Review Roundup: Critics Weigh In on ANT-MAN AND THE WASP

Ant-Man and the Wasp is an American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics characters Scott Lang / Ant-Man and Hope van Dyne / Wasp. Produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, it is intended to be the sequel to 2015's Ant-Man, and the twentieth film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). The film is directed by Peyton Reed and written by the writing teams of Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers, and Paul Rudd, Andrew Barrer and Gabriel Ferrari. It stars Rudd as Lang and Evangeline Lilly as Van Dyne, alongside Michael Peña, Walton Goggins, Bobby Cannavale, Judy Greer, Tip "T.I." Harris, David Dastmalchian, Hannah John-Kamen, Abby Ryder Fortson, Randall Park, Michelle Pfeiffer, Laurence Fishburne, and Michael Douglas. In Ant-Man and the Wasp, the titular pair team up to embark on a new mission from Hank Pym.

Ant-Man and the Wasp opened on July 6, 2018. See what critics had to say below.

Manohla Dargis, The New York Times: "That lightness extends through "Ant-Man and the Wasp," affecting not just what the characters say and do but how they interact. In too many superhero movies and especially sequels, characters don't as much talk to one another as advance the story in between big blocks of action. One kablooey leads to another, and every so often, as if to remind us of the pretty faces that go with the suits, the superheroes huddle. They plot and they quip and then it's just bang, boom, repeat. The assumption seems to be that because the audience knows the franchise there's no need to incorporate anything meaningful - anything like life - that might distinguish or deepen its characters."

Owen Gleiberman Variety: "Yet part of the fun of "Ant-Man and the Wasp" is that you don't have to pretend there's anything cosmic at stake. How could you? The plot is an elaborate throwaway. Rudd's Scott Lang is doing all he can to be a good divorced daddy to his daughter, Cassie (Abby Ryder Forston). As he lip-syncs - to the "Partridge Family" theme song! - and digital drums his way through his last few days of house arrest, he is lifted out of his predicament by Dr. Hank Pym, the physicist and former S.H.I.E.L.D member played, once again, by a triumphantly disgruntled Michael Douglas, in a silver coif and goatee, who bites down into the role of this cuttingly tormented Science geek."

Todd McCarthy, The Hollywood Reporter: "But even more of the mirth springs from the fact that, in this installment especially, size matters. A lot. Part of the minute lead characters' effectiveness stems from their minuscule stature and consequent near-invisibility, hence their ability to zip around mostly unnoticed. But now they can get really large on a whim as well, and so instantaneously that the filmmakers' decision to essentially dispense with justification and explanations becomes part of the romp's charm."

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: "Sometimes better-than-good things do come in small packages. The proof can be found in Ant-Man and the Wasp, a fizzy treat of a sequel that retains the becoming modesty of the original, but with a timely new twist. The Wasp, played by the radiant Evangeline Lilly, becomes the first female character ever to appear in the title of a Marvel movie. (Time's up for sexism in the MCU.) The Wasp, aka Hope Van Dyne, basically sat around waiting last time out while the action focused on Scott and her father, the original Ant-Man Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) who discovered the formula that allowed him to shrink and gain SUPERHUMAN strength. The guys did all the fun stuff. No more. Hope gets her own power suit this time - and wings! Eat your heart out, Black Widow. And her relationship with Scott, combative and romantic often at the same time, fires up the plot."