Ant-Man and the Wasp

First Hit: It’s been a long time since a Marvel film brought joy, fun, and a story that worked—this one did.

I’ve really struggled watching Marvel films of comic book heroes. Most of the more recent Marvel films put these characters into today’s current world or some future world and they must fight some alien power to save the world, or some piece of it.

Here we have fun packed into an engaging story.

Scott Lang aka Ant-Man (Paul Rudd) is under house arrest. He’s got an ankle bracelet and agent Jimmy Woo (Randall Park) keeps coming over to check his ankle bracelet much to the amusement of Lang’s daughter Maggie (Judy Greer).

His former superhero mate Wasp / Hope Van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly) and her father Dr. Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) are attempting to build a machine that will allow them to find Janet Van Dyne / Wasp (Michelle Pfeiffer) who got stuck into a microscopic quantum realm.

Dr. Pym invented the ability to shrink and expand physical forms including people and that is how Ant-Man and Wasp were created. When Janet got lost in the realm, he believed she was still alive. In reaching out from her microscopic quantum realm, she contacts Lang.

Lang, Hope, and Dr. Pym believed they could rescue Janet, so the film is about how they find a way to finish a machine to make the rescue. However, there are opposing forces including Ava Starr / Ghost (Hannah John-Karmen) who needs Janet’s energy to unbecome a ghost. Ghost is supported by a former colleague of Pym, Bill Foster (Laurence Fishburne). Another group trying to get control of the machine Pym is making is Sunny Burch (Walter Goggins), a low level criminal. However, helping Lang is his security firm CEO, Luis (Michael Pena).

Rudd is great in this role. He’s perfect at keeping the humor in this role, while having enough ability to make the role as Ant-Man realistic. Park is hilarious as the agent trying to catch Lang violating parole. Greer was wonderful as Lang’s daughter. Her precocious nature was perfect. Lilly was wonderful as Wasp, Pym’s daughter, and Lang’s old flame. Douglas was fun as Pym. He still carries a bravado that made his earlier films work. Pfeiffer was strong in this limited but pivotal role. John-Karmen was very good as Ghost and one trying to become whole. Fishburne was perfect as Foster. Goggins was good as the lower level mob guy thinking he could make a big score. Pena was fantastic. He carries the humor in this film perfectly. Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers wrote a wonderful film that captured humor, the spirit of superheroes, and had a storyline that was fun and worked. Peyton Reed did an excellent job of putting this story on the screen. I loved seeing San Francisco this way.

Overall: This was a fun film to watch and, in the end, thoroughly enjoyable.

Ant-man

First Hit:  Very enjoyable film that works because it doesn’t take itself too seriously.

A fun filled adventure that definitely works because of the storyline, acting, and especially of the acting by Paul Rudd as Scott Lang / Ant-man. He approaches the role with intelligence, irreverence, and honesty.

His compatriots, outside of the ants, are Luis (Michael Pena), Dave (T.I.), and Kurt (David Dastmalchian). All together they help Ant-man suit inventor Dr. Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) and his daughter Hope (Evangeline Lilly), defeat Darren Cross / Yellowjacket (Corey Stoll) who is trying to re-create Dr. Pym’s technology for evil use.

The motivation for Scott is his daughter Cassie (Abby Ryder Fortson) whom he doesn’t see much because he’s been in prison. The scenes of Lang as Ant-man when he’s working with the ants is priceless. As an audience member, I knew it was fantasy, yet I bought the story and film because it was so well put together – with lightheartedness.

Rudd was perfect for the role. He’s so comfortable in his body and the script’s dialogue was perfect for him. He’s great. Pena is also fantastic. He’s talkative, yet there is an air of intelligence in his storying telling. Douglas is strong as the scientist. Lilly is wonderful to watch and her backing up her intelligence with physical abilities were excellent. Stoll was really good as the strength of evil doing and the antagonist. Fortson was enjoyable as Rudd’s daughter. Edgar Wright and Joe Cornish wrote a great script. Payton Reed had a great handle on how to execute this story.

Overall:  This is a really fun and enjoyable film.

Real Steel

First Hit:  This was a fully entertaining and enjoyable film.

Yes it is much like “The Champ” in more ways than one, but so what – this film was very enjoyable.

Charlie Kenton (played by Hugh Jackman) is a washed-up boxer, who had one glorifying moment in the ring. He’s a loner traveling around in HI truck lugging robots around who fight bulls and other robots for money. He’s clearly a “live for the moment guy” looking to make a large score so that he can pay off some guys he owes money to.

But we all know in the first 10 minutes, even if he makes a large score, he’ll be back to where he is because he doesn’t plan or think ahead. One day he is served with papers that his son Max (played by Dakota Goyo), who he saw once as a baby, has lost his mother and that he has custody or has to sign over custody to the boy’s aunt. He sees this as an angle to get money and as the boy clearly tells him, “you sold me for $50K”.

The boy has to spend some time with his father before custody is handed over and we all know what happens next; Max and Charlie are alike in many ways and each learns and grows by being with the other.

There is very little that is not predictable in this film but there is nothing about this film that isn’t genuinely entertaining. The relationship between Charlie and Bailey Tallet (played by Evangeline Lilly) who’s father trained Charlie as a boxer is clearly believable. The relationship between Max and Bailey is wonderful, especially when she shows him clippings of his father boxing.

Although I thought the Tak Mashido and Farra Lemkova characters were a bit overdone there was little I didn’t like.

Jackman is perfect as the guy who cares, doesn’t care, thinks, doesn’t think, and has the physical attributes to pull off this role. He was great. Goyo was, to me, the star of this picture. He shows grace, talent and a command of the role that was wonderful. Lilly, was good as the woman waiting for her love to realize it. John Gatins and Dan Gilroy philosophically borrowed strongly from “The Champ” but they made it their own as well. Shawn Levy clearly knows how to make an entertaining film.

Overall: Although there is not real big meaningful message here, this film was simply a joy to watch.