Recently I was asked to attend a special screening and press day for the upcoming Marvel sequel Ant-Man and the Wasp starring Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Michael Douglas, Laurence
Fishburne, Michelle Pfeiffer, Michael
Peña, Hannah
John-Kamen and Randall
Park. As with the original Ant-Man, Rudd was a part of the writing team. The movie was good, not great, but fun nonetheless.
So much is given away in the commercials for this movie, there isn't much left for us in the actual film. Radio segments are saying that critics are amazed with the surprise ending. There really wasn't much of a "surprise" ending to speak of. Unfortunately I wasn't on the edge of my seat. In the Marvel timeline, this comes before the events in Avengers: Infinity War and is a sequel to Ant-Man and Captain America: Civil War. It would have helped me to re-watch Ant-Man since I've forgotten the events of that film. It has to be hard to be the film that follows Thor Ragnarok, Black Panther and Avengers: Infinity War. These three set the bar really high.
There were some laughs in the film. Michael Pena has some of the best scenes. His montage is the best. At the press day in Pasadena, Evangeline Lilly stated that Luis's "montage" was her favorite thing to film. Randall Park plays the FBI agent, Jimmy Woo, who is in charge of making sure that Scott Lang finishes out his house arrest after helping Captain America.
Hank Pym and his daughter Hope van Dyne are desperately trying to find Janet van Dyne in the quantum zone, where she has been trapped for the last 30 years. Laurence Fishburne leaves the DC to join the MCU. Will he return as Perry White in the next Man of Steel movie? Will there be another Man of Steel?
The movie, at it's core about family and the love of a family. That's evident in Scott's relationship with his daughter Cassie and Hank's relationship with Hope. There is one line I wish they would have changed. It's when Scott and Cassie are talking and he mentions that Hope reminds him a lot of Cassie. I know the message they are trying to convey. I just wish they could have conveyed it a different way.
My husband and I were able to watch Ant-Man and the Wasp at the Disney Studios in Burbank. I've been there before and I just love it! We were given drinks and finger foods before the screening and popcorn during. We watched the 3D version of the film and I wasn't a big fan. I don't particularly care for 3D films to begin with, I think they're a waste of money. There was nothing spectacular about watching it in 3D.
Being on the studio grounds is a very magical experience. My dream was to always work at Disney Studios.
A few days later I went to the press event at the Langham Hotel in Pasadena. I love the Langham. It's beautiful. My husband took me there once when we were dating. They have a beautiful courtyard garden. While walking through this garden to get to the other side of the hotel, I bumped into Paul Rudd. This was an amazing experience!! I've loved him since before Clueless. Anyway, I digress. I walked back into the hotel from the courtyard and ran into a group of people. within this group was Paul Rudd. We made eye contact, he smiled and I said......nothing. It took a minute for my brain to register the fact that this was in-fact-PAUL-freaking-RUDD!! Before I had time to whip out my phone for a selfie, he was gone and I was already on security's radar.
As with many of the press junkets I attend, some of the costumes are on hand. I really loved the Wasp costume. Evangeline Lilly is so much fun in this movie. Her fighting scenes are awesome! Paul Rudd and Evangeline Lilly have great chemistry. How can you not have chemistry with Paul Rudd. He's such a dream!!! They have this action figure that is so lifelike, its scary. I've never seen anything like it before. I has "facial hair".
My students know that I have an obsession with FunkoPop dolls. I have a "wall-of-pop" in my classroom. They give them to me as gifts. The Wasp, Hope and Scott are adorable!!
The few days that I spent in the MCU were terrific. Paul Rudd is still adorable. The movie was good, but not great. I'd give the movie 3 out of 5 Pink Gerber Daisies. Most of the action scenes were already given to us in the commercials. I wasn't surprised by the ending. I actually have some hope for the future, and by future I mean 2019's Avengers 4. Let's face it, we know that in the MCU, no one is really ever truly gone.
To say I'm Disney obsessed would be an understatement. A few weeks ago I attended a special screening of Dumbo, directed by Tim Burton at the Disney Studios in Burbank. I had never seen the 60 minute original in its entirety, but I thought, I love Tim Burton and I love elephants, what the heck, I might as well. The movie was adorable. Tim Burton creates these amazingly "odd" characters, who don't entirely fit in, but "fit" all at the same time.
