The old saying that good things come in small packages has never rung truer than with Marvel’s latest contribution, Ant-Man and the Wasp.
Picking up after the climax of Captain America Civil War, we catch up with Scott Lang/Ant-Man (Paul Rudd) serving the final three days of the two-year house arrest sentence earned for turning into giant man in Civil War (it doesn’t really matter if you don’t remember).
Part of the fun of Ant-Man is he’s just a regular guy - OK, he’s technically an electrical engineer turned petty thief turned accidental superhero, but in the Marvel universe that makes you a regular person.
He’s not a god, a super genius, a hundred-year-old frozen relic or king of a secret country – he’s just a divorced dad trying to entertain his kid every other weekend and that makes him revolutionary.
The stakes in Ant-Man are tiny compared to the rest of the Marvel universe – this time around Dr. Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) and his daughter Hope Van Dyme/The Wasp (Evangeline Lily) are trying to rescue their long-lost wife/mother (Michelle Pfeiffer) who they believe has been stuck in the quantum realm for 30 years.
Along the way they run into one bad guy who wants to steal their tech for nefarious purposes (Sonny Burch played by perma-bad guy Walton Goggins), and a girl named The Ghost (played by Hannah John-Kammen) whose mysterious matter-shifting powers prove to be a bit of a challenge.
In between helping Pym and Van Dyme, Lang is just trying not to get caught breaking his house arrest and trying to keep his security firm run by former convicts afloat.
Ant-Man and the Wasp’s shrinking powers make for the most inventive action scenes, from running along the edge of kitchen knives to giant Pez dispensers and tiny race cars, there’s always something you’ve never seen before coming at you at light speed.
Paul Rudd is perhaps the friendliest and most easily likeable actor working today – his gentle and easy charm carries not only the character of Ant-Man but the entire movie.
Evangeline Lily continues to do her best to advance the character of Hope, who was cliché in the first movie and handed super powers instead of character development in the second.
Pfeiffer is luminescent despite her very short screen time, Micheal Peña as Rudd’s best friend Luis steals every scene and provides the biggest laughs of the movie.
Ant-Man is the quintessential little brother of the Marvel universe – funny, lighthearted and always getting into low-stakes trouble.
The film is sweet and entertaining – the perfect movie to recover from the heavy blow that Avengers: Infinity War dealt the universe.
Vicky Sparks is a Bright’s Grove native and movie critic for Global TV’s The Morning Show, which airs nationally on Fridays. Her Journal Reviews cover movies playing at Galaxy Cinemas Sarnia