July 10, 2018 • 41 mins
***SPOILERS AHEAD*** In episode 14, Dani and Ify are joined by pop culture critic Joelle Monique to rate and review the new film 'Ant-Man and the Wasp.' Follow Joelle on Instagram at @joelle_monique and on Twitter at @JoelleMonique. ***THERE ARE SPOILERS IN THIS EPISODE***DO NOT LISTEN IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO BE SPOILED***
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Hello, Hello, Hello, and welcome to Nerdificent. I am one
of your hosts, Danny Fernandez, and sitting across from me
as always coming in live and direct across from Danny.
But we have a guest today. Let's talk about her?
Do we have pop culture critic Joel Money. Hey, how's
it going. It's good. I'm really glad to be here. Guys,
I'm glad to have you here. We all actually saw
(00:30):
the same film last night, but we were in different
theaters and you got stuck in the theater. I guess
that notoriously, people don't want to be in it's a theater.
Film critics don't want to be critics don't like three D.
They're like, why are we doing this? There's always seats
left over. But I'm cool with it. But I feel
like we've gotten to a level of three D where
it's like, I don't really see a difference. Classes is that? Like?
(00:52):
I know, so last night when you so, when you
when you get invited to media screening, sometimes they'll ask
you if you want to be in two D or
three D? And so I was there picking up our
tickets and I was like, oh, I guess who who's
going in a what I was like kind of asking
my friends, and I know notoriously in the film critic
community that they don't like going into three D. So
I almost wanted to go in there, but I didn't.
(01:14):
I caved and I went with the rest of the
nerds in a two D. I'm gonna let the nerdive
crowd know that unless you like just love three D,
don't don't spend your money on this one. It's it's
not like dr strange or like seeing three D was
like a legitimate experience, true, that is the special effect
for a wild This one was like there's a couple
of moments with him when he gets soups tiny where
(01:37):
you're like, oh, this is really cool. It's shiny and
like fun. Three D is good here. Otherwise it's just
kind of like almost flubber silly, Like there's the moment
where dudes leaning out the door to say goodbye to
his daughter, and that's like in a wonky three D,
you're like too much three D. I love when Harold
and Kumar did their three D movie because they kept
making fun of three D technology, like they would just
(01:59):
point out like their fingers would go out, like just
and that's why we have this this, you know that
type of technology. But I'm gonna, you know, next time,
I'm gonna I'm gonna go against the grain. I will
be in there with you, rebel. And also because you
can show up later, you can you don't have to
be there an hour before the movie started. Yeah. Okay,
So the movie that we're talking about is aunt Man
(02:19):
in the Wasp, which is dropping this weekend, so when
everyone's listening, this is if we haven't said a spoiler review, Yeah, really,
not too much to spoil in my opinion. I mean,
there's there's a few key things. I think there's It's
not like Infinity War. Yeah, but definitely you probably should
have seen Infinity War by this point because we will
(02:42):
be trying to there will be like light connections that
bring up. I went with somebody who hadn't seen Infinity
Wars and trying to explain everything to them like yeah,
like I'd be like, okay, so don't worry about that,
and uh, okay, so this is aunt Man. I mean
that that post credits thing must have been so wait,
(03:03):
so we're gonna let people in case this is auto
plane on your for some reason, and we don't want
you to write us this is your spoiler warning. Moving forward,
we will be talking about spoilers, not only with Marvel
Films with Infinity War, but with ant Man in the Wasps.
So turn us off and bring us back if you
haven't seen it yet, yes, okay continue Sorry? Yeah, so, yeah, no,
(03:26):
there was a post credit scene that definitely has to
do with Infinity War. Um as a young aunt man
going back into the I guess subatomic h the quantum
level of shrinkage to get the health because it seems
like at the end they're they're working with ghosts and
uh and they're basically healing her with the sub atomic stuff.
(03:49):
But while he's in there, they they poof, they turned
in the dust. So he's stuck in there for now. Yeah. Yeah,
if you haven't seen Infinity any Wars, someone will have
to spoil all of Infinity Wars. I just I straight
up to him, like, so, here's who's gone at the
end of Infinity War. I just try to catch you up.
You don't even watch the movie. I'm just gonna give
the oral history of it. But yeah, I know, Danny,
(04:11):
we were talking before and he said that you, like
everyone knew that this ending was coming, and I wanted
to ask if he felt the same, did you feel
like because I was kind of like no. My theater
was also kind of like no, I something would happen
with the snap, That's just what makes sense. We're trying
to catch up in the timeline. But for all three
of them to be gone and for him to be
stuck there, I was a little shocked. I know, I
(04:31):
like the way they did it, because I almost did
forget about like Infinity War. I was like in ant
man Land. I was good and I and I write
when he was calling to them and they weren't responding.
