Ant-Man and the Wasp

(The Disneycember logo is shown, before showing clips from Ant-Man and the Wasp. "Action Hero" by iMovie plays in the background)

Doug (vo): Ant-Man and Wasp is a screwball comedy in a Marvel superhero movie's clothing, and I mean that in the most complimentary way. Everything about the setup of this film feels like a farce, like something out of What's Up, Doc? or Fawlty Towers or one of those great comedies. It just also happens to have a lot of ass-kicking and people in superhero costumes that can shrink really, really small. Actually, the more I think about it, how can this not be a screwball comedy? Coming out after Avengers: Infinity War but taking place just a little before those events, it's the perfect pallet cleanser after something so gigantic and serious. But that's not to say it doesn't have a few serious moments and definitely some gigantic moments as well.

Story

Doug (vo): Ant-Man, played again by Paul Rudd, is under house arrest after the events of Captain America: Civil War. This movie sets its tone perfectly, as one of the first big major action sequences is just playing with his daughter in this giant cardboard maze and this cardboard slide that really looks friggin' cool, I want this thing. But it looks like Wasp and her father need him again to find the original Wasp, played by Michelle Pfeiffer. It looks like she shrank so small, she went into a different dimension, time zone thingy...eh, comic books...and only the three of them combined can figure out how to get her back. While that's going on, another thief who can go through walls named Ghost is trying to find a way to cure her condition, because it's not actually the suit that makes her go through walls, it's the suit that actually keeps her more solid. That's actually a really good twist on that idea. While that's going on, there's heists, breaking into places, car chases, backstabbing, mistaken identities, and all sorts of various things that I guess you would find in a superhero movie now, but back then, it used to be for a screwball comedy. And you know what? They go together really well.

Review

Doug (vo): What I really like about this movie, on top of, again, the brilliant ingenuity in them getting small and getting big and having the strength and just doing everything you can with this idea, is that when the movie needs to be serious, it still works out okay, while also being a little funny, too.

(One scene about to be described is shown)

Doug (vo): I think the best example is there's a scene where the personality of Michelle Pfeiffer goes inside Paul Rudd, and he talks as Pfeiffer, like he's talking to his daughter and doing a great impression of her, and it's both really touching and sympathetic, but it's also pretty funny. You're kind of giggling at this guy who's touching the face of this woman who he's romantically interested in, but he's totally talking to her like her mother. There's quite a few scenes like that which work both dramatically and comedically.

(The film's climax is shown)

Doug (vo): The climax is 100% screwball, with all of these different people wanting different things, and one character has it and the device flies into someone else's hands, and then they have to run away, and somebody else has to take another road, and add on top of that people getting bigger and smaller, super-big, super-small, it's just a blast.

Final thought

Doug (vo): When I think of a comic book series that's just fun, it works, you're with the characters, you want to see them get all the way through, but it never goes quite too serious or overly dramatic, I think of the Ant-Man movies. I just feel like I'm reading a really charming comic book, like, you know, one of the funnier issues where they have silly one-liners and people goof up, and, yeah, you can get to the serious ones later, but for now, let's just have a few laughs. We can take it seriously in all the other issues, but let's just show them having fun in this one. It's like whenever the X-Men comics, I found myself really enjoying the ones where they were just kind of chilling and having some downtime. They felt more real, they felt more three-dimensional. So, yeah, it's not one of the great comic book films or anything, but it's just a lot of fun and really takes advantage of the ideas that they have. Granted, I never read Ant-Man, so I have no idea if this is really faithful or maybe it was a more serious comic, I'm not sure, but as a movie series, if you're looking for a good time, this packs a big punch in a small package.

(The film's final scene, showing a giant ant playing a video game drum set, is shown)