Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire

I really enjoyed Ghostbusters: Afterlife. But I think I am more of a fan of the newest film in the series, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire. For one thing, there is way more presence of the original Ghostbusters in this 2024 film. Sure, the ghost of Egon was a major character in Afterlife. But his spectral form was executed by body doubles, special effects tricks and CGI. In Afterlife, when it came to the still living cast of Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray and Ernie Hudson, you saw them on screen 4 to 5 minutes tops. With much expanded roles in this film, it really felt like a Ghostbuster movie. I just hope it's not the last one in the series.

Egon's daughter and grandchildren have been given the reins on the Ghostbuster empire by their benefactor, Winston Zeddmore. Along with Oklahoman science teacher Gary Grooberson, the Spenglers live in the old firehouse, chasing ghosts in the Ecto-1 with the same old aging equipment. Facing major backlash from former EPA inspector Walter Peck who is now the mayor of New York, young Phoebe Spengler must stop busting spirits until she turns 18 or the whole endeavor will be shut down.

Meanwhile, a young man clearing out his grandmother's apartment brings what he thinks is some old junk from her home country of India over to Ray's Occult Books. Hoping to make a few dollars, the man, played by Kumail Nanjiani, sells to Ray Stantz an orb made of brass that secretly imprisons a demigod from ancient times long before the birth of Christ.

For centuries, the orb had been housed safely away from the sounds of human voices. Now out in the open, the vibrations of the outside world are awakening the powerful god, who grows stronger with every sound the orb encounters. As this monster arises, the ghosts of the Big Apple are stirring, which causes the Ghostbusters original containment unit to start malfunctioning. The last time the unit shut down was in 1984 and it almost destroyed in entire city what with Gozer, people turning into demonic dogs and a giant Stay Puft Marshmallow Man terrorizing Manhattan. Only now, add to it a kingdom of ice that threatens to chill every last man, woman and child down to their very souls!

The weakest character in the movie was the precocious Phoebe played by McKenna Grace. Grace shined in the last movie. However, by putting her on the sidelines from active Ghostbusting, we get this typical teen angst trope that makes just about everything she does predictable. 

I was pleasantly surprised by Nanjiani. I usually can't stand him because every time I see him, he's got this disgusted look on his face like he just smelt a fart. However, he's got this loopiness that has been missing from the franchise since Rick Moranis' retirement from acting as the lovable loser Louis. Sigourney Weaver is also absent from this movie. But we get a big dose of Annie Potts' Jeanine this time around. Sadly, even though she finally dressed up as a Ghostbuster and even wears a modified blaster gauntlet, we never get to see her use the down thing. 

The last scene kinda sets up a 6th film. Fans have been talking about a proposed 'Ghostbusters International' film or cartoon series for a very long time. If what Winston hints at at the end of Frozen Empire is any hint, we might finally get to see what it's like taking down ghosts in places like Japan, England and maybe even Antarctica! Even if we don't get that premise, you can at least delight in a film that is probably about as close to a live-action version of Extreme Ghostbusters as we'll ever get. Only instead of Egon as the leader of the next gen of busters, it's Winston. And yet, it feels right. 

One More Movie! One More Movie! One More Movie!

Worth Consuming! 

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars. 

Ant-Man and the Wasp

In this day and age, it's not easy to review a movie like Ant-Man and the Wasp without giving away some major spoilers. When we last saw Paul Rudd's Ant-Man/Scott Lang, he was in a hi-level security facility rotting away for his involvement in helping a fugitive Steve Rogers in Captain America: Civil War. 

Thanks to Lang, Dr Henry Pym and his daughter Hope (Michael Douglas and Evangeline Lilly) are wanted fugitives. While on the run, the father and daughter team believe that they may have found a way of rescuing Pym's wife Janet Van Dyne, who became a victim of the Microverse decades ago during a blotched mission for SHIELD. 

The key to Janet's rescue is of course, Scott Lang. As seen in the events of the first Ant-Man film, Scott was able to enter and successfully return from the Microverse: a feat previously thought impossible by Dr. Pym. Thus, Pym must break Lang out of jail while Hope purchases components for a way to save her mother by a sketchy arms dealer played by Walter Goggins (Justified). But that plan is complicated by a mysterious player (Killjoys' Hannah John-Kamen) who can phase in and out of reality like a ghost.

There's a ton of plots floating around this film. It's almost to the point of being chaotic. It's very Marvel in that sense but I am not 100% sure that's a good thing. 

Ant-Man and the Wasp is perhaps the most like a comic book come to life of any of the Marvel films. To me, Ant-Man is quintessential Marvel in that his family of stories are both super-heroic and very scientific and that is no small feat as Hank Pym stories also have a lot of heart.  

