Scott Lang has been on house arrest for the past two years after disobeying Government orders along with half of the members of the Avengers. Dr. Hank and his daughter, Hope, have been developing a new project together. After Scott was able to return from the quantum realm, it gave Hank hope that maybe his wife, Janet, is still alive and somewhere deep down there. The lab they are working at can shrink down to size for whenever they need to go to a different location. Someone is stalking them. Her name is Ava and she needs the lab because there is something in there that can cure her. Once again Hank and Hope have Scott participate in their experiment after he informs them that he has been having visions of Janet. Scott ran into Janet while he was in the quantum realm.
Blaine: Marvel wanted to introduce The Wasp and Giant-Man in 2016’s “Captain America: Civil War” because they wanted Ant-Man and The Wasp to team up with the other superheroes, but director Peyton Reed was against that. He was planning to save The Wasp and Giant-Man for the “Ant-Man” sequel, “Ant-Man and The Wasp”. In the post-credit scene of “Ant-Man” it shows Hank showing Hope the Wasp suit that he and the wife were working on, which would lead to the sequel. Putting The Wasp in “Civil War” would have been a mistake according to Peyton Reed because he thought the character needed time to shine and “Civil War” already had enough characters to focus on. Ant-Man got to be in “Civil War” and got to become a giant (Giant-Man) which was one of the two things Peyton was trying to save for the sequel. “Civil War” was dividing the Avengers into two groups and fighting each other because they had disagreements with each other. Ant-Man was on Captain America’s side and after Captain America’s team lost, they were all arrested. Now Ant-Man is on house arrest.
Marvel was pissed that The Wasp couldn’t be in “Civil War”, but Ant-Man being in it gave a new starting point for “Ant-Man and The Wasp". Peyton already knew he wanted “Ant-Man and The Wasp” to be a buddy movie. And because “Ant-Man and The Wasp” is also a sequel to “Civil War” he thought about how Hank and Hope would react to Scott going on a mission and taking the Ant-Man suit without permission. Paul Rudd was thinking about how the story for the sequel would go while they were shooting “Ant-Man”. After Paul was done shooting “Captain America: Civil War”, he met with two screenwriters, Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers, to talk about the story for “Ant-Man and The Wasp”. Two more screenwriters collaborated with them after they got started. Paul Rudd says the writing process always takes a long time and it’s always evolving, which means changes get made to whatever doesn’t work out in the script. The script had so much in it that Michael Douglas had to read it several times so he could completely understand every detail in the story. They certainly added a lot of humor in it, more than I think any other Marvel movie. Paul Rudd said he had never put so much into a project like this one. Peyton wanted more sequences that were daunting so he thought about a lot of stuff shrinking like vehicles, buildings and labs.
Evangeline Lilly was very happy that she got promoted to being a superhero for the sequel and that she got to be in the lead next to Paul Rudd. The Wasp is the first Marvel female character to have her name on the title. Another thing Evangeline was excited about was being in a movie that talks a lot about quantum physics because she always found it fascinating. It wasn’t till Evangeline wore the suit that she felt whole. Evangeline was pleased that The Wasp wasn’t going to be in “Civil War” because she knew the character needed an origin story first before showing her with other Marvel heroes. It was ok with Ant-Man because his origin story was already told. Evangeline loves the scene where someone throws a knife at The Wasp and she does a flip while shrinking down. It’s almost like a secret agent thing which is what I love so much about it. The Wasp has a lot of fighting skills in her and her suit is more enhanced than the Ant-Man suit, one with the wings and blasters. Another thing about Hope is that she and Hank are always the ones who plan out the missions and Scott just follows orders.
Hannah John-Kamen has been having a good year. She’s starting to get a lot of attention as an actress. Earlier this year I saw her have a small role in “Tomb Raider”, then she played an assassin in “Ready Player One” and now she is the second woman to play a female super villain in the Marvel Universe. Of course her character, Ava a.k.a. Ghost, isn’t really a villain. She’s just someone who is in terrible pain and wants to stop it. She’ll do anything to stop it. Ava is unstable and can phase through objects. She’s also dying which she fears and fear has made her do terrible things like kill people. The only person she trusts is Dr. Bill Foster, who has been treating her like a daughter since she was a kid. Ghost was a male in the comics, but the gender has changed for the movie. Hannah didn’t know much about Ghost before she got the part except that the character was a male in the comics and started off as an Iron Man villain. It was fun for Hannah to give the character new life as a female. There wasn’t much to learn from the comics in order to get to know this character, but other than that Hannah felt like she had a lot of freedom to bring the character to life through her performance. Ava’s fate is a mystery in the end. All the main characters make a run for it and Ava has regret for everything she has done now that she is healed. But she has Bill Foster and he sticks to her no matter what. Ava was more of a worthy opponent compared to the villain from “Ant-Man”, Yellowjacket.
Laurence Fishburne had already been apart of the DC Universe as Perry White, the editor and boss of Superman at the Daily Planet, but I don’t think it was working out for him because Zack Snyder made “Man of Steel” and “Batman V Superman" too 9/11ish. But I think his performance as Perry White was great. Laurence has transferred over to the Marvel Universe. He loved reading Marvel comics as a kid and when he met director Peyton Reed, he was happy to meet someone who loves the Marvel Universe just as much as him. Laurence wanted to work with Peyton after they had a nice conversation. There’s a scene where Scott, Hope and Hank meet up with Laurence Fishburne’s character, Bill Foster, and Scott and Bill are talking about themselves being giant and how big they got. It sounds like they are comparing dick sizes. Another person who started off in the DC Universe first is Michelle Pfeiffer. One of the things Michelle is best known for is playing Catwoman in Tim Burton’s “Batman Returns”. Of course I think she was in better hands, Tim Burton’s compared to Zack Snyder’s, in the DC Universe than Laurence Fishburne. Michelle plays the wife, Janet, who has been stuck in quantum realm for decades. She’s the new mission for Hank and Hope. She also helps heal Ava.
The post-credit scene to “Ant-Man and the Wasp’ connects to the ending of “Avengers: Infinity War”. The villain of “Infinity War”, Thanos, wiped out half of humanity and turned them into dust just through one snap of his fingers. They cease to exist because he used all the power of the Infinity Stones to destroy them. Hope, Hank and Janet disintegrate while Scott goes into the quantum realm to get a sample of it. But now he’s trapped because there is no one to get him out of there. At the very end of the Marvel movies it always says characters like Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, Black Panther or the Avengers will return. At the very end of “Ant-Man and The Wasp” it said “Ant-Man and The Wasp will return” and then this question mark shows up at the end of the sentence which gave me goosebumps. Leaving the movie left me with a huge anticipation feeling in my chest because I’m very curious to see how Ant-Man is going to get out the quantum realm, how he'll unite with the Avengers and how the Wasp will return along with everyone else who disintegrated. My friend, Luke, told me that he believes the quantum realm will have something to do with beating Thanos.
My rating on “Ant-Man and the Wasp” is five out of five stars
