Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.5

Ant-Man and the Wasp 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman October 16, 2018

Whether you like your superhero movies dark and angsty a la Batman Begins or on the cheeky, humorous side a la Deadpool will probably determine how you respond to Ant-Man and The Wasp. This follow up to 2015’s Ant-Man may make passing attempts to generate “meaningful” content about the importance of family, but at its core (thorax?), Ant-Man and The Wasp is just good old fashioned hokum (a technical term), in its own way as silly and even ludicrous as Them!, the “giant ant” escapade from 1954 that Ant-Man and The Wasp overtly references for a nice reveal very late in this film. Ant-Man and The Wasp is definitely on the Deadpool end of the spectrum alluded to above, even if it’s nowhere near as raucous or even scabrous as the Ryan Reynolds enterprises have been. Instead, there’s a kind of genial, shaggy dog charm running through the film that manages to travel surprisingly far on the kind of unaffected charisma of stars Paul Rudd, as Scott Lang, and Evangeline Lilly, as Hope van Dyne. Kind of interestingly, a lot of the emotional component in Ant-Man and The Wasp actually involves Hope’s father, Hank Pym (Michael Douglas), and Hope’s mother, Janet van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer). The film gives a little history of Hank and Janet, detailing their adventures as (more or less) Ant-Man and The Wasp, but also providing the “McGuffin” of this film, namely that Janet has sacrificed herself to the so-called “quantum realm” by going small enough to get inside a (nuclear tipped?) missile in order to defuse it. Hank reveals to Hope that he feels there’s a good chance that Janet might still be alive “down there”, and he’s been working on a technology to provide a portal to the quantum realm in order to retrieve her. Meanwhile, Scott is dealing with a house arrest after the events of Captain America: Civil War, using the time to bond with his adorable daughter Cassie (Abby Ryder Fortson).

In just one of many patently goofy “pseudo-science” moments in the film*, when Hank and Hope briefly open their portal to the quantum realm, a kind of psychic connection between Scott and Janet is activated, since (as Michael Douglas is able to say with a straight face) Scott and Janet have become “quantumly entangled” when Scott “visited” the quantum realm. Completely predictably, Scott ultimately joins forces with Hope and Hank on their quest to retrieve Janet, but just as predictably the horde of screenwriters assigned to this sequel set up a whole host of obstacles before that goal can be obtained.

Some of these are “earthbound”, with one running gag being the frequent check-ins by FBI Agent and Lang parole officer Jimmy Woo (Randall Park) to make sure Lang is obeying his house arrest (which of course he isn’t). The more serious hazard appears (intermittently anyway, and that’s a joke for those who have seen the film) to be a character named Ghost (Hannah Johnson-Kamen), a girl with a past of course inextricably bound up with Hank and his research. A number of other sidebars also accrue, including a nice turn by Walton Goggins as Sonny Burch, a kind of bumbling crook who is out to get his hands on Hank’s technology. Laurence Fishburne is also on hand as Bill Foster, an old cohort of Hank's from the S.H.I.E.L.D. days, but a character who is forced (due to some kind of sloppy screenwriting) to be both a villain and a hero at the virtual drop of various hats.

The emotional quotient of the film is chiefly one of families finding their footing. While the most notable example is of course Hank trying to find his long lost wife (guess how that one works out), there’s also at least some attempt to make Scott’s life as a divorced father bear some fruit, and a couple of his scenes with Cassie are very nicely done. There’s also the obvious romantic subtext of a developing (or redeveloping, as the case may be) relationship between Scott and Hope, though this element is often played for comedy, with a sweetly bantering ambience between the two characters.

The film is awash in sometimes very funny special effects. Some of these have to do with a malfunctioning suit that Hank provides to Scott, which often leaves him in “Alice in Wonderland territory”, often either too small or too big for whatever environment he finds himself in. A couple of outrageous sight gags are built out of this plot point. The more “serious” special effects are often quite well done as well, including Ghost’s abilities to pass through solid objects, and the fun “enlarging” and “miniaturizing” of various objects courtesy of Hank’s handy dandy remote. The portal to the quantum realm comes dangerously close to aping the old television series The Time Tunnel and Hank’s journey to the quantum realm plays like a kind of hallucinatory mishmash of Fantastic Voyage and the already psychedlic climax of 2001: A Space Odyssey.

