Ant-Man and the Wasp

[ratcreature]

I watched Ant-Man and the Wasp and I had a really good time, and not just because it was a few precious hours in a climate controlled environment. (As much of world we are having a heat wave here, and yesterday it was over 33°C, about ten degrees hotter than normal July temperatures. Today there has been a brief respite as in the afternoon with some thunderstorms temperatures fell to 20°C, but the forecast for tomorrow is much higher again, and Monday it's forecast as back to 33°C and staying hot as far as the forecast goes.)

Anyway, to get back from the weather whining, Ant-Man & The Wasp was just a lot of fun, much like the first Ant-Man, though I still don't particularly care about these characters fannishly. But the main action "gimmick" of the changing sizes of people and objects is fun to watch.

I can see the criticisms of those who found the set-up and plot for the antagonist, i.e. how it dealt with the issue of chronic pain as villain motivation and in particular that the pain then got magically fixed at the end, ableist. But to be honest, I'm not a very sensitive audience, and it didn't sour me on the movie.

And I actually found her quite a bit more relatable for desperate actions as some other Marvel movie villains. And of course she only is in that position, because the wealthy white guy, i.e. Hank Pym, just screws over everybody in his scientific career path, especially people of color, whether Ava's father or that black professor who worked with him (sorry, I'm bad with names but the actor also was in CSI), but it also applies to how he relates to and even how he relates to Scott, as a more working class ex-convict and possibly his wife collaborator too, even if her being lost was a genuine accident.

I also really enjoyed the bits of how Scott relates to his daughter, his ex, and her new husband -- it is just really nice to see a happy family in a superhero movie for once, one that remains functional even after a break-up.

Comments

[sholio]

FWIW, I have chronic pain issues and I really liked how that character was handled. I was delighted she turned out to be not actually evil and got her situation fixed at the end. Not that other people can't have a problem with it, that's totally their prerogative, but as someone in the affected group, I didn't think it was automatically ableist all by itself.

Overall I really liked the movie. It was super lightweight but I kind of needed that right now. I loved that everyone was actually pretty likable and trying to do well and be their best selves (eventually). Even the one really unredeemable baddie didn't get hurt or killed, just arrested. It was overall just ... nice, and I liked that. It was funny and fluffy and fun and upbeat. I imagine that the TPTB for these movies really have a lot of fun brainstorming various sight gags to take advantage of the size-changing gimmick.

And yeah, I really love how Scott's relationship with his ex and her new family has developed. He's basically got two healthy and functional families by the end (the ex-wife one and the Pym-Van Dynes ... actually three if you count his loyal little group of ex-con buddies). I don't know if I've ever seen a movie that has a family broken up by divorce relating to each other the way these characters do, but I really enjoy it.

[ratcreature]

Yeah, I also thought Ava worked. I mean, my own chronic back pain issues are quite moderate as far as these things go, but when I had a bad stretch of sciatic pain that was really miserable and didn't go away for over six months, it really wore me down and made everyday stuff like putting on socks and shoes a whole production and all that fun stuff.

The criticism I've seen was mostly about the cure narrative and that the cure was a kind of magic fix delivered by a white savior to a PoC, but considering the whole lighthearted tone, I wasn't bothered. I mean anyone I know who has frequent pain wishes that was magically gone -- it's not the kind of disability like deafness or autism, that many of those affected would not trade for being "normal". And I don't think Janet's stabilizing took Ava's acquired superpower away.

And I thought the family stuff that shows how you can have more complicated families without them being all angsty and dysfunctional was really great. Also that Scott is really involved in the every day mundane parenting of his daughter, not just some "special" father daughter time. That isn't quite as rare but not that common either, especially not when the dad isn't a single parent.

[sholio]

I mean anyone I know who has frequent pain wishes that was magically gone -- it's not the kind of disability like deafness or autism, that many of those affected would not trade for being "normal".

Yeah, I think this is where disability activism gets tangled up in the fact that not all disabilities are alike; some are painful and inconvenient and an actual problem. I definitely think Ava's issue came under that heading, especially considering that it was a completely fantasy illness (I didn't even think of it as being technically a disability 'til reading your post, because it's so weird and magical; it didn't ping me that way at all) and it was literally killing her! I mean they could've fixed it halfway so she was no longer dying but still in a lot of pain and constantly slipping out of phase with reality, but how happy an ending would that have been? Would it have been a better ending if they hadn't fixed her at all and just let her die??

Also that Scott is really involved in the every day mundane parenting of his daughter, not just some "special" father daughter time.

Oh, that's a really good point! I'm glad they showed that.

[ratcreature]

Would it have been a better ending if they hadn't fixed her at all and just let her die??

I don't think the critiques I've seen wanted the plot fixed with such a narrow focus to improve the situation, they just noticed that it did show a woman of color with a disability as positive, but that once again disability was shown only in a "race for the cure" narrative with a non-disabled savior as a negative point.

ETA: To not just relay it second hand, this is the review I've seen making this point https://www.thedailybeast.com/marvels-ant-man-and-the-wasp-and-hollywoods-misunderstanding-of-disability-2

[saraht]

I definitely think Ava's issue came under that heading

Especially considering that she was going to DIE OF IT. Did people not get that?

[ratcreature]

I think the critiques like in the review I linked aimed at that it was set up like this in the first place, not that the resulting cure plot then let her survive.