Does Ant-Man and the Wasp think kissing is icky?

How the smallest Marvel movie of the year blows its chance at superhero romance

Evangeline Lilly and Paul Rudd.
(Image credit: Ben Rothstein)

After the punishingly world-ending stakes of Avengers: Infinity War, Marvel's new movie Ant-Man and the Wasp is almost soothing in its relative inconsequentiality.

Scott Lang (Paul Rudd), the man who would be ant-sized, is still a bumbling ex-con trying to do right by his young daughter and playfully sparring with Hope Van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly), now a costumed hero herself as the Wasp. While the movie's ensemble cast is large, many of the characters are there primarily to participate in an inventive, extended chase sequence in the movie's final stretch. The spectacle comes not from crumbling buildings or planets, but characters getting small, then big, then small again — and from Rudd's goofball chemistry with a motormouthed Michael Pena, playing Scott's sidekick Luis, who, as in the first movie, provides many funny tangents.

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Jesse Hassenger

Jesse Hassenger's film and culture criticism has appeared in The Onion's A.V. Club, Brooklyn Magazine, and Men's Journal online, among others. He lives in Brooklyn, where he also writes fiction, edits textbooks, and helps run SportsAlcohol.com, a pop culture blog and podcast.