*Note: In watching this film for a second time in 4K UHD, it occurred to me I had left one of the funnier examples of this out of the original 1080p Blu-ray review, and I'll include it here as a kind of "easter egg" for the 4K UHD review readers. When Hank, Hope and Scott are talking about all of the ins and outs of rescuing Janet, they're not only on a completely artificial timeline, Scott then drops the little tidbit that if they don't succeed this time, it will be a century before things "align" again and would allow for a potential rescue then. Why? It's all so completely contrived it's kind of funny, but the good news is the actors deliver lines like this with such nonchalance that you might not notice.

Ant-Man and the Wasp 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Note: Screenshots are sourced from the 1080p Blu-ray.

Ant Man and The Wasp is presented on 4K UHD courtesy of Disney Buena Vista with a 2160p transfer in 2.39:1. The provenance of the shoot and DI are detailed in our original Ant-Man and the Wasp Blu-ray review, but suffice it to say the 2K DI attains significant new detail levels in this 4K UHD presentation. Kind of interestingly, however, these detail upticks are attained despite what is overall to my eyes a somewhat cooler looking palette throughout this 4K presentation. A lot of the special effects spectaculars that I've personally reviewed on 4K UHD tend to have their palettes pushed pretty aggressively in terms of saturation and highlights courtesy of HDR and/or Dolby Vision, but here, while suffusion is quite impressive, there's a kind of cool gray undertone that runs through a lot of sequences. That said, as mentioned above, detail and fine detail levels are at least incrementally improved, including everything from the ribbing on the many superhero outfits (Hank, Janet, Scott, Hope, et al.) to the pill on Cassie's red sweater or Scott's blue bathrobe. Even the little lines in Stan Lee's suit jacket during his cameo are more precise looking in this version. Depth is also often quite impressive, not only in the expected outdoor scenes, but even in the opening flashback where Hope's childhood home's burnished wood doors and ornately brocaded wallpaper can clearly be seen in the background. The one set of sequences where things look materially warmer in this 4K version are the "quantum realm" moments, where the florid pinks, oranges and purples are gorgeously suffused and have some interesting interstitial tones that aren't quite as apparent in the 1080p Blu-ray version. There is still one very brief flirtation with banding in this version, again when Scott is waving the flashlight around in an early scene as he plays with Cassie.

Ant-Man and the Wasp 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Ant Man and The Wasp's 4K UHD presentation takes an already excellent sounding DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 track on the 1080p Blu-ray version and (literally) ups the ante at least intermittently with an occasionally effective Dolby Atmos track, something that should relieve some fans who have previously worried about some lackluster sonics on Disney and/or Marvel offerings. Kind of interestingly, Michael Douglas' opening narration seemed to hover overhead a bit more this time, but it's really in the "flitting wing" effects that the Atmos channels are often most noticeably engaged. Two times in the film, when characters kind of come out "trance" or "dream" states, there are huge whooshes of sound which clearly pan overhead in this version, along with a rumble of LFE. The same excellent discrete placement of effects I mentioned in our Ant-Man and the Wasp Blu-ray review are retained here, with several kind of goofily fun new Atmos additions, as in some of the "gloopy" sounds during Hank's trip through the quantum realm, which now also waft clearly overhead. All elements from dialogue to effects to score are delivered with nice fidelity and wide dynamic range on this very enjoyable track. I'm grading this at "only" a 4.5 since I personally felt there could have been more consistent engagement of the Atmos channels, though when they are engaged, the effects tend to often be quite impressive. But in terms of overall amplitude and LFE, I really had no complaints whatsoever.

Ant-Man and the Wasp 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The 4K UHD disc contains no supplemental material. The 1080p Blu-ray disc included with this release of course has all of the supplements detailed in our Ant-Man and the Wasp Blu-ray review.

Ant-Man and the Wasp 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Marvel Cinematic Universe is an increasingly crowded place, and it's kind of refreshing in a way that jokier enterprises like the still relatively nascent Deadpool and Ant-Man franchises are finding considerable audience support. There's nothing really very "new" or "innovative" about Ant-Man and The Wasp, but at the same time the film has absolutely zero pretensions about what it wants to be and what it aims to deliver. The film coasts a considerable distance on the combined charisma of Rudd and Lilly, and it's really wonderful to see Douglas and Pfeiffer in appealing performances as well. This 4K UHD version features nice upticks in detail levels, but what to me looked like a somewhat cooler palette overall. Audio also has none of the problems some previous Disney/Marvel offerings have had, though I personally would have liked more consistent engagement of the Atmos channels. Recommended.