You cannot help but marvel at the Marvel film universe. It is astounding in its reach and outlandish in its imagination.
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The extensive collection of Marvel heroes is massive until you meet Ant Man and The Wasp, who reduce the scale of its heroic lead characters into the miniscule.
Ant Man, a normal sized individual, can scale to the size of an ant, as can The Wasp, a shrinking female superhero.
You might want to know a bit about the storyline but in Marvel Comics’ films it’s important to understand that these films are created in a swirling comic book soup.
Accept that nothing in Ant Man and The Wasp approaches anything resembling the real world and you won’t be disappointed.
Dr Hank Pym, the designer of the technology that shrinks people, sets his sights on extracting his partner Janet Van Dyne, who dived into the quantum world and became trapped because she shrunk herself to a sub-atomic size.
Scott Lang, Ant Man to his family, joins Hank and Janet’s daughter, Hope (The Wasp), in the rescue mission.
The matter is complicated by the appearance of Ghost, a mystery creature whose molecular structure is constantly rebuilding itself on an atomic level.
What a ridiculous concept, I hear you scream. I told you it’s a comic book world.
On a believability scale, Ant Man and The Wasp scales the heights of incredulity.
Ant Man and The Wasp’s universe is tiny, rather than the vast expanses we normally see in space opera movies and fantasy quests.
The conversation about their ability to transform into itsy-bitsy teeny-weeny humans is summed up by one character, who is finding it difficult to understand.
He asks, “Do you just put the word quantum in front of everything?”
That’s pretty much what they do, with an interverocetor thrown in for good measure.
Don’t expect characters to have complex back stories or deliver insightful observations about the nature of life, the universe and everything. That’s not in comic book DNA.
Ant Man and the coterie of characters provide quips designed to make the audience giggle while watching people, buildings and cars alternate between shrinking and growing enormous.
The champion of light-hearted and silly banter is Luis, Ant Man’s business partner, who runs a security company called X-Con (get it!) and maintains a rolling joke about truth serum.
You don’t need truth serum to know that Ant Man and The Wasp is cinematic fluff coated in syrup and served with a massive portion of eye candy.
