Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania – Movie Review

TL;DR – While individual elements work, when you combine them with a story that feels kitbashed together from other/better narratives, you get a bit of a disappointment.     

Rating: 2.5 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene

Disclosure – I paid to see this film

Kang shows his full power.

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania Review

Sigh … okay, let’s do this. I feel before I go on that, somehow, I need to build a touch of credibility on the topic of Ant-Man. I don’t know why, but let’s just go with it. I unashamedly love Ant-Man, as well as, Ant-Man and the Wasp. The first Ant-Man was a perfect coda to Phase 2, a surprisingly fun romp through San Francisco and size. The second was a breath of fresh air in-between the dourness that was the two Avengers. I loved that we were getting a third, but something in the marketing campaign made me pause … I think I should have listened to that part of myself.

So to set the scene, after helping to save the world in Avengers Endgame, Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) has tried to be a better father to Cassie (Kathryn Newton) who he has years of catching up to do, and a better boyfriend to Hope (Evangeline Lilly). All while writing a best-selling book. However, that ball of calm is crushed when Cassie is arrested at a protest, and her grandparents Hank (Michael Douglas) and Janet (Michelle Pfeiffer) might have been supporting her more rebellious side. But it is Cassie’s work in trying to chart the Quantum Realm that brings everything unstuck. Because as they knock at the door of the realm, something knocks back and sucks them all in. Now it is time for Janet’s past to catch up to her in the future.

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Ghostbusters: Afterlife – Movie Review

TL;DR –  It unravelled a bit at the end, but I enjoyed the ride up till then.   

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is a mid and post-credit scene

Disclosure – I paid for the Amazon Prime service that viewed this film

The family sit on a broken car.

Ghostbusters: Afterlife Review

With our next catch-up film, we get to go back to a movie released on New Year’s Day in 2022. I had meant to watch this well before this, but there was a lot of toxicity around the film building up to release, which put me off a bit, and it never worked into the schedule until now. But what failed at Halloween is now ready at Christmas, and it is time to dive in.  

So to set the scene, on a stormy night at Shandor Mining Co., a man leads an invisible entity back to his farm. He tries to catch it, but the power fails, and the creature attacks before he can recover. With his death, his farm in Summerville, Oklahoma, reverts to his estranged daughter Callie Spengler (Carrie Coon), who is in financial struggle and moves out there with her daughter Phoebe Spengler (Mckenna Grace) and son Trevor Spengler (Finn Wolfhard). They were hoping to be able to sell the place, but nothing is straightforward, and they have to stay for a while. Things are going okay, but for the daily earthquakes with no source. That is until Phoebe finds her grandfather’s old ghost trap, and she, her friend Podcast (Logan Kim), and teacher Gary Grooberson (Paul Rudd) open it up and let out a coming doom.  

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Movie Review – Ant-Man and the Wasp

TL;DR – A fun self-contained romp in the MCU that has all the charm of the first film with a bit more focus and a more interesting opponent.

Score – 4 out of 5 stars

Post-Credit Scene – There is a mid and post-credit scene

Ant-Man and the Wasp. Image Credit: Marvel/Disney

Review

Ant-Man (see review) was a bit of an odd duck of a film when it first came out. It followed on from Avengers: Age of Ultron (see review) as a kind of epilogue to Phase Two even though it didn’t kind of fit there. As well as this, it had the misfortune of being one of the two films in Phase Two where Marvel had big director missteps, with Edgar Wright stepping away from the project. It had all the makings of Marvel’s first big complete failure, yet it wasn’t. Indeed it was a fun little heist film with a lot of charm. Part of this has to be the groundwork Edgar laid down, but also the commitment of the actors to just go for it. Ant-Man was also one of those crystallising moments that showed that Marvel needed to work on a few things behind the scenes and the fruits of those decisions have been films like Black Panther (see review) and Thor: Ragnarok (see review). With this in mind, today we look at the first direct follow up which fixes one of the issues from the first film, and we see that right in the title because today we are looking at Ant-Man and the Wasp.

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Movie Review – Mute (Moon II)

TL;DR – Compelling, brutal, it charts a world of extremes crashing together and the damage that it can do to people.

Score – 3.5 out of 5 stars

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene

Mute banner

Review

Because of who you are, you live almost apart from the world. However, one day you meet someone who completes you, helps you to live your life, it is pure joy. Then one day that gets taken away from you, what would you do? Where would you go? Is there any length that you would not go to get her back? These are just some of the questions that Mute askes among the tapestry of future Germany. Today we will be exploring this fascinating film from Duncan Jones, a gritty neo-noir film of mystery and deception, but also a film dealing with some very real and present issues in the world today.

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Movie Review – Sausage Party

TL;DR – Wow, this movie is all kind of messed up, but it is also really quite interesting at times, but the whole anti-Toy Story spin does start to wear thin after a while.

Score – 2.5 out of 5 stars

Sausage Party. Image Credit: Sony.

Review

I think for the first time since Deadpool (Review) I need to open up this review with a clear advisory warning, this is not a movie for children, it is full of violence, sex, drugs, and language, please for the love of everything do not take your 5 year olds to it. As well as this, I am sure that Sausage Party will offend a lot of people, which should come to no surprise given Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg’s last film The Interview (Review) was so offensive to North Korea they went out of their way to stop it showing in theatres, but this is something to prepare yourself for, if you plan to go watch it.

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Movie Review – Captain America: Civil War

TL;DR – This is without a doubt the Marvel film so far, it gets the action right, the story right, the characters right, it is a fantastic film that I highly recommend.

Score – 5 out of 5 stars

P.S. There is a mid and end credits sequence

Captain America: Civil War. Image Credit: Marvel/Disney.

Review

Ok wow, what a film and so far the best film for 2016 and indeed the only one so far to get a 5/5 score. After the recent poor outing of Batman v Superman, I was wondering if Marvel could actually pull this off. Can they contrive a plausible reason these characters would be fighting, actually manage all the characters in a movie that is totally not Avengers 3, but let’s be honest, this is totally Avengers 3. However, I needn’t have been concerned, the Russo Brothers are masters of their craft and they show it here in spades. Ok to lay out how this review will go, the first part will just give a general spoiler-free analysis, and then in the second part we will be going full spoilers, there will be a warning so you can skip it if you have not seen the film.

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Movie Review – Ant-Man

TL;DR – A surprisingly fun little film, a good introduction to the character that make you excited for the possibilities for the future.

Score – 4 out of 5 stars

Ant-Man. Image Credit: Marvel/Disney.

Review

Out of all the recent Marvel Cinematic Universe Movies* Ant-Man has probably had one of the more rocky developments, it lost its director, it is also not one of Marvel’s best-known characters. So there was potential for this to be Marvel’s first big stumble, thankfully the final product really works.

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