Following the emotional roller coaster that was Avengers: Infinity War, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has moved on to something with a much lighter tone, Ant-Man and the Wasp. The first reviews of the film are hitting the internet, so what do the critics think? For the most part, they think it's pretty good. The significant shift in tone between Infinity War and Wasp is being praised as exactly what the MCU franchise, and probably the audience needed. Our own Conner Schwertfeger gave the movie 3.5 stars out of five and he thought it was a funnier film than the first Ant-Man, even if the movie is somewhat uneven. From his review...
Bolder, funnier, and far more daring than the film that preceded it, Ant-Man and the Wasp is also slightly less even and narratively tight.
For a movie that is about heroes capable of shrinking to the size of insects, it's perhaps fitting that the movie is, in many ways, smaller than your average Marvel film. Cnet says that Ant-Man and the Wasp isn't a "must see" movie in the way that Infinity War was, avoiding spoilers here is less important, but what the film does provide is an intimate story about the relationships between fathers and daughters.
Ant-Man and The Wasp takes the stakes and scale of a typically colossal Marvel film and brings them down to the most intimate level, focusing on families in this love letter to father-daughter relationships.
When the original Ant-Man was released it set itself apart from the MCU pack simply by being an entry that focused on laughs as much as action. If you enjoyed the original film for that reason, then it would seem that Ant-Man and the Wasp will be right up your alley. The Hollywood Reporter, while calling the film "lightweight" still admits that it may be the funniest entry in the franchise so far.
It's hard to say which is the most lightweight, evanescent and inconsequential of the bunch --- Ant-Man, the Wasp or Ant-Man and the Wasp. But while pondering this conundrum for two hours, it becomes increasingly difficult not to notice that this latest entry in the unstoppable Marvel Studios takeover of the world is probably the most amusing film the company has made since the Kevin Feige reign began a decade ago.
Thus far, there don't really seem to be any negative reactions to Ant-Man and the Wasp at all. The worst you'll get is the impression that the movie is silly and entertaining, if otherwise inconsequential. Screen Crush calls it "refreshing and fun" even if it's only a slight improvement on a movie that never found it's identity.
It's also slightly better than the first Ant-Man, which never seemed to fully discover its identity after the departure of its original director, Edgar Wright, during pre-production.
If you're looking for a film that follows on the epic stakes of Avengers: Infinity War, then Ant-Man and the Wasp probably isn't for you. If, however, you need a break from that emotional heavy lifting, then it looks like the newest MCU movie is exactly what you need.
