Marvel Studios officially held the red carpet premiere of the highly-anticipated Ant-Man & the Wasp last night and following that and the wave of raves from critics who saw it last week, the official reviews are out! Check ’em out!
Clearly, Marvel can make palate cleansers like this without overloading them with portent and pomposity. In some ways, the goofy Ant-Man and the Wasp feels more like Marvel’s wheelhouse as opposed to the strained self-seriousness of Infinity War and its monstrous baddie Thanos. It might be hard to imagine an Avengers movie where one of the heroes shrinks and expands to impossible sizes, and drives cars that are housed in a Hot Wheels accessory, but that’s a lot more fun than what transpired just two months ago. The good news is, Ant-Man and the Wasp is better than the first film. The bad news is, we’ve still got the second Infinity War to deal with, and even this movie can’t make you forget that entirely. – Slashfilm
Ant-Man and The Wasp is a creative and self-contained adventure with Lilly’s new heroine stealing the stage. As she said in the post-credits scene of the original Ant-Man film, “It’s about damn time.” With references to the larger Marvel Cinematic Universe and seeds discretely planted for future films, Ant-Man and The Wasp is tremendous fun, action-packed, and Marvel’s best second movie in a single franchise since Captain America: The Winter Soldier. – Comicbook
No matter its uneven variables, “Ant-Man and the Wasp” remains satisfying in that slick, crowdpleasing sort of way that became Marvel’s hallmark, at least until the shocking finale of “Infinity War.” That movie upended years of formula with a grim cliffhanger that left audiences reeling. Released just a few weeks later, “Ant-Man and the Wasp” practically feels like a mea culpa, or at least the opportunity to take a breath. At this point, no studio does a better job of giving the people what they want. – Indiewire
Coming off a movie like Avengers: Infinity War with apocalyptic stakes for the world, it feels right to scale everything back and tell a concise, character-driven story. It ups the ante from the first Ant-Man, but also opens up the world of these characters in fascinating and intriguing ways. Ant-Man and the Wasp is a crowd-pleaser of a film, and a reminder that great characters and fun scripts are what make enjoyable comic book movies—not just a huge shared universe. – io9
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. – THR
“Ant-Man and the Wasp,” for its part, proves just as winningly compactible. Its zippy action scenes and trippy bursts of kaleidoscopic color look great in a theater, but in some ways its whimsical sensibility and playful, diverting story might feel just as well suited to the dimensions of your in-flight entertainment screen. – LA Times
