With 20 films under its belt, the Marvel Cinematic Universe is a machine, an unstoppable force that knows how to generate movies that can garner over $1 billion (twice this year alone) and average near the $800 million mark. And the franchise does this three times a year now. But “Ant-Man and the Wasp” is the closest the MCU gets to a B-movie.

Wasp (Evangeline Lilly) and Ant-Man (Paul Rudd) give refreshing performances in “Ant-Man and the Wasp,” the latest film from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. (photo courtesy of Marvel Studios)

That’s not a dig at the film, only to say the stakes are much more tame than we’re used to. Frankly, it’s a breath of fresh air. No world-ending scenario to dwell upon, nor a generic villain whose motivations can be summed up with “I hate the world, so let’s burn it all down.” It’s a charming film, even if the screenplay gets a bit clunky along the way.

Avid comics readers know all about legacy characters, those superhero mantles passed on from person to person, like Captain America passing from Steven Rogers to Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier to Sam Wilson/Falcon. “Ant-Man” was the first film to draw attention to this by focusing on Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) rather than the classic iteration of Ant-Man, Hank Pym (Michael Douglas), who serves as mentor instead. This continues in the sequel as the Wasp – originally Janet Van Dyne (played by Michelle Pfieffer here) – is daughter Hope (Evangeline Lilly), who in the comics is actually a supervillain established in an alternate future timeline.

Speaking of Janet, the plotline focuses on locating her in the Quantum Realm, another dimension only accessible by shrinking to the subatomic level. You see, Scott previously escaped this place in “Ant-Man,” hinting that Hank’s wife might in fact be alive. But somebody stops them from their task, new antagonistic Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), whose motivations are actually understandable once we get to know her.

Hannah John-Kamen, as Ghost, is a standout in “Ant-Man and the Wasp.” (photo courtesy of Marvel Studios)

Speaking of legacy characters, we also meet the first person who went the opposite direction as Ant-Man. You might remember when Ant-Man went Godzilla size in “Captain America: Civil War” – well, Dr. Ben Foster (Laurence Fishburne) did it first as a part of the Goliath program when he and Hank were agents at S.H.I.E.L.D. before things went south there (see “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” for more on that).

In a practical sense, “Ant-Man and the Wasp” isn’t a superhero film since the characters take on no evil organizations or attempt to save people from a burning building, etc., etc., etc. The entire point of the film is to find one person, and the team must do so while other outside forces, Ghost and a shady black market dealer Walton Goggins (Sonny Burch), try to thwart them. Conflict a plenty without melodramatic excess. That a film can do its own thing and not worry about the greater ethical dilemmas of superhero morality is wonderful. Not everybody can be Captain America, and not every superhero film has to the delve into moral ambiguity like “The Dark Knight.”

In “Ant-Man,” the standout performance came not from Douglas, Lilly or even Rudd. The real winner is Michael Peña as ex-con and Scott’s BFF Luis. He brought a level of comedy and “groundedness” to the film. He gets more screen time here, but it’s not enough. Why don’t they make Peña a superhero? At this point it’s only the white folks having all the costumed fun, and that ain’t right. Marvel Studios has a tendency to change the backstory and characters – as they do with Ghost, who is a male character with no known alter ego, hellbent on taking down corporations in the comics – so it only feels right to get Peña a masked identity. He would be incredible.

With all the marketing, all the hype, all the jazz surrounding the early announcement that Pfeiffer would play Janet van Dyne, her role is minimal here. She’s more a MacGuffin than an actual character. And that’s a travesty likely only fixed by future films. But hats off to John-Kamen (star of Syfy’s “Killjoys”) as Ghost for providing us at least a veneer of complexity. A little crazy, a little angry, a little powerful all add up to a compelling character from a modest story.

As much popcorn fun as this is, I can’t help but feel a little disappointed. We have so many lighthearted entertainment options out there, and the Quantum Realm opens up so many possibilities for exploration and untapped characteristics of the comics in film adaptations. We barely glimpse into it, and how splendid these films would be if they embraced narrative oddities to the fullest without an obligatory self-referential joke nodding at audience members who might be weirded out.