Hold on, you gave her wings?!?
– Paul Rudd as Scott Lang to Hank Pym, in reference to Hope van Dyne’s Wasp suit, Ant-Man And The Wasp (2018)
After Ant-Man (2015) and Thor: Ragnarok (2017), the title of Third Funniest Movie in The Marvel Cinematic Universe goes to Ant-Man And The Wasp (2018). In general, action comedies move faster than any other genre. Most action movies have dramatic tension between action scenes, which can weigh down the forward momentum, risking the boredom of action movie audiences who hate being bored. To balance the dramatic weight, many action movies employ strategic comic relief, and with action-comedies, the actors are almost always either punching faces or cracking jokes. On the other hand, for an action comedy, Ant-Man 2 has a surprisingly high degree of dramatic moments including Janet Van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer) being lost in the Quantum Realm, the backstory of Ava Starr/Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), and the criminal machinations of Sonny Burch (Walton Goggins). For a villain, Goggins played Sonny Burch with very subtle humor. For that matter, almost every supporting actor in Ant-Man 2 had light comic moments, except for John-Kamen. The Ghost character suffers far too much physical misery to pull off any effective comedy within the narrative framework of the movie, which might have changed if it was a pure comedy. For example, two of Mel Brooks’s films Spaceballs (1987) and Blazing Saddles (1974) both had hilarious villains.
Now, I will attempt to correct a common misconception about Ant-Man And The Wasp. The main antagonist of the film might have been Ghost, but she was not the villain. Ava Starr/Ghost was not evil, whereas the true villain Sonny Burch was a secondary antagonist in opposition to Ant-Man, Janet Van Dyne, and Ava Starr, in the same way that Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver (the Maximoff twins) were not true villains in Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015). To wit, the Maximoffs ended up allying with the Avengers against Ultron before the third act of the film. I would not be surprised if we saw Ghost and Bill Foster as allies of Ant-Man or the Avengers future films.
Actually, a more interesting question is whether Janet Van Dyne is the protagonist or deuteragonist. The movie title might be Ant-Man And The Wasp, but Hope Van Dyne doesn’t drive the action forward as much as her mother. Janet Van Dyne drives the narrative when she pops into Scott Lang’s head twice. I think everyone already knows that Paul Rudd is a brilliant actor, but he nailed Michelle Pfeiffer’s mannerisms. SPOILER ALERT! Rudd did a perfect impersonation of her when Janet Van Dyne popped back into Lang’s head the second time, to fix the algorithm that allowed her husband Hank Pym and daughter Hope Van Dyne to pinpoint Janet’s location within the Quantum Realm.
That noted, Paul Rudd did not carry as much of the comic relief as he did in the first film. He’s still very funny, but Michael Peña, Judy Greer, and Randall Park all added substantial comic relief. Randall Park turns it on and off like a comedy faucet, whereas Michael Peña is always on. Peña must have slept like a baby when he went home after playing Luis all day on set, but the hard work paid off. I love that character.
On a completely different topic, I love seeing all the progress these #BlackLivesMatter protests have been making. Police departments are getting defunded, while cities are refocusing their efforts to invest in underprivileged communities. Yes! It’s about fucking time. Keep up the good work, young ones. You’re making the world a better place. To the rest of the world, please stay home. COVID-19 loves kicking our butts, so stay inside, stay healthy, and stay safe. One Love & Peace Out!
Rosliw Tor Raekül 