Antman 2, or to give it's proper name "Antman and the Wasp", is a cuddly jumper of a film, with likable characters. And that's fine, because that's what I wanted it to be. It doesn't seek to revolutionise the genre or do anything different, it just gives us the further adventures of Scott Lang and his friends.
The only down side is that it doesn't give us enough Wasp-time. What Wasp-time there is is glorious, but I could have done with more.
I'm not sure how much any of it would have worked if you hadn't seen Antman 1. It's very much chickens coming home to roost, for both Antmen.
Spoilers for the film underneath
Scott Lang's impulsivity caused his original imprisonment, and another impulsive (if honourable) decision has caused his present house arrest, undoubtedly risked his present happiness (because Hope has every right to be cheesed off with him), and damaged everyone around him.
In Hank Pym's case, if he weren't quite so impossible, would one of his co-workers have gone rogue? Would Bill Foster have hidden Ava's condition from him?
The one interesting thing it does is have an antagonist for each of our heroes, but two of them really aren't villains. They all have their own motivations and character. It means you don't get that "too much plot, not enough film" thing you get with some superhero films.
Agent Woo is a dork, with less than zero people skills, but he's only doing his job and he's being even-handed doing it. When the other agent tries to sell the good guys out to the bad guys, you know Woo would never do that.
Ava is not a villain. She does bad things, but only because she's desperate and it's literally life or death.
Sonny Burch is a villain, and not just because he's played with glorious relish by Walton Goggins. But he's very small time, he's in this for the money, he doesn't want to destroy the world. I think they've deliberately dialled down the stakes for this film after how big they went with Avengers: Infinity War.
The thing I really liked (other than the SFX which were as good as expected) was that the reason Ava was saved was something she chose to do. She could have gone ahead and killed Janet but she chose not to and that is why she was saved. Doing the right thing worked!
Cassie Lang remains adorable, and the lengths that Scott Lang will go to in order to keep her happy is one of the reasons you understand why the other characters forgive him for being an impulsive idiot. Even if he will never fix that character trait.
Team Minor Criminal remain in one piece (did I mention I am excessively fond of Luis, because he tells stories the way I do), which is all I asked of this film. Even if they also wanted to scream at Scott for being feckless. I did love the bad guys choosing completely the wrong guy to use truth serum on.
While we didn't get enough of either Wasp, we do get to see how much they both mean to Hank, complete with some excellent 'show, don't tell'. I loved the scene at the end where Hank grows the house because yes, he really does have everything he needs now.
It's not brilliant but it is solid.
Spoilers for the film, the stinger, Avengers: Infinity War and the Avengers: Endgame trailer underneath
I knew someone would get wiped, but the way they did it!!! We've just had a film and a half of how bad it is to get stuck in the quantum realm and that Janet only survived because she was made of awesome, in a way that, bless him, Scott Lang probably isn't. And we leave our hero in there with no way out, because everyone that knows he's down there (and all but one of the people that can get him out) has been wiped.
That's evil!!!
It's also why I was so happy to see Scott in the Endgame trailer. It means he got out (hopefully).
