Ant Man And The Wasp - What Is Cheesecake Without A Biscuit Base?
Quick Thoughts: Ant Man And The Wasp (2018)
Ant Man attempts to team up with the Wasp again whilst avoiding the FBI.
Ant Man And The Wasp isn't a movie I was particularly excited to see. The first Ant Man was ok; it, along with Guardians of the Galaxy, was a nice change-up in phase 2 of the MCU. However, in comparison to all that has come out of phase 3, this is highly mediocre - bad even (not as bad as Doctor Strange). What Ant Man And The Wasp reveals, above all else, is the shallow introduction we received to this world and its characters in the first movie. In short, the first Ant Man was pretty much a comedy with a few action set-pieces. It did not develop a mythos - not at all, it felt too contemporary and too much like a genre movie, not necessarily a superhero movie. What's more, it introduced a nice relationship among Ant Man and his family, but, in all honesty, this never felt real and tangible; Paul Rudd, an ex-con, I'm not sure...
This flies under the radar in the first movie to some degree, but is an elephant in the room in the second. Without any weight and consequence in the set-up film, there really wasn't much reason for a second Ant Man movie. What about the first film required a second? There was no major bad guy, no major mission or established goal; no Thanos still at large, no journey half-complete, no Avengers to continue to run. This means that we don't feel that Ant Man has a city to protect and that that city is perpetually going to produce danger and conflict - we feel this best in the Spiderman thanks to him being the friendly neighbourhood superhero. Without a basis in the world building, there is no natural catalyst for the drama and story to emerge in Ant Man. What's more, because there is no urgency around the character - Ant Man simply wants to be a good dad - characters aren't natural catalysts for the drama and story either, especially in our writers' hands it seems. This leaves Ant Man And The Wasp picking up its plot from Civil War.
Without real purpose, and to no real effect, this highlights the consequences of Ant Man helping the Avengers in their fight; he's under home arrest and the rest of his team do not want to talk to him because he ran off, abandoning them - illegally so in the government's eyes. This is where the story starts and is the fundamental basis of all drama. There is a story that could be told about this and whilst we may think of its possibilities, it does not emerge on screen. Instead, a second minor moment is picked up on from the previous film's plot whilst this plot point from Civil War is used to contrive minor, easily overlooked, conflicts. This is then a movie about Ant Man's previous travels into the quantum realm that somehow linked him to the Wasp's lost mother - who she aims to find again.
In short, the way this is presented is horribly rushed, unmotivated and weak; this should have been a quest into the quantum realm, but is a mish-mash of things in the real world whilst the quantum realm remains a side-issue. This film then starts with grating narration to set up the Wasp and her father's central place in the narrative and it continually focuses on this relationship between these two, who, frankly, you never cared about, and never grow to. With such a weak dramatic base, Ant Man And The Wasp continually contrives reasons for the plot to become more complicated and for action set-pieces to start up. Every beat of this movie is then subservient to plot and spectacle; nothing naturally emerges from characters or the world. This is a horrific fault as nothing has a symbolic and meaningful foundation; why should we care about happenings if we don't care about the characters in them and the reasons for them occurring?
Ultimately, Ant Man And The Wasp's greatest failure is a very simple one: it does not give us a reason to care about what is going on. There are minor cute and sentimental moments seen between Ant Man and his daughter, but all else in this movie is empty; there is no reason to care about the Wasp and her father, her mother, the terrible side-bad guy, the other minor characters, the plot (which is full of many holes), anything. There are laughs to be had in this movie, but that's all. Beyond that, there is no real reason to watch this, nor is there much reason for this story to have been told.
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Bouguereau: Select Paintings
Next post:
End Of The Week Shorts #69
More from me:
amazon.com/author/danielslack
Ant Man attempts to team up with the Wasp again whilst avoiding the FBI.
Ant Man And The Wasp isn't a movie I was particularly excited to see. The first Ant Man was ok; it, along with Guardians of the Galaxy, was a nice change-up in phase 2 of the MCU. However, in comparison to all that has come out of phase 3, this is highly mediocre - bad even (not as bad as Doctor Strange). What Ant Man And The Wasp reveals, above all else, is the shallow introduction we received to this world and its characters in the first movie. In short, the first Ant Man was pretty much a comedy with a few action set-pieces. It did not develop a mythos - not at all, it felt too contemporary and too much like a genre movie, not necessarily a superhero movie. What's more, it introduced a nice relationship among Ant Man and his family, but, in all honesty, this never felt real and tangible; Paul Rudd, an ex-con, I'm not sure...
This flies under the radar in the first movie to some degree, but is an elephant in the room in the second. Without any weight and consequence in the set-up film, there really wasn't much reason for a second Ant Man movie. What about the first film required a second? There was no major bad guy, no major mission or established goal; no Thanos still at large, no journey half-complete, no Avengers to continue to run. This means that we don't feel that Ant Man has a city to protect and that that city is perpetually going to produce danger and conflict - we feel this best in the Spiderman thanks to him being the friendly neighbourhood superhero. Without a basis in the world building, there is no natural catalyst for the drama and story to emerge in Ant Man. What's more, because there is no urgency around the character - Ant Man simply wants to be a good dad - characters aren't natural catalysts for the drama and story either, especially in our writers' hands it seems. This leaves Ant Man And The Wasp picking up its plot from Civil War.
Without real purpose, and to no real effect, this highlights the consequences of Ant Man helping the Avengers in their fight; he's under home arrest and the rest of his team do not want to talk to him because he ran off, abandoning them - illegally so in the government's eyes. This is where the story starts and is the fundamental basis of all drama. There is a story that could be told about this and whilst we may think of its possibilities, it does not emerge on screen. Instead, a second minor moment is picked up on from the previous film's plot whilst this plot point from Civil War is used to contrive minor, easily overlooked, conflicts. This is then a movie about Ant Man's previous travels into the quantum realm that somehow linked him to the Wasp's lost mother - who she aims to find again.
In short, the way this is presented is horribly rushed, unmotivated and weak; this should have been a quest into the quantum realm, but is a mish-mash of things in the real world whilst the quantum realm remains a side-issue. This film then starts with grating narration to set up the Wasp and her father's central place in the narrative and it continually focuses on this relationship between these two, who, frankly, you never cared about, and never grow to. With such a weak dramatic base, Ant Man And The Wasp continually contrives reasons for the plot to become more complicated and for action set-pieces to start up. Every beat of this movie is then subservient to plot and spectacle; nothing naturally emerges from characters or the world. This is a horrific fault as nothing has a symbolic and meaningful foundation; why should we care about happenings if we don't care about the characters in them and the reasons for them occurring?
Ultimately, Ant Man And The Wasp's greatest failure is a very simple one: it does not give us a reason to care about what is going on. There are minor cute and sentimental moments seen between Ant Man and his daughter, but all else in this movie is empty; there is no reason to care about the Wasp and her father, her mother, the terrible side-bad guy, the other minor characters, the plot (which is full of many holes), anything. There are laughs to be had in this movie, but that's all. Beyond that, there is no real reason to watch this, nor is there much reason for this story to have been told.
Previous post:
Bouguereau: Select Paintings
Next post:
End Of The Week Shorts #69
More from me:
amazon.com/author/danielslack
