In the creative life of every extremely successful artist, whether he is engaged in music, cinema or fine art, comes to the point where the biggest masterpiece, in whose name are tortured and troubled for years, is finally finished . The masterpiece for one will meet the expectations, others will overtake them, and the third will be disappointment. This is an inevitable fact. The question is, what are you doing when this great thing you have been doing for years is already ready? Where are you going from here? In the MCU this great work was undoubtedly "Avengers: Infinity War". And no matter which country the particular viewer comes from, whether it's from the satisfied or not, after we shake off that Spiderman scene, we immediately asked, "Now what?" And because we are spoiled by Marvel's already familiar model for the three films in 4-month period, and since we knew that Avengers 4 would not see it for another year, and Ant-Man and the Wasp was approaching speedily, we all looked at him - how Kevin Firigi and company would follow the epic that the brothers Rousseau brought us. And while we have never made hopes for a film that is equal to rock or impact - that would be an absurd, logical requirement - we had hoped at least for the worthy successor of the first Ant-Man, with all his jokes and goodwill .
The first "Ant-Man" was a pleasant separation from the wounded path, a new sub-genre in the universe of the Marvel superheroes - a simple and funny film about a robbery with charismatic characters complementing each other, but also a study of parent- , the disappointments and joys that these complex relationships carry. "Ant-Man and the Wasp," with grief we announce, did not satisfy any of our even the most conservative expectations. But let's start from the beginning. Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) has been in the last three days of his two-year home arrest, under which he was placed for his actions in The First Avenger. He continues to be an example father, who built a huge cartoon labyrinth with his daughter to stage robberies, helping the surviving business of his best friend, Lewis (Michael Penya), and in the meantime also suffering from broken relationships with his mentor, Hank Pim (Michael Douglas) and his thrill Hope Van Dien (Evangeline Lily). Hank and his daughter "hate the gut" Scott and do not include it in attempting to return Hope's mother - Janet (Michelle Pfeiffer) from quantum reality, but they quickly realize they will not be able to go without his help when it turns out, that Scott and Janet have formed a relationship when they hit the subatomic level in which Scott entered the end of the previous movie. The problem is that the main plot - Janet's escape from quantum reality - is both absurd and devoid of any mystery. The audience knows that they will eventually get her out because they have castigated Michelle Pfeiffer and will not give her only one role at first, and the terrible "digital rejuvenation" that continues to push everywhere for unforgettable reasons. And while it is not entirely fair to judge the film about such external factors, the creators know that we know Michelle Pfeiffer - that's why they chose it!
At the same time, while we sit and wait for her to come out and we have no doubt that it will happen, we have time to think how absurd it is in the inner logic of the film. She's been sitting at this subatomic level for 30 years, and finally she's the same genius and social person she's gotten into ?! Marvel wants their audience to forget the laws of physics regularly to enjoy the superheroes, but they try to either give a minimally funny explanation of how their forces work, or they build the characters in such a way that we care about them and not we think that what they do is inexplicable even under the rules that have already been created in the universe. Otherwise, the comedy is a comedy, all the characters are fun and charming, but there is no surprise from the first movie. Then we were delighted by Michael Pena and his two associates, because we did not expect them to be so amusing and steal every scene. We are now expecting it. Paul Rudd, we know he's splashing charm, and he can smash every comedy-we've known it for years. We want to look at it and do what we care about. Evangeline Lilly and Lawrence Fishburne are criminally underutilized and degraded to two and a half characters, not to say nothing. Michael Douglas echoes the same twisted joke twice, which has to be declared illegal in comedy films. The only exception is Hannah John-Camon, who plays the Ghost - given her a lot of space to show off both emotionally and as an action-packed character, and she fills it perfectly. But we have to boast the really impressive configurations of the action scenes that use sizing to bring action and comedy at the same time. In the first movie we had the train scene, here we have a battle in the kitchen of a restaurant and car chase. Peyton Reed directs scenes that are a pleasure for watching for the second time, as they masterfully use the opportunity to play with the size - salt and pepper dispensers grow as Ossa runs on knives and is careful not to crush it with a hammer for meat. Generally, in Ant-Man and the Wasp, there is simply no sense of urgency that something should happen. It passes from one scene to another with the slow pace of a Sunday walk. There is practically no conflict, because the antagonists, one after the other, show that they are either ridiculously incompetent or actually good men who do not want to hurt anyone. And while "light and uncommunicative" is not the worst one film can be, unfortunately, this is the misfortune to follow the epochal "Avengers: Infinity War" and just did not show us a reason for our own existence - it will be forgotten.