Quick Critique: Ant-Man and the Wasp (Patreon)

Ant-Man has been my favorite of the Marvel movies. Probably the only thing holding back the first one was its lackluster villain. Ant-Man 2 drops the heist elements, which I was a big fan of, but they really stepped it up as far developing their characters. Without the heist elements, it is kind of just another super hero movie, but it's exactly what I want from a super hero movie. It's actually funny, not quip-y. The action scenes are great and exciting. The characters actually use their powers in creative ways rather than just punching or shooting things. The writers on the Ant-Man movies are leagues ahead of the Avengers team.

Ghost is kind of "Ghost" in name/powers only, but this movie's spin on her is still great and I'd be happy to have both versions of the character show up in the comics. Her backstory is well done and she comes across as suitably menacing and creepy while you're still rooting for her when she just does something awesome. There's a secondary villain that's just kind of there to move the plot along at times and Evangeline Lilly's acting certainly isn't improving, but Hope is more enjoyable in this movie than the first. She's still the buzzkill, but they actually have her do neat things this time around so it helps make her less grating. The ending is a bit convenient, but in the moment, it works.

And maybe most importantly, we get another great Luis scene, but with a different riff on it so it doesn't come across as stale. Marvel is finally giving the people what they want.