Because when I was like, oh, yeah, this is when
it's going to happen, I thought it was going to
happen towards the end of the movie. But then I
knew that it must be in the postcard. I knew
(04:52):
that it was going to happen at some point. So
that's what I will say. I thought that it was
going to happen to him, though I honestly thought we
would get in the middle of the movie with like
maybe either him or another character, and then we have
to figure out how to get to the end um
So I thought leaving it to the end was maybe
almost a little bit of a cop out, but also
I understand they have to make their entire film. Yeah,
(05:14):
That's what I like about it is I would love
because I feel like the post credit scene used to
have like a through line. I feel like with the
older ones, like in Phase one, it was basically Samuel L.
Jackson recruiting everyone, and I felt like in Phase two
and three we kind of lost that because there was
no reason for there. So now it's going to be
(05:36):
fun that there is this through line of like at
the end of these new movies, we'll see who poofs
and then it makes the second cheese are not almost
worth it? Like this one, I was like, well, let's
just stay because sometimes there's the end. I was like,
I think they were just doing it. Care about this, Yeah,
but I am pro make the important one earlier because
(05:59):
I did, because because I would love if that's the
trend and I can finally be like, all right, I'm
not going to stay all the way until the end
of the credits. Even though my mother in law, for
she went to like film school, so sheps like, we
got to look at all the credits, so yeah, inside
Leewin Davis doesn't have a post credit scene if you
(06:20):
were wondering, because I definitely watched it with her and
had to sit there to respect to all the people
who bring you semmah. Yeah, So let's talk about the
film itself. We did have an introduction to a new character,
Ghost Yeah, which is played by Hannah John came in.
I believe that's her last name. She you would recognize
her from Game of Throne. She was also in Ready
(06:41):
Player one kill Joys, and I recognized her from Black Mirror.
She's in uh fifteen million merits. Yes, well that's like
the first season. Remember it has Daniel Kalua. Oh yes,
where we first meet Daniel. For many of us are
there and everyone from Black Mirror. Why wouldn't you. The
(07:03):
Brits know what they're doing, they acting, and they're they're
so much better than we How American American access sounds
so good a ship. I can barely tell the diffience
British and on Australian accident, let alone pull off either.
So I don't know if I could do one, but
I don't want to offend any Australian people, so I
am not going to. But um, yeah, they they're so
(07:24):
much better than we are in every way. Anyways. Yeah,
so she she was also in tomb Rader, oh, in
the Force Awakens. Yeah, and so yeah, she's been in
a lot. Just in case anybody was wondering, Ghost is
a actual Marvel character. It actually the Ghost was actually
a male in the comic books. They swapped it to
a female. But in the comic books it was like
(07:47):
this character with like kind of an unknown origin who
has the same abilities, can be intangible, can go through things,
and actually was in the Thunderbolts, which would be cool
if they do do a Thunderbolts movie franchise, which so
deep cut Marvel truly. Yeah. So so that was so
(08:09):
just so you know, that is based off of a character,
and she was really cool. I liked her story. I
liked the kind of like you can see their side
of it, like they weren't just straight up bad, and
like in the end, you know, being able to kind
of redeem herself because she never you know, I feel
like sometimes when you have villains, they have to go
O D on how evil they are, so they make
them do some irredeemable steps and then you have to
(08:32):
kill them at the end. I love that she threatened
to do some irredeemable and then Lawrence was like, Madam Neo,
can't be doing that. Take it up. I don't know
if I've ever told either of you, but like Laurence
Fisherman is like my number one crush. Like when I
saw him at Infinity Wars, I was like, and he's
talking to Angela Bath, like this is so sexy and
I don't know what to do with I didn't know
why he was there, Like I realized that it was
(08:55):
because he's now in Marvel's Crazy. I was like, whoa,
Just like it's funny when you go to the premieres
and you're like, oh, like it's so fascinating who gets
invited to these things? You know, but it's it's wilde.
I saw Lawrence Fishburn when I worked at the Improv.
He was going Brendan Small had a show and he
showed up to it, like he was outside and he
(09:17):
was like just smoking a cigarette and I was just
staring at him the whole time, and I like, but
like you know that where that thing where like you
stare but like when they look at you, you you kind
of look away. And then when he walked back in
he winked at me. I was like okay, I was like,
all right, you knew I was staring. That's so great
And this is such a perfect role for him, like
this kind of fatherly but also like arrogant scientists like him,
(09:42):
like the fighting between him and um, oh my gosh,
why am I blinking on names? Hang him? Yeah, like
that whole office like back and forth about who was
writing how do things go down? Like you wanted to
do like a whole twenty year revert of just them
in the lab. I'd watch it. Yeah. But also they
like dropped the nugget that he's goliathe like they are
like and Goliath, which means he lives past Civil War
(10:05):
because in the Marvel comic books, Goliath dies in Civil War.
