Ant-Man And The Wasp Review Round-Up: “Hilarious, Fun And Self-Aware”

It looks as if Marvel Studios is about to go three for three.

Even after the back-to-back triumphs of Black Panther and Avengers: Infinity War, the movie powerhouse still has another ace in the hole – Ant-Man and the Wasp.

The miniature sequel finds itself on the lower end of Marvel’s cinematic universe when it comes to scale and scope and, frankly, that’s okay, as Kevin Feige recently hailed Ant-Man and the Wasp as a “breath of fresh air” following the doom and gloom of Infinity War.

And while some critics have called out Marvel’s third and final release of 2018 for its apparent lack of ambition, other reviewers have deemed Ant-Man and the Wasp to be a “fun and self-aware” addition to the MCU. To prove it, we’ve scoured the four corners of the Internet to collect a small sample of the critical consensus, beginning with our own review from Matt Donato:

WGTC: Ant-Man And The Wasp is the kind of playtime entertainment suited for Scott Lang’s better-when-on-a-team personality, loaded with size-shifty sight gags and lower stakes worth Paul Rudd’s ensemble stardom.

THR: Given that there’s really nothing that the filmmakers could have done to disguise the truth of the matter, which is that Ant-Man really is a pipsqueak compared to the A-cast of Marvel superheroes, Marvel has done a pretty good job with its B team. After the heavy lifting involved in the studio’s most recent blockbusters, Black Panther and Avengers: Infinity War, Ant-Man lays out a welcome picnic.

GameSpot: Like the original Ant-Man, Ant-Man and the Wasp is primarily a palette cleanser in the MCU as a whole (the first movie was sandwiched in between the dense Age of Ultron and the dour Civil War). Ant-Man and the Wasp is hilarious, fun, silly, self-aware, and creative.

If there’s one element of Ant-Man and the Wasp that drew near-unanimous praise, it’s Evangeline Lilly’s Wasp being elected to co-lead. Below, you’ll see that her performance has been hailed as “charming and dynamic,” and we simply can’t wait to see what’s in store next…

/Film: What works best for Ant-Man and the Wasp is the second half of that title. Ant-Man ended in a slightly sheepish manner, acknowledging how silly it is to have an actress as charming and dynamic as Evangeline Lilly near the top of the call sheet without getting her in a super-suit. The sequel wastes very little time in having Hope don the powerful Wasp suit; the first action sequence almost entirely belongs to her, without any running commentary from male characters about how badass she is.

Digital Trends: Like the characters of Ant-Man, the MCU can do small. It can tell a story in which the stakes really only matter to 10 or so characters, and still make it feel sufficiently super-heroic. It can fit lighter comedies under its umbrella, and they can still carry an emotional weight that makes their stories feel like they matter to the larger cinematic universe. Ant-Man and the Wasp shows all that, and it’s a lesson Marvel should take away to other corners of its giant, interconnected story.

USA Today: Though it takes place before Marvel’s other current film “Avengers: Infinity War,” “Ant-Man and the Wasp” catches the duo up to Marvel’s present day courtesy of an intriguing post-credits scene, while also giving the insect-scaled twosome a buzzworthy new adventure about balancing family responsibilities with saving the world.

And one more batch of Ant-Man and the Wasp reviews, just for good measure:

Empire: While it proves an all-round well-mounted distraction, Ant-Man And The Wasp undeniably lacks the scale and ambition of recent Marvel entries.

Variety: Ant-Man and the Wasp is a full two hours, yet even when it’s pulling out all the stops, the movie never gives you that sinking sensation you can get when a comic-book film’s extended climax kicks in, and you feel the visual-effects army taking over the movie. That’s because Peyton Reed invests every moment with personality. That’s not quite the same thing as humanity. But it’s enough to qualify as the miniature version.

Ant-Man and the Wasp is locked in for a U.S. release on July 6th, before Marvel’s tiny-teeny sequel expands to the United Kingdom in time for August 3rd. Why the long gap between each release? The 2018 World Cup, it seems.