Ant Man and the Wasp
Ant-Man and the Wasp was released during of July of 2018.
Instead of the movie taking place after Infinity War, it takes place sometime
before those events. In the movie, we catch up with Scott Lang, Henry Pym, and Hope
van Dyne after the events of Civil War. Scott’s been on house arrest while
Henry and Hope have been on the run. They reluctantly recruit Scott on a
mission to see if they can find Janet van Dyne (the original Wasp) in the
Quantum Realm. Unfortunately, they have to deal with a few threats. The FBI is
looking for them, some lame crook wants their technology, and a former SHIELD
agent called Ghost wants their tech for herself.
This was pretty fun. While I’m not a fan of the Ant-Man movies,
they are pretty entertaining to see. While most Marvel movies tend to use some
humor, the Ant-Man movies are straight-up comedies. Most of the humor worked
here. We get more of Hope as the Wasp
here and she was pretty cool. Heck, this movie is as much as hers as it is
Scott’s. She served as the “straight-man” to Scott’s shenanigans and it was
cool to see that back. I enjoyed seeing Scott and the Pyms bounce off one
another. It was also cool to see more of Ant-Man’s world since we got Bill Foster
(played by Laurence Fishburne) showing up.
I wish there was more to Ghost than her cool power set.
The action scenes were as fun as the ones from previous movies.
We got to see Scott and Hope in action and we even got trippy with the Quantum
Realm again. The special effects for the older actors were good as usual. I
also thought the effects for Ghost were pretty cool. They really lived up to
the name. As for Ghost herself, she was okay. She had an interesting power set
and an interesting backstory, but that’s about it. Also, the post-credit scene
was good and didn’t make you forget that “we’re in the endgame, now.”
While this dude works as a villain in... pretty much everything, he was just "eh" here.
As for my dislikes, I do have a few. While I liked the
story, it did feel pretty slight. It felt like that with Scott’s and Hope’s
relationship. It definitely felt that way with the villains. While I liked Ghost,
she felt kinda flat at times. I can say the same for the other villain, Sonny Burch
(played by Walter Coggins). He was just there to be another threat to our
heroes and that’s it. He’s just another bland dude in a suit. There was some
humor that didn’t land with me. I felt like it was trying too hard to be funny
at times, ya know? Other than those things and that somewhat annoying FBI
officer, this was fine in the end. It served as a fun time after the ending we
got with Infinity War.
Captain Marvel
Finally, we have Captain Marvel which was released during
March of this year. It’s another period piece taking place in 1995. In it, Brie
Larson is Carol Danvers, an Air Force pilot who was taken by the Kree. She has
no memory of her Earth life and believes that she is Kree. She’s also a part of
the Kree’s Starforce team and is pretty powerful. Because of the Skrulls, sworn
enemies of Kree, she ends up back on Earth to stop a possible ploy from the
Skrulls. She ends up teaming up with a younger Nick Fury and they get to the
truth about the Kree, the Skrulls, and Carol’s true past.
No old ladies were hurt during this production... I think, anyway.
This was a fine movie. It kind of felt like a return to Phase
1 Marvel in some ways. I liked that it was a period piece and that it took
something I can kind of remember. Oh Blockbuster and Movie Gallery, how I miss
you. The performances here were good for the most part. Brie Larson does her
best as Carol Danvers. I liked that we got to see another side to Nick Fury and
I also liked Maria Rambeau. It was also cool to see how things were before Iron
Man showed up. We even get to see a few familiar faces on Earth and with the
Kree Empire.
Fury: WHY DIDN'T YOU GET ME A NINE INCH NAILS SHIRT? THAT REZNOR DUDE IS THE $(%(!
Carol: Why are you yelling, again?
Fury: IT'S JUST WHAT I DO. DIDN'T YOU SEE DIE HARD WITH A VENGEANCE?
I thought the Kree/Skrull conflict had a couple of interesting
wrinkles here. I thought Talos the Skrull was pretty cool. There is something that
happens with his character that I thought was pretty nice. The special
effects were good as usual for the MCU. I especially thought age effects on
Samuel L. Jackson and Clark Gregg (Agent Coulson) were really good. It made me
wonder if Fury was going to team up with John McClaine later or something. The action
scenes were okay for the most part. They looked good but they felt a little on
the “meh” side.
As for the negatives, I gotta say that Carol Danvers was
kind of on the dull side. I think part of the fact is that her side of the
story isn’t told that well. Outside of a few brushed over facts, we don’t
really learn much about her here. That’s kind of weird for an origin movie to
do that. When she’s around folk like Fury, Maria, and even Yon-Rogg, she’s
good. On her own, she’s kinda dull. Even when she’s able to come on her own towards
the end, that felt a little underwhelming.
In fact, some of the storytelling felt slight in other
places too. It definitely felt like that with the Kree/Skrull conflict. I’m trying
not to spoil things here, so you’ll see what I mean. While there were some good
humorous moments (you got SLJ and that cat), a couple of moments here and there
weren’t that good. Some action beats
fell a little on the “eh” side too. Other than those things and some small
nitpicks, this was a entertaining movie in the end. It’s not the worst of
Marvel, but I can’t call it the best of Marvel either.
……………………………………………………….
In the end, these were two fine movies. I don’t think they’ll
make it into my top five movies, but they do have a lot of merit. Well, I’m cutting
this one short tonight. I need to get to some reading and revisit an old show.
It’s that time of the year again. Until then, Peace, God Bless, and have a Happy
Easter.
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