Ant-Man and the Wasp

I will be honest. When this movie was first announced, just like with the first movie, I thought this was a reach by Marvel. Be honest, who really cares about Ant-Man? Even if he is being portrayed by the charming, Paul Rudd. Well, I ended up liking the first movie more than I thought I would. I am happy to report that I liked this movie even more.

There are a number of things I think this movie did better to correct the problems of the first. Most importantly, there is not a mustache twirling villain in this movie. Ghost, who we can say is the main antagonist, is not so much a villain as someone that is in a terrible circumstance. He/She will do anything to correct that. The motivations are crystal clear and he/she is a sympathetic character.

Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) is still a sometimes bumbling Ant-Man, but I think he has more heart in this movie. You can see that reflected in the relationship with his daughter, which is really sweet. He means well, but keeps messing things up when he is trying to do the right thing.

I feel like Hope Van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly) was a lot less ice queenish in this movie than in the last one. She was clearly hurt by Scott Lang's actions in Captain America: Civil War and that relationship is strained at the beginning of this movie. Also, we get to see her do a lot more (action wise) and she is awesome. I love the strong female representation we are seeing in more of the Marvel films. That definitely wasn't there much at the start.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention Michael Pena. If there is one guy that steals the show in each of these movies, it is him. I liked that they didn't give us TOO much of him, otherwise it would be overpowering.

Now that I've talked about the actors I liked, let's get into the movie itself. Like the first movie, it is self contained. It references and is affected by the events of the past couple of Marvel movies, but it lives in it's own space. I have repeatedly said in the past how I like movies like this. Here, Scott Lang is serving out his home arrest due to a plea deal he took as part of his actions in Captain America: Civil War.

There are honest belly laughs in this movie. The premise is handled with the appropriate amount of humor. There is a lot of science going on in this movie, but it doesn't get completely bogged down in it. We don't need to know how the science works. It just does. Move on. Rudd and Pena provide most of that humor, but it also comes from some of the other supporting characters. There are a couple of callbacks with some of the jokes, which I love. I would love nothing more than to give a few examples, but I don't want to spoil it. Well, the one thing I will spoil is you get another Michael Pena narrated flashback in the same manner that you did in the first one. This is a device that is still very funny to me.

I almost forgot that this movie is really about finding Hank Pym's wife, Janet in the "Quantum Realm". I think that search is handled as well as it could be from a plot perspective.

The special effects in this movie were pretty good. I really don't like the de-aging technology a lot of movies are using in flashbacks (they use it here for Michelle Pfeiffer and Michael Douglas). I find it distracting. Just cast younger version of the characters themselves. This is unrelated to the special effects, but I came to the conclusion in this movie that I just don't care for Michael Douglas. At all.

I really don't have anything else I want to say about this movie other than you should go see it. It is a fun and enjoyable film. If Marvel keeps this up, my top ten movies will be in a constant state of flux. You watched all the OTHER Marvel movies, so go watch this one too!

Rogue and Gambit!!

Before I say anything else, if you have not read "X-Men: Gold" #30, do not read on. If you have or have no idea why I am making this post, join me!

As is my way, I only really post my random comic book thoughts if something significant has happened. I don't want to oversell it, but this is that kind of post.

In X-Men: Gold #30, we were SUPPOSED to get the marriage between Kitty Pryde and Colossus. For long time X-Men fans, this is a relationship that has been off and on for about thirty years. It's one of those marriages that you figured would have happened already by now and only made sense when it finally did. Instead, Marvel gives us a weird swerve where they do NOT get married. Instead, we get Rogue and Gambit?!

Although this relationship is not as old as Kitty and Colossus, it has had it's up and downs as well. This relationship is the epitome of 90's X-Men comics. I mean, it made it into the cartoon! They were characters in X-Men vs. Street Fighter! Their relationship was a central conflict in the Age of Apocalypse story line. Or rather, hinted at what could have been. This was a pairing that I was always down with and I was saddened when the events of Uncanny X-Men #350 made it seem like this relationship would never happen again. It is only coincidence, I swear, that I quit reading Uncanny X-Men and comics in general after that.

For a few years, I gave up on the X-Men and didn't follow the paths of those two characters. When I came back to the X-Men, Gambit was not showing up as often in the books I was reading. Then he appeared in X-Men: Gold at the beginning and occasionally elsewhere. It wasn't until the Rogue & Gambit mini-series a few weeks ago did I get to see them together. Not only was that mini-series really good, but it rekindled my love of this couple. They always seemed to gravitate back to one another. It's good to see the "will they/won't they" finally end.

As a cynical comic fan, they always find a way to break up marriages, so I don't foresee this lasting very long. Need examples? Look at Jean Grey/Cyclops, Pater Parker/Mary Jane, Black Panther/Storm and Wolverine/Mariko. There are plenty more examples, but these are the ones that popped into my mind.

All this is to say, let's enjoy this while we can. Hopefully it will last longer than a year. Seriously, the X-Men could use a relationship that actually lasts.

Solo: A Star Wars Story

I saw this movie a few weeks ago and I have to confess, I really liked it. In my opinion, this is a movie that did not need to happen. With that being said, it was really fun.

After watching the initial trailers, I was not sold on Alden Ehrenreich playing Solo. However, he grew on me. Donald Glover is definitely a great choice as Lando. He attempted the cadence at times of a Billy Dee Williams, but I don't think he needed to. If his whole character is boiled down to his speech pattern, maybe there is something wrong with the character. Also, over the years, I've become a real fan of Woody Harrelson. He's fantastic in this movie.

Anyways, here is my short review of this movie.

Like I said above, it was a lot of fun. It is essentially a heist movie that has a couple of twists and turns. To be honest, it didn't feel like Star Wars and that was a good thing. There were no lightsaber battles. There was no mention of the force. You just have regular dudes and shades of grey in the morality of these characters. For example, Lando is almost a straight up villain in this film. What do I mean? You will have to watch to find out. The empire makes an appearance, but you don't see a lot of Stormtroopers here. This movie is less Star Wars than Rogue One was. Given that thought, I like that these standalone Star War films feel like different genres of films.

The action scenes were really good. Quite a bit of suspense, as you find in a heist movie. I ALWAYS love seeing the Millennium Falcon, so it was great to see it. In all the trailers, it had that weird connecting piece in the middle. That gets explained and I hope we never have to see it again. I don't need that space between the prongs to ever be filled.

After seeing Chewbacca for maybe five minutes in the Last Jedi, it was good to see him in action and seeing him as a factor again. He was a major component of the first trilogy, but was so marginalized in the last movie.

What was not great was seeing how Han Solo got his name. It was dumb and I wish we never saw it.

Surprisingly, I don't have much else to say about the movie. Partly because it HAS been three weeks, but also because while it was a good movie, it didn't really leave an impression on me. It sucks that this movie did not do better because it is not as bad as people will lead you to believe.