A dizzying joy-ride

Johnson Thomas

Marvel Studios appears to have got its superhero cinema business down to an art form. With its latest entrant Ant-man and the Wasp, the studio helps director Peyton Reed to accomplish a rather frivolous yet intensely engaging sci-fi-fantasy-comedy with all the fancy effects sublimated into an almost surreal form. 

This film may not have the charged memorability of Black Panther or Avengers but it most certainly works up a magical joyride of a movie that’s resplendent in perky silliness and is loads of fun. The technobabble here may not make much sense but the overlapping irrepressibility makes the going imminently audience friendly. 

Reed’s inspired narrative takes the accumulated experience to dizzying heights. The pace and momentum are pitched to bubble-up the excitement and the action just gets livelier and more imaginative as the movie reaches out for its end-game.

The narrative style may be jumpy and discursive but it’s also interestingly poised and gets you totally hooked. In addition to Dr Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) and Hope (Evangeline Lily), Lang (Paul Rudd) has his darling daughter Cassie (Abby Ryder Fortson), his ex-wife Maggie (Judy Greer), her all-too amiable husband Paxton (Bobby Cannavale), neurotic colleagues, Kurt (David Dastmalchian), Dave (T.I.), and Luis (Michael Peña), Pym’s former colleague Dr Bill Foster (Laurence Fishburne), a quivering form crumbling desperado nicknamed  Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), Pym’s long-missing wife Janet (Michelle Pfeiffer), the FBI, a grasping tech-black-marketer in villain Sonny Burch (Walton Goggins) and the trippy, sub-atomic Quantum Realm to contend with. And it’s one of the most mind-blowing packages of subversive imagination you would have experienced. The size-popping skullduggery is the highlight here.

The script hints at Hope’s abandonment issues, gives spousal longing a strong emotional cast and even has us sympathising with Lang’s illogical house arrest. Reed doesn’t allow you time to think bare his plot points. The constant zooming in and out in Imax 3D projection keeps you unsteady and exhilarated throughout. Set aside the fact that the visuals highlighting the Quantum realm are a hoot—this is a movie that is fuelled by inspired cheekiness and transmogrified movement. And it’s sprightly and ebullient too!