The MCU got its first superhero duo in Ant-Man and the Wasp. The film saw the return of Scott Lang, aka Ant-Man, and the debut of the MCU's first headlining female hero Hope Van Dyne, aka The Wasp. The film followed the heroes as they helped Hank Pym try to locate Janet Pym in the Quantum Realm.
The movie maintained the smaller stakes of the first film — a refreshing change of pace for the MCU — as well as its comedic tone. While there is plenty of fun superhero action, Ant-Man and the Wasp feels like a full-blown comedy with so many hilarious one-liners and gags.
"He's Programmed To Replicate Your Daily Routine. Nine Hours In Bed. Five Hours In Front Of The T.V.. Two Hours In The Bathroom, Whatever That's About."
Following the events of Captain America: Civil War, Scott finds himself under house arrest for violating the Sokovia Accords. But when he holds the key to finding Janet, Hope breaks him out of captivity with some unique methods.
She gets a giant ant to wear Scott's ankle monitor and mirror his daily routine around the house. As she reveals, Scott hasn't been making the most of his time in isolation. With most of us living in quarantine this year, it feels pretty relatable.
"You Can Do Anything. You're The World's Greatest Grandma."
One of the most charming and unique aspects of the first film was seeing Scott as a father as well as a superhero. That storyline continues here as his adorable daughter Cassie returns and serves as his moral compass for a lot of the movie.
The father-daughter moments are great, especially with the recurring joke of Cassie's present to Scott, a trophy that reads "World's Greatest Grandma." She even jokingly uses it as her motivational speech to Scott when he needs to save the day.
"If You Two Are Finished Comparing Sizes..."
Laurence Fishburne has a nice supporting role as Bill Foster, a character some fans of the comic books might recognize. Bill was another person who also used the Pym Particles to become a giant hero known as Goliath.
This is hinted at as part of Foster's backstory, telling Scott that he and Hank worked on the project together. Bill and Scott then boast to each other about how big they were able to get to with Scott gleefully bragging about reaching sixty feet in Civil War.
"Murderers!"
Once again, the ants play a big role in this film, helping the heroes with their mission. While they provide service tasks like assembling machinery and posing as Scott, the flying ants still serve as Scott's transportation.
When pursuing the villain Sonny Burch on the city's waterfront, Scott calls for his ants to help him. However, he chose a bad spot as one ant after another gets eaten out of the sky by hungry seagulls. It's a morbid thing to find funny but it's hard not to laugh at as it just keeps happening.
"Well, The '60s Were Fun, But Now I'm Paying For It!"
Even more than the first film, the sequel has a lot of fun with the shrinking and growing tech. It is used to great effect in the action scenes as things like saltshakers and PEZ dispensers become weapons. But it's also used for one of Stan Lee's funniest cameos.
During a car chase through the streets of San Francisco, Wasp throws one of the shrinking discs which misses its target and shrinks an old man's car. Stan the Man just shrugs and chalks it up to his wild days in the '60s.
"There's No Such Thing As Truth Serum."
Though the titular heroes are the stars, it wouldn't be an Ant-Man movie with Michael Peña returning as Luis. After giving up a life of crime, Luis is now heading a security company while also helping the heroes however he can.
When he is caught by Sonny Burch and his thugs, they try to make him talk with a special injection which Luis says must be truth serum. This makes for a hilarious running joke as the villains get frustrated and insist truth serum is only in the movies.
"Hiya, Champ, How Was School Today?"
One of the clever gags in this film is Scott being stuck with a suit that is a "work in progress". The suit's regulator is busted, which causes Scott to grow and shrink to unusual sizes randomly. This is especially funny when Scott and Hope have to break into a school.
After shrinking down to a child's size, Scott disguises himself as a student and sneaks out of the school. Hank is waiting in a van nearby and takes the opportunity to mock Scott's ridiculous size, even offering him a juice box.
"If I Had, You'd Have Never Been Caught."
Part of the drama in the film comes from the fact that Scott took the Ant-Man suit to fight alongside Captain America in Germany. This made Hope and Hank accessories to his crime and forced them to go on the run.
Along with being annoyed at this betrayal, and the fact that Scott keeps talking about "Cap", Hope wonders why Scott didn't ask her to come with him. She tells him that if he did, they never would have been caught. As it turns out, Ant-Man is a much better hero with the Wasp by his side.
"We Look Like Ourselves At A Baseball Game."
Seeing as they are all outlaws, the heroes are forced to spend most of the movie trying to keep a low profile. So when they need to go see Bill Foster for help, they adopt the MCU's favorite disguise: sunglasses and a baseball hat.
This has been the classic low-profile costume for many of Marvel's heroes and it's great to see one of the movies acknowledge what a terrible disguise it is. Scott points out that it does nothing to hide who they are — "We look like ourselves at a baseball game."
"Do You Guys Just Put The Word 'Quantum' In Front Of Everything?"
The sequel wisely embraces the weird science-fiction of this world, in particular, the Quantum Realm. As it turns out, this would become a big part of the MCU in the future and the movie has a lot of fun exploring it in more detail.
With all the sci-fi exposition, it's nice for the audience to have someone like Scott who doesn't know anything about this stuff and is equally confused as we are. After hearing Hank and Bill go back and forth about quantum entanglement and quantum states, Scott begins to question if they're just making all this up.