Ant-Man and the Wasp Spoiler Thread

Right. They probably went with the portal because it's a more controlled method.

Irony huh?

Sure, but I feel like even though the portal would make it far easier to pull him out, he would still have the growth thing as an emergency button. It's an experimental device that's barely been tested—we see that the team is worried when Scott is out of contact for like two seconds, implying that something could have gone wrong. Pym strikes me as being paranoid enough to have a backup.

Other than plot reasons, is there any reason Janet planted an antenna in Scott's head instead of going straight to Hope or Hank?

Neither Hank nor Hope ever reached the quantum realm for her to interact?

It's very interesting that this is the first MCU not to have a quote-unquote true villain. Ghost is so far up the Anti-Villain scale that she barely registers as one and gets redeemed superfast, and Sonny Burch is an annoyance at best. Ant-Man and the Wasp is actually a really wholesome movie, and I love it.

Oh, and Scott has the best supporting cast, fight me.

It's definitely the first to really commit two Two Lines, No Waiting, it's true. While both are major threats to different parts of the heroes' adventure, neither Ghost nor Burch nor Agent Wu are primary antagonists and they all criss cross off of each other with more or less equal prominence throughout the story, while the main conflict from start to finish is always about getting Jan back with them as the distractions, not specifically about fighting any of them.

It's something I'd like to see a little more in Marvel movies (in particular, that approach would work really well with someone like Spider-Man, who has a big world and works best when he has a lot of personal and physical issues firing at once) because it really sells that there's a lot going on and more to worry about than just the fistfight with X new personal adversary.

Hey everyone!

Just to be sure, where should we discuss the aspects of the movie that tie it to Infinity War and A4? Here? In the MCU thread? In the Infinity War thread? All (or none) of them?

I should be alright to post them both here and whichever spoiler thread pertains to what it is you're posting. Like, if it's just about Han, Jan and Hope getting snapped, it would go here and the Infinity War spoiler thread. If it's speculation about time travel or how Hank is going to meet up with Captain Marvel and so on, it can go here and the Avengers 4 spoiler thread.

Granted people have been using the Avengers 4 spoiler thread as a second Infinity War spoiler thread anyway. We'll probably need to converge those threads at some point.

By the by, Scott was able to escape the Quantum Realm in the first movie because he was able to replace his regulator with a grow disc, but his new suit has a new belt that doesn't use the same regulator tech. Notice how when Hope opens up his belt buckle to try to fix it, there's no convenient disc-shaped regulator slot in there. That was a plot point because they needed the old suit because it still used that old tech. So he won't be able to use the grow disc regulator trick.

Also, I love how buddy-buddy Scott and Paxton are. So many other movies have exes and their new significant others be on frosty terms, maybe being able to respect each other at best, but in this movie Paxton is completely in Scott's corner, and he and Maggie are both very amicable with Scott. It's very refreshing to see.

Edited by danime91 on Jul 12th 2018 at 10:41:58 AM

Paxton's bearhugs were the best. Cassie's got a wonderful family (soon to grow bigger, as Scott and Hope advance the relationship).

For maximum gut punch, my personal theory is that every adult in Cassie’s life got hit by the snap.

I think it would be interesting if at least Bill survived. He could find out about Scott and help rescue him in A4 - since, judging by some photos from the set, it doesn't look like Scott has aged much - and Janet shows you do age in the Quantum Realm, despite "time and space being meaningless" there.

Edited by KusaMigeru on Jul 12th 2018 at 4:46:54 PM

Saw the film the other night. But did anyone else feel like the editing was... really bad? I kept feeling like there were a ton of missing shots or very strange transitions.

One that stuck out to me was we see Hope looking for Scott underwater in the bay, shrinking him, getting his tiny body out of the bay and... Cut to her on the dock waking him up while he's at full size. I feel like there HAD to have been some shots of her getting out that just ended up cut which just made the editing strange.

There was another one where... God, I can't quite remember the context but Pym was on one side of the room (I vaguely feel like there was a railing in the scene between him and the camera?) and then when we cut back to him, he's in a different part of the room with the railing behind him.

I know that seems really small, but that's what editing is and it kept happening over and over again to a point that it just kind of felt choppy. It would pull me out for a second or two.

Ok, plot wise I thought... it was ok? I feel like it was too plot focused and not very character focused. Maybe I was just being taken out too much by the editing or that I'd had a lot of reports describing it was a 'Rom-Com' but I didn't feel like Scott/Hope's relationship was particuarly developed in this film. And, for all that Janet is important to the plot, she's not given much development either. There's no complication or really much critical to 'The Quantum Realm changed me. I'm not who I used to be' thing going anywhere. She just... gets saved?

I suppose just what made it stand out more to me is I felt like we had a ton of plot detours here and there that went nowhere. Like Scott's suit never having been destroyed and was at Cassie's school. They... sneak in, get it, and get out. Nothing gets developed and there's no further complication from this. Either SOMETHING was cut here or we just had a plot cul-de-sac for 20 mins that could have been spent.. elsewhere.

Shockingly, of all things, I thought Ghost was the best developed part. My only complaint there is I really want the Peggy Carter story of just how dark she must have gotten to allow something like... Ghost to happen. Was she aware? Ignorant? Complicit? I feel like there's a hole here.

My theory is that to really rub salt in the wounds, due to here unique makeup, Ghost both was and was not killed by the snap.

So what happened to her? :S

In Ao S it is established that a specific section is responsible for cases like that - and that said section had been taken over by Hydra a long time ago, set to make people more powerful. Frankly, Ghost is lucky she escaped without a brain-washing.

It is possible that Peggy didn't know. Hell, for all we know she had already retired at this point and Fury had taken over.

And yes, I adore Paxton, too! Can't get enough of this guy. Cassie is so lucky with her whole family.

Edited by Swanpride on Jul 14th 2018 at 3:25:18 AM

Amusingly, iirc it's basically the same thing SHIELD did to Cloud Nine in the comics.

Though in the MCU (which generally has a much nicer SHIELD in regards to such things), I'd definitely agree that the implication is that it's HYDRA rather than SHIELD proper.

You do have to wonder if Ghost was one of the people Fury had in mind when he initially pitched the Avengers Initiative.

I felt like she'd make a pretty great Avenger powerwise.

After all, by the time we meet her in AM+TW it seems like her control has deceased from her peak, back when presumably that kind of decision making would be going on.

I wonder if they manage to stabilize her enough to have her as an avenger or part of team Ant-man in a future movie.

Anyway, I first wondered about what actually the point of the movie is because, well, I was kind of looking for a deeper message in the whole set-up. But then I realized that the theme is still family and father/daughter relationships. And I admit, I kind of love that. Family is so rarely portrayed as something positive in movies.

Saw the movie in Berkeley, there was audible excitement in the crowd when they showed the scenes with Sather Gate and UC Berkeley.

That is my trip report. Carry on.

Edited by Clarste on Jul 15th 2018 at 4:17:57 AM

I've seen it in Berkeley as well. And I had a field day of identifying landmarks in San Francisco.

Something just occurred to me. In the first movie, Scott had to share an apartment with Luis, which makes sense for his financial situation. But here, he's apparently able to afford a house in or near San frickin' Francisco, despite only working for a small business that's on the verge of bankruptcy.

I gotta wonder if, between the first Ant-Man and Civil War, he went back to pulling heists after all.

Maybe Hank paid him to do some work?

Scott and Hank don't seem to be on speaking terms before the events in this movie.