Ant-Man and the Wasp

Them!

Grade: B –

Director: Peyton Reed

Starring: Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Michael Peña, Michael Douglas, Laurence Fishburne, Hannah John-Kamen, Walton Goggins, and Michelle Pfeiffer

MPAA Rating: PG-13

Running Time: 1 hr. 58 min.

Ant-Man and the Wasp registers as a slight, but otherwise witty diversion amid the Marvel Cinematic Universe. As complimentary as that may sound, it’s the same curve used to grade Thor: Ragnarok. And Guardians of the Galaxy. And certain elements of Spider-Man: Homecoming. And the first Ant-Man. The quirky exceptions in the MCU have become the norm, and as has we learned with Guardians Vol. 2, droll diversions that don’t develop a sensible, substantive underpinning flounder when stripped of their sense of discovery.

Director Peyton Reed returns for Ant-Man and the Wasp, this time aided by five credited screenwriters who notably don’t include Edgar Wright (unlike Ant-Man). The mishmash plot feels both busy and barren, erected around a standard four-pronged framework: good guys, bad guys (who aren’t truly bad), the cops, and the foil. Janet van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer), wife of Dr. Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) and mother to Hope (Evangeline Lilly), was lost in the Quantum Realm decades ago, and now the good guys wants to find and free her. They reluctantly enlist the help of erstwhile Ant-Man Scott Lang (Paul Rudd), who apparently mind-melded or whatever with Janet when he drifted into the Quantum Realm during the last movie.

The “bad” gal is Ava Foster, aka Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), who lost her parents as a child during a science accident that also left her afflicted with an ultimately fatal ability to phase through objects and dimensions. The U.S. government previously conscripted Foster as a kid into a life working as an espionage assassin, a past we learn via montage even though it’s really the movie we’d far rather see.

Foster wants a cure, with the help of an ex-S.H.I.E.L.D. scientist (Laurence Fishburne), and her plan involves draining healing power from the Quantum Realm even if it kills Janet, though as the story unfolds, it becomes obvious to everyone except Foster that if she just waits literally a minute or two, both aims could be accomplished.

The cops are around only because they’re trying to catch Lang violating the two years of house arrest he’s serving for violating the Sokovia Accords back in Avengers: Civil War. Like much of Ant-Man and the Wasp, this is a cute subplot that quickly become wearisome, a description that also applies to our foil, Sonny Burch (Walton Goggins), a black market widget dealer whose function in this narrative menagerie is specious and unnecessary.

Oh, there are also Lang’s workmates, who’d only clutter matters more if not for Michael Peña’s Luis, whose rapidfire repartee and oddball non sequiturs steal every scene and better suit Reed’s farcical sensibilities.

The rest of the film comprises a series of zippy action sequences built around the eponymous heroes, whose powers to shrink and enlarge both themselves and any other object now seem devoid of rules and limitations, besides Lang’s constantly malfunctioning suit. Hope is now the Wasp, inheriting her wingsuit from mom, but unlike Lang’s gradual indoctrination to heroism that formed the spine of Ant-Man, Hope is already busily bustling around at the start of this sequel.

It’s refreshing that there isn’t an infinity stone in sight or people vaporizing into ash (well, if you stick around long enough …). While the film is breezy and light, it never feels like much is really at stake, and the kooky caper that remains seems stitched together. Ant-Man and the Wasp still generates buzz, but it doesn’t have much sting.

Tomb Raider

On a wing and a prayer ...

Grade: C +

Director: Roar Uthaug

Starring: Alicia Vikander, Dominic West, Walton Goggins, Daniel Wu, and Kristin Scott Thomas

MPAA Rating: PG-13

Running Time: 1 hr. 58 min.

A reboot of an adaptation of a video game, Tomb Raider dials down the objectification in the Angelina Jolie-starring Lara Croft flicks. Yet just like Jolie, Alicia Vikander’s grab at the Lara Croft payday comes the year after winning a Best Supporting Actress Oscar. Vikander carries the chops and physique of an action star, and this reprise strips away the irksome kitsch of the Jolie films. But nothing of substance fills the void, and what’s left is a derivative, wayward bore that’s less Lara Croft and more Indiana Jane.

We first encounter Croft (Vikander) getting put to sleep during a mixed-martial arts sparring match, apt foreshadowing for several reasons. Four years since her archaeologist father Richard (Dominic West) disappeared, Croft isn’t ready to sign the papers declaring his death. Richard left bread crumbs leading to his secret basement of research, just so he can urge his daughter to torch the material. Sensing a mysterious box labeled “Himiko” might unlock answers about her dad’s fate, she dives into his diary and sets sail with drunken Hong Kong sea captain Lu Ren (Daniel Wu), bound for a mysterious island. Shipwrecked, both are captured by Mathias Vogel (Walton Goggins), a dastardly digger with plans to unlock the dangers inside the grave of an ancient shaman queen.

So much of Tomb Raider comprises Croft lacking the agency of an action heroine, regularly being on the receiving end of the machinations of men. She’s conscripted into service by Vogel, escapes thanks to Lu Ren, and stumbles onto her signature archery set thanks to dad and some onetime childhood deportment. Things happen, but rarely due to Croft’s will or ingenuity. She’s repeatedly battered and bedeviled, yet the only thing that conspicuously escapes much bruising is Vikander’s visage.

Her escape into the tropical forest, assault on Vogel’s encampment, and descent into Himiko’s tomb play like graduating levels of the source video game, with Croft as the avatar. Even Croft’s welcome wiseacre personality at the beginning of the film is swallowed by the plodding plot. All of Vikander’s spunk isn’t enough to invigorate the musty movie tropes or compensate for cringeworthy lines like, “You messed with the wrong family!”

It’s a pity coming from Norwegian director Roar Uthaug, making his English-language debut following the critical and box office success of his 2015 catastrophe drama The Wave. As it is, this Tomb Raider only succeeds at generic genre grave-robbing.