But it felt like it took a very long time for things to finally come together. There was minutiae aplenty in this film, like seeing Dr. Pym using giant-sized ants build his lab or how Scott Lang's relationship with his daughter has had to evolve thanks to his antics in Germany with Cap. Yet, to get to the meat of the movie, you have to sit through a bunch of appetizers.

Of course if you have an Ant-Man, eventually you are going to have a Giant-Man. That is explored thanks to The Matrix Trilogy's Laurence Fishburne's appearance of Bill Foster who worked on something called Project: Goliath with Pym during his SHIELD days. But again, his direct contributions take a long time to finally come together.

One thing that this Ant-Man film does better than the first movie is be funny! Michael Pena returns as wisecracking Luis. Reformed from his days as a thief, he along with buddies Dave and Kurt are back, this time as home security consultants  for a firm called X-Con. The trio of Pena along with rapper T.I. and David Dastmalchian stole the movie with their antics. Marvel- if you are reading this, you need to make an X-Con comic book!

Ant-Man and the Wasp is roughly 118 minutes long. The most important thing about this movie isn't what happens first 110 minutes. All Marvel Cinematic fans have their eyes on Avengers 4 and only about the last 8 minutes really ties into Infinity Wars and it's sequel. 
There's a key 2-word phrase during the last 8 minutes of film that I think plenty much sums up what the Avengers must do in order to defeat Thanos. It's huge and I think it will change the Marvel movie universe forever. 

However, if you want to know what those words are, you'll have to see Ant-Man and the Wasp for yourself, playing in theaters everywhere right now. You'll get no spoilers from me on that subject. But if you figure out the phrase, give yourself a big No-Prize! You'll have earned it for sitting through this massively small entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 7 out of 10 stars.

Marvel's Ant-Man

 Well, it took me forever, but I finally saw the film Ant-Man. It's kinda ironic since it took literally forever for this movie to see the light of day. I remember reading almost a dozen years ago in Wizard Magazine about how a script that would involve multiple generations of people bearing the mantle of Ant-Man was floating around Hollywood but never could find anyone to commit to it. For the life of me, I couldn't understand how this concept would work and it made sense that this was the superhero movie that nobody wanted. 

   That is until this Sunday when all of the pieces fell into place and I finally could see the full picture that this amazing script was to paint on the silver screen. 

    Elderly Dr. Hank Pym's (Michael Douglas) days as the Ant-Man for the American military covert ops are over. Not wanting the formula to his Pym Particles, a mysterious substance that can shrink and enlarge organic material, to fall into the wrong hands, Pym willingly allowed himself to become a pariah of SHIELD. As a result, Pym loses his company and is estranged from his daughter. When a former colleague of Pym is close to unlocking the secret behind the Pym Particles, the original Ant-Man enlists the help of Scott Lang to prevent project Yellowjacket from becoming a reality.

    Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) is a cat-burglar recently released from prison. Down on his luck, Lang wants to make amends in order to restore his relationship with his daughter, Cassie. Desperate, the ex-con agrees to one last job and, as a result, steals Pym's Ant-Man suit. But this heist was really a test to prove if Lang has what it takes to finally redeem himself, save the world from terrorists looking to weaponize Pym's work,  and become the new Ant-Man.

   Filled with lots of great cameos, Ant-Man was a literal who's who (Oops, I'm sorry, wrong company)- a literal The Official Handbook of the Marvel <Cinematic> Universe. Ant-Man was planned as the final project in Marvel's Phase Two which looked to expand the number of heroes and villains in the movie universe. And though a sequel has yet to be approved, that doesn't mean the end of the diminutive hero. Rudd's character looks to play a major role in the forthcoming Captain America: Civil War (2016.)

    A major character starring in Civil War has a great- gee, I wouldn't call it a cameo- let's say supporting role in Ant-Man. It's probably been spoiled to death as to who pops up, but you will not find out who it is from me, folks. But, speaking again about Civil War, be sure to stay during and after the credits to learn more about Scott Lang's future in the movies. (Yes- there are not one but two bonus scenes!)
  
    Compared to the latest Marvel film to hit the big screen, this film was fantastic. The acting was superior with its all-star cast. The special effects were generations better than the Fox flop to remain nameless and I was surprised by how much I was interested in a movie about a guy that can shrink to 4-inches tall and commands legions of ants. 

    The only thing that I felt was wrong about the movie was that the plot and ending were telegraphed numerous times. This might not be the fault of the director or screenwriter. The fact that I pretty much knew how this film would end by about the 35-minute mark on, could very well be because I've read so much of the Marvel catalogue that not very much surprises me anymore as much of Lang's origin was taken from his origin story in the pages of Marvel Premiere, 1979.

    But this was a good movie and a fun ride. A little heavy on swears, this is still the type of super-hero movie that kids as much as adults will want to see. Especially during the very funny climatic battle between Ant-Man and Yellowjacket on a child's toy train set. 

    Worth Consuming

   Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.