Film: Ant-Man and the Wasp

Ant-Man fulfilled its expectation of being amongst the weakest of the MCU films; apart from an excellent cameo in Civil War there really wasn't ever much potential for the plucky hero to contribute much to the greater mythos (well perhaps not yet anyway). That puts Ant-Man and the Wasp in a strange place, especially as the final film in Phase 3, right after the brilliance that was Infinity War. So it's not actually all that fair really.

Like the first installment, Ant-Man and the Wasp was a decent enough entry in the series, doing its own thing and almost championing the right to stand alone. The problem is that the MCU relies on the cross pollination, the sum being more than its parts - most MCU films would have failed if not for it. But even if we wash past that, the final third act of Wasp was pretty weak in its own right.

So not a terrible film, just one that is perhaps a little... unnecessary. And that's the biggest disappointment really, that it's now become impossible to make a standalone Marvel film that's actually wonderful.