Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018) * * *

Directed by:  Peyton Reed

Starring:  Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Michael Douglas, Laurence Fishburne, Michelle Pfeiffer, Michael Pena, Walton Goggins, Hannah John-Kamen, Bobby Cannavale, Judy Greer

Ant-Man now has a partner in Hope van Dyne (Lilly), who can miniaturize at will as Wasp and is the daughter of Ant-Man and Wasp suit creator Dr. Hank Pym (Douglas).    This sequel to the successful 2015 original maintains the light, funny tone of the original and doesn't bog itself down in seriousness.     The actors are having so much fun, it is difficult for them to keep their grins in check.

To explain away why Scott Lang, aka Ant-Man (Rudd) wasn't available for Avengers: Infinity War, Lang has been under house arrest for nearly two years thanks to his activities in Captain America: Civil War, which I won't recap here.    Days away from release, he is contacted in a dream by Hank's wife (Pfeiffer), who was thought to be long gone after being sucked into the same quantum void which Lang himself unprecedentedly visited and returned from in the original.    Even though Lang would be violating his house arrest by contacting former associates, he contacts Hank and Hope in an effort to find out what the dream meant.    Is Hope's mother still alive after all these years?  

Hank and Hope aren't thrilled with Scott for the stuff he did in Civil War, but they team up again to try and create a machine to enter the void and rescue Hank's wife Janet (if she is indeed still alive).    Hank and Hope have perfected the whole shrinking and unshrinking thing, and are now able to do it with cars, buildings, and their lab which can be reduced to the size of a small suitcase.    Standing in the way of their mission is slimy black market dealer Sonny Burch (Goggins) and a mysterious woman nicknamed Ghost (John-Kamen), who is able to walk through various stages of matter and disappear and reappear at will thanks to a rare molecular disorder which causes her intense pain.    She describes it as all of her cells tearing themselves apart and putting themselves back together again.    Ghost's goal is to find Janet and use her body to stabilize herself, which would kill Janet, but her pain has driven her to such desperate measures.

The word quantum is thrown around a lot, and we follow the story even if we can't understand the science behind it.    As Scott amusingly puts it: "You just throw quantum in front of everything, don't you?"   Rudd, who is a genial presence and a gifted comic actor, would not be the first person you think of to play a Marvel superhero, but there he is jumping headlong into the goofiness.    Lilly is more the straight person to Rudd, but she is very convincing in the action scenes also.    As their enemy, John-Kamen can kick ass and wears the face of a physically weary, tortured soul who becomes a sympathetic villain. 

Ant-Man and the Wasp works as almost a stand-alone Marvel film.    It isn't as much interested in internal conflicts and conscience as it is in just doing what comic book movies were made for in the first place; which is to make it heedless fun for the viewer.