6.8 | / 10 |
Users | 4.5 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
As Scott Lang balances being both a Super Hero and a father, Hope van Dyne and Dr. Hank Pym present an urgent new mission that finds the Ant-Man fighting alongside The Wasp to uncover secrets from their past.
Starring: Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Michael Peńa, Walton Goggins, Bobby CannavaleAdventure | 100% |
Action | 99% |
Comic book | 89% |
Sci-Fi | 83% |
Comedy | Insignificant |
Video codec: HEVC / H.265
Video resolution: 4K (2160p)
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: Dolby Atmos
English: Dolby TrueHD 7.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
French: Dolby Digital Plus 7.1
Spanish: Dolby Digital Plus 7.1
German: Dolby Digital Plus 7.1
Italian: Dolby Digital Plus 7.1
English SDH, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Spanish, Dutch, Korean, Mandarin (Simplified), Mandarin (Traditional), Norwegian, Swedish, Thai
Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (2 BDs)
Digital copy
4K Ultra HD
Slipcover in original pressing
Region free
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 0.0 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
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).
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'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.
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.
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.
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