Scott Lang/Ant-Man (played by Paul Rudd), Hope Van Dyne/The Wasp (Evangeline Lilly) and company are shrunken and sucked into the Quantum Realm and have to survive and find a way out.
I'm seeing a lot of criticism of this film online. I'm not seeing it. It's not the best Marvel movie but there were weaker entries more deserving of a rotten tomato score. Yeah, not much about this, except maybe the villain, really bucks the Marvel/big-budget popcorn film mold at all, but it's exactly the type of movie I was looking for to have a nice time. I found the story to be entertaining with a decent amount of humor, plus it's well-paced.
Though a traditional Marvel film, this is a change of pace for the Ant-Man films. Whereas the Ant-Man movies have been more lighthearted escapades, the characters are suddenly thrown into a Guardians of the Galaxy/Thor big strange worlds adventure. Whereas the stakes were smaller in the past, Ant-Man has to go against a truly serious Thanos-level threat in the form of Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors).
Paul Rudd remains the heart of the films. Scott is just a likable guy, and I love his sort of every man reaction to events. (Also, compared to the last two films where Scott started in not the best situations, he's finally in a good place, and it's kind of nice seeing him actually being treated well by society.) A big part of this is his relationship with his daughter Cassie (Freaky's Kathryn Newton) which works pretty well.
Kang may be the most intimidating villain in the entire MCU. He's the speak-softly-but-carry-a-big-stick type who doesn't let anything deter him and has the immense power to back himslef up. I won't go into much detail about the film's secondary villain who isn't featured in the trailer that much, but it's one of the prominent Marvel villains you're surprised they haven't done yet, and I was rather pleased with how they were handled.
Visually, I'm afraid this would look a little too much like the worlds of GotG/Thor, but this ended up more distinct than I thought it would. Some creativity went into to making the lands and creatures of the Quantum Realm distinct.
While I don't think this movie deserves a lot of complaints, this isn't like it doesn't have it's weak points. The epilogue feels rushed and there are a couple editing issues, an abrupt transition and it felt like scenes (seen in the trailer) had been cut which made a line near the end feel off.
There are way too many characters in this. The Good Place's William Jackson Parker has a fun role, but he isn't given much to do. They make it seem like Bill Murray's character is going to be a key player but then they don't use him much. Due to this taking mostly place off Earth, you lose several of the supporting human characters you've grown to know including Scott's trio of ex-con buddies who were never crucial to the plot but were fun.
Recommended. I'd rank this above the first Ant-Man and below the second, which I felt did the best in being diverting. In the grand scheme of the MCU, I'd rank this near the middle, but of phase 5 I find this to be one of the most rewatchable. (Not better than Spider-Man: No Way Home, I'm not nuts.)
