Tag Archives: Walton Goggins

Paul Rudd and Evangeline Lilly in Ant-Man and the Wasp

Ant-Man and the Wasp

You could tell from the trailer that Ant-Man and the Wasp wasn’t intended to be a particularly serious movie. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a particularly funny one, either.

Dr. Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) and Hope Van Dyne/Wasp (Evangeline Lilly) briefly open a tunnel into the quantum realm. Scott Lang/Ant-Man (Paul Rudd) magically receives a message from Janet Van Dyne/original Wasp (Michelle Pfeiffer) that’s she’s still alive after all these years in the quantum realm. Then it’s a relentless series of size jokes and feds acting like Keystone Cops. The whole thing is very one-dimensional and mostly falls flat. Oh, there’s also an antagonist named Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen) who meanders in and out and mostly exists to give Ant-Man and Wasp someone to fight with. Walton Goggins shows up and plays pretty much the same guy he always plays.

I must give some credit to Michael Peña as Luis. He’s not given much to work with, but he manages to be pretty funny, nevertheless. He’s clearly the best part of any scene he’s in. Abby Ryder Fortson also does nice work as Ant-Man’s daughter, Cassie.

Paul Rudd and Abby Ryder Fortson in Ant-Man and the Wasp. IMDb.com.

Paul Rudd and Abby Ryder Fortson. IMDb.com.

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Tomb Raider: Some Things are Better Left Buried

The first question that comes to mind is “What did you expect from a remake of a movie based on a video game?” My expectations were actually quite low, but Tomb Raider still failed to meet them. (Warning: There are some spoilers ahead. That is, if a movie this generic and predictable can truly be spoiled.)

Lara Croft (Alicia Vikander) refuses to accept that her long-missing father (Dominic West) is truly dead. She is eventually presented with a puzzle box that provides clues to the location of Lord Croft’s secret study where all the archeological research is kept. She rummages through his stuff, finds the location of the ancient treasure he left to pursue 7 years earlier, and decides to retrace his steps in hopes of finding him.

Alicia Vikander finds the secret study in Tomb Raider

Alicia Vikander. IMDb.com

The plot couldn’t be more generic, only exists to move Lara from one action sequence to the next, and in certain key areas simply makes no sense. Case in point – given the nature of what’s in the tomb, why on earth would anyone go to the trouble of constructing an insanely complicated series of traps to guard it when an easier and far more effective strategy would be to simply bury it under tons and tons of rock? Continue reading →