tek's rating: ¾

Ant-Man and the Wasp (PG-13)
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Caution: spoilers.

This came out in 2018, but I didn't see it until 2020. Hank Pym theorizes that, because Scott Lang had shrunken down to the quantum level and returned in Ant-Man, it's possible that Pym's wife, Janet van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer), who had shrunk to the quantum level herself back in 1987, might still be alive. So he and Hope (and a bunch of enlarged ants) build a new lab, and within it a tunnel which could take a small ship into the quantum level and back again. But they need one more part, which they intend to buy from a tech dealer named Sonny Burch (Walton Goggins, whom I know from The Unicorn). But Burch double-crosses them, wanting to get his hands on their entire laboratory (which is inside a building that can be shrunk and transported like rolling luggage). Hope uses her new Wasp suit to have a totally badass fight with Burch's people, but then someone who can phase through matter shows up and steals the part Hope had come to buy.

Meanwhile, Scott has spent the last two years (since the events of Captain America: Civil War) under house arrest for his involvement. And I gotta say, he's really upped his dad game, because his relationship with Cassie is adorable. But then one day he sees a scene in his head, from the perspective of Janet, shortly before she and Hank had gone on the mission where she was lost in the quantum realm. (And Hope was a little girl whose relationship with her mother was much like Hank's relationship with Cassie.) Scott thinks this may be some kind of message (assuming it wasn't just a weird dream), so he calls Hank, with whom he's not allowed any contact. An FBI team led by Agent Jimmy Woo (Randall Park, from Fresh off the Boat) keeps tabs on him. But Hank and Hope kidnap Scott, leaving an enlarged ant at his house, wearing his ankle monitor. (Because of course.) They want to try to, I guess, use the contact he'd had with Janet to track her location, so they could rescue her. But first they need to get the final part of their machine back from the person who stole it (who Scott calls "Ghost").

Well, lots of stuff happens, and I'm sure I'm getting some of it out of order. They get some advice at one point from a former associate of Hank's named Bill Foster (Laurence Fishburne), who later turns out to be working with Ghost (whose real name is Ava Starr). The reason she can phase through matter is the result of an accident that had killed her parents when she was a kid. And after that, SHIELD had used her as a weapon. (I can't imagine Phil Coulson would have allowed anything like that, but of course it was before his time. Though it's hard for me to imagine Nick Fury would have known about it, either.) Anyway, Bill helped her get out of that life, and now he's trying to cure her of her ability, which is unstable and will soon kill her. Which I guess is why she needed the part she stole. And it's not just the part that changes hands throughout the film, it's actually mostly Hank's lab building that is fought over by his team and Burch's team and Ava. So there's a lot of three-sided action, which is pretty cool. Anyway, eventually Hank and Hope do manage to contact Janet through Scott, and Hank uses the tunnel to get her back. So that's really happy.

I don't know what else to say, except it's a really cool and funny movie. Oh, and throughout the movie, Scott gets some help from Luis, Dave, and Kurt, who now run a security company. And there's a mid-credits scene that leaves Scott stranded in the quantum realm, because of effects from Avengers: Infinity War. So that's a major cliffhanger. There's also a brief post-credits scene, which isn't as important.


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