★★★★

After the catastrophic events of Infinity War, the light-hearted, incredibly jokey affair that is Ant-Man and the Wasp is exactly what the MCU needs. Taking place before all the chaos and confusion of the previous film, Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) is back as Ant-Man, this time with Hope Van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly) as his badass, evil-fighting partner (and his co-lead, The Wasp). Saturated with soon-to-be fan-favourite jokes, a mercifully wigless Evangeline Lilly, Michael Peña on a joke-cracking streak, and a post-credits scene that will give you war flashbacks, Ant-Man and the Wasp delivers fun relief to fans of the franchise. 

The film is set in between the events of Civil War and Infinity War, and finds Scott Lang facing his final few days of house arrest before he can re-enter the real world. After previously breaking his arrest to go to Germany to fight in the Avengers face-off, the FBI is keeping an especially close eye on him. However, after having a bizarre dream about Hope's mother, Janet (Michelle Pfeiffer), he reaches out to her father, Hank (Michael Douglas). It isn't long before the three are reunited in hopes of finding Janet, but an ominous villain named Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen) threatens to hinder their mission.

The tone of Ant-Man and the Wasp is very similar to its predecessor, likely because it was made by the same director (Peyton Reed). Although some seem to disagree, I find that the humour and style of the Ant-Man films work incredibly well for the MCU and are refreshing in contrast to some of its heavier entries. While I personally preferred the first Ant-Man, this one was arguably just as great, and many have already argued it to be the superior entry.

The characters were well-balanced and screen time was distributed easily enough to keep things interesting. The cast continues to have great chemistry, and it was nice to see Evangeline Lilly take greater hold of the reins this time in terms of carrying the emotional arc and was still a strong reality-check counterpart to Scott's happy-go-lucky charisma. Michael Peña's Luis is easily one of the best components of the film, and nearly every word that comes out of his mouth is a guaranteed laugh (along with his lively tales of his version of events). Perhaps the biggest thing lacking character-wise was Ghost who made for a fine, if not a little bit flat, villain.

The humour is largely what keeps the Ant-Man films afloat, and what's wrong with that? MCU films without humour often make for the most boring ones. Ant-Man and the Wasp stayed nearly as contained as the first film in terms of MCU references, with the exception of Scott's ongoing comments about his tentative friendship with Cap ("it's what we call him!"), as well as the scenes after the credits. In spite of these things, Ant-Man and the Wasp ultimately made for a good time and a fun film, and if that's not what a superhero movie is about, then I'd like to know what is.