tech necessary to alleviate some of the challenges of being on the run. They can use Pym Particles on just about everything they need - from their fleet of cars (which they keep in a Hot Wheels container when not in use) to their lab, a condemned-looking cube of a building that can be shrunk to the size of a small suitcase, complete with handle and wheels. (As a Flash fan, I had a chuckle when they dropped the trailer for this movie revealing that particular trick, and the very next Flash episode did the exact same trick too!) One of the funny touches in this movie is the ways the lab keeps changing hands and size all over the place. This being San Francisco, I actually floated this theory to my friend Speedy: one of the ABC-7 news broadcasts in the movie should've included Dan Ashley and Ama Daetz debating the building's constant reappearances in different places all over the city, whether or not it was a real building or some particularly ambitious public art, and even bringing in a USGS spokesperson to evaluate the building's seismic soundness.
The San Francisco setting, I feel, was used even better in this movie than in the first one. As a lifelong Bay Area resident, I could tell that the first one fudged a fair few details - like, having Luís drive Scott out of San Quentin but come over the Marin Headlands to approach the Golden Gate Bridge. Perfect for a standard scenic establishing shot of this fair city, but we locals are always laughing our heads off at the geographic inaccuracy. (For those not familiar, San Quentin is east of Highway 101 and the bridge, and the Marin Headlands are west.) It still bugs me that Marvel insisted on filming maybe 60-80 percent of these movies in Atlanta - just like it did with Spider-Man: Homecoming because let's face it, there's no place in New York City as hilly as the neighborhood through which Spidey got his ass dragged behind the bus and you don't gotta be an NYC denizen to know that. But for this one, I feel like they took extra steps to make this San Francisco look more convincing, including a lot of location shooting. Fisherman's Wharf, for example, prominently appears in the climax, as does Lombard Street's famous crooked block, which gets thoroughly wrecked in such a way that SF-set media typically reserves for the Golden Gate Bridge. They're not perfect - Muir Woods is suspiciously empty during the day, except for a ton of police and FBI cars that couldn't possibly fit in there. But for one of the best San Francisco hills car chases since the original from Bullitt, which also rivals that of The Dead Pool in terms of laughs (it helps that the good guys keep changing car sizes with nifty little Pym Particle-enabled shifters), I give this movie gold stars for its authenticity.
The movie's shining spots are, of course, its laughs and top-notch visual treats. The latter of these also ties into the movie's heart in a lot of ways too. Not only with the eventual trip to the Quantum Realm to find and recover Janet, but also with our main villain, Ghost. I saw a tweet from Oakland's very own TASK declaring Marvel 6 for 6 with their most recent villains, and I agree, Ghost very definitely makes that six. She has a super-cool ability to phase through solid matter, showcased beautifully by the effects team, but then comes the deconstruction. Her ability is killing her slowly - reminding me of Tony Stark's character arc in Iron Man 2, actually - and while Pym isn't directly responsible for her condition, she still holds him responsible enough to want to make him answer for the sins of his past. So, yeah, on the level of Vulture or Killmonger, Ghost for sure earns my sympathy and respect.
For now, this is the end of the Marvel Cinematic Universe's new releases in 2018 - unless we get a new season of Daredevil or Punisher or something in the fall. If that's the end of the year's new material here, then it's a high note they end on, earning an A from me. You won't need nearly as many tissues as you would have for Infinity War - but as the ending of this movie sets up for Avengers 4, I have to say I'm not responsible for any scare-induced heart attacks in any theaters around the world.
Till next time, Pinecones...
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| #FeedTheRightWolf |
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| Remember: Denis Leary is always watching. Always. |
I have been seeing red shades in almost all of the Marvel costumes such as Paul Rudd Ant-Man and the Wasp Jacket, spiderman's costume, Doctor Strange and so many others. I wonder if Marvel is running out of costume ideas to put better colors?
ReplyDeleteYou're not wrong about that. But with Phase 4 looking to introduce some new characters, maybe they'll shake things up?
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