Disney Countdown

It opened in the theaters today, so let's look at the latest movie from Marvel, Ant-Man and the Wasp. The Movie: Ant-Man and the Wasp is the 20th movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.  Like it's predecessor, this movie is receiving generally favorable reviews.  Notably, with this movie, the Wasp becomes the first female super hero in the MCU to have her name in the title of the movie. This movie is set two years after the events of Captain America: Civil War.  Scott Lang, as part of a plea deal due to his participation in the events of that movie, has spent the last two years under house arrest and is scheduled to be released in three days.  After he receives what might be message from the quantum realm, he attempts to contact Hank Pym, who, along with Hope, have spent the last two years on the run due to their association with Scott.  Hope kidnaps Scott to use him in her and her father's attempt to rescue her mother Janet from the quantum realm....

With the release of its sequel today, let's take a look at the Marvel movie Ant-Man. The Movie: Ant-Man is the 12th movie of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the final movie of Phase 2.  Ant-Man was directed by Peyton Reed, who took over after original director and screenwriter Edgar Wright left the project due to creative differences.  The movie received mostly positive reviews and was a modest success (by Marvel standards) at the box-office. This Ant-Man is Scott Lang, who has just been released from prison after serving a 3-year sentence for burglary.  Scott's biggest wish is to see his daughter Cassie, but his ex-wife and her fiance won't let him unless he can prove himself to be a changed man.  Meanwhile, Hank Pym, the original Ant-Man and founder of Pym Tech, has discovered that his protege Darren Cross has come close to replicating the Ant-Man technology with a project called Yellowjacket.  Needing someone to help stop Cross, Hank recruits Scott...

Let's wrap up the Captain America trilogy with Captain America: Civil War The Movie: This film kicked off MCU's Phase 3 and is the 13th MCU film overall.  From a narrative standpoint, it is more a follow-up to The Avengers: Age of Ultron, though the character of the Winter Soldier plays a crucial part in the story and is the biggest element to come out of the last Captain America movie.  And while you won't be completely lost if you haven't seen either of those films, it definitely helps make the story more interesting. Where the last two Captain America films are prominently featured around Steve Rogers, this one at times can feel almost like an Avengers movie.  The character roster includes heroes from the Captain America films (Captain America, Winter Soldier, Falcon, Black Widow), the Iron Man films (Iron Man, War Machine, and once again Black Widow), the Avengers films (besides those already listed, Hawkeye, Scarlet Witch, Vision), and Ant-Man, who only ha...

For part 2 of 3, let's get going with Captain America: The Winter Soldier The Movie: The third film of the MCU's Phase 2 and the ninth overall, The Winter Soldier serves as a follow up to both the first Captain America film and The Avengers, though pretty much all of its plot points pick up from the former.  And in case you never saw the first film, this one has enough flashbacks and other narrative devices peppered in that you can get the basic idea. Now in the present day, Captain America is working with Nick Fury and Black Widow at S.H.I.E.L.D., which is based out of Washington, D.C.  However, all is not right within the agency, as an old threat returns along with a mysterious new enemy, the Winter Soldier, a dangerous assassin. Appropriately enough, especially with the Washington setting, the movie plays mostly like a political thriller.  And being that, the inclusion of Robert Redford to the cast as a leader within S.H.I.E.L.D. makes it that much better....

Today, I decided to go for a rare triple-header.  Since today is Memorial Day, it seemed fitting to watch the three Captain America movies from Marvel Studios. Now before we get into the usual rundown, I will start with my introductions to comic book movies and all things Marvel.  I didn't grow up reading comics, so my familiarity with the comic book universes mostly comes from the various movies, though I have read about a lot of the material from the comics, so I have a passing familiarity with the larger history of these characters. When it comes to the whole Marvel vs DC thing, I tend to be more of a Marvel fan.  While the quality of the MCU helps, I believe it goes back further than that.  You see, other than possibly the worst Batman movie of the bunch, my main introduction to superhero movies came with films like the X-Men franchise, Spider-man, The Fantastic Four, The Hulk, Blade, Daredevil, and Elektra, so I became more interested in the Marvel side o...