The Thor robot that Tony makes shoots Goliath with lyone
in the heart, and that's kind of where people just
kind of were like forgets used Tony Stark. Um. But yeah,
so like that's a fun thing that I wonder if
they'll revisit you to him this Yeah, because they're gonna
(10:26):
have like fifty people in their poster next time. They
had like forty. So yeah, so this um aunt Man.
The Wasp takes place two years after the events of
Captain America's Civil War and before the events of Avengers
Infinity War. So Scott Lang aunt Man now is under
house arrest after the events of Civil War, tries to
about which they bring up a lot how he fought
(10:49):
in Germany. Um tries to balance his home life as
a father with his responsibilities as aunt Man. Um and
then Hope Van Die and Hank Pim present him and
she is the Wasp present and with a new haircut,
very so good. Um presents him with a new mission
to bring to light secrets from their past and also
bring back her mom, played by Michelle Peiffer. Yeah, that
(11:12):
was that was That was pretty much a fun through
line because I was, you know, when I approached this movie,
I was very I had many thoughts. One first thought
obviously was where was he an Infinity War? But then
also the movie starts off with him being so angry
at him, to the point where I thought this was
going to be a fault for the movie for me,
because it's like they seem so angry, but it's like
(11:33):
a huge chunk of plot they're not really explaining. But
they ended up touching on it where I Hope is
mad at aunt Man because he didn't come to her,
basically didn't trust her enough to invite her to go
help him out in Germany, and Hanks just mad because
he went to Germany with the suit and kind of
basically made them made them criminal. His actions made them criminals.
(11:54):
So and then you kind of revisit it towards the
end when like once again the FBI is onto a
because he was telling Louise and it was kind of
a newish take on that classic balance in your real
life and your superhero life. That was real fun. He
was trying to he he knew that if he did
not stay home, he would go to jail again and
he'd not see his daughter. But then he also knew
(12:16):
that he wanted to help Hank and Hope bring back
her mother and his wife. So I thought that was
a pretty fun motivation because I feel like we're finally
starting to get to this place where superhero movies aren't
just bad guys versus good guys. And you know, this
one was a little more gray, you know, there was
you know, you kind of were rooting for Ghosts when
(12:36):
you found out that her motivations were pure and she
was just trying to save her own life, and he
just it was kind of the thing where it's like,
I wish you would go about it differently, but I
understand why this is so important to you totally. And
the thing I like about this arc is that the
idea of the two year gap, the fact that he's
been on house arrest, gives us like three really cool things. First,
Randall Park gets introduced to the series of an FBI agent.
(12:58):
He's so freaking fun, but on top of that, just
so damn charming, like show me close up magic. I
was like, ran, I really would like him to do
more like through the m c U. I hope they
bring this character back and we get more into like
FBI shield stuff. His line when it was what you
want to go to dinner? I love him. He's here.
I agree, he's so precious to the reason I love
(13:19):
and stand real hard for the ant Man series. It's
I feel like it's the only superhero movies currently out
other than maybe Spider Man, but even the Spider Man
is so geared toward making sure adults feel included in
the conversation. I feel like comics are four kids like
you obviously have adult named comics and comics that are
reaching out to an older audience, and those are also great,
(13:39):
love them. But I feel like we should be able
to take kids to these movies and they should be like, yes,
beyond just like here's a giant gun kids like you know,
and so like the whole Hot Wheels that you can
just expand, like me and my friends are freaking out
because like what kid wouldn't want that? Like you take
a little hot wheel suitcase in just any car, now
you can drive it. That's amazing. And finally, I just
(14:00):
really like the fact that we get to see Wasp
kicks so much ass, like the whole car chase scene
where she's like chumping in and out of windows and
flying around dope. I know, I did kind of like
that aspect that you get to see that Wasp is
actually more capable than ant Man, you know, like she's
like she's hand yeah, and she's flying and she's doing
(14:22):
like she's her you know for the most part. When
when Paul read as Aunt Man has to fight, he's
more just running away and kind of fun, where she's
just like straight up like doing kicks. And that that
was a real cute and fun moment when he gets
the suit back when he kicks and he was like,
I learned that from you, and she's like, yeah, good form.
I was like, oh, yeah she is. Yeah, she is
(14:44):
better than him at this. And I feel like they're
always sometimes seems to be just an air of like
we have to, you know, let people know the man's
the man, you know, and that kind of weird uh machismo,
not even chimo, but almost gender politics where it's like
if if you have a man and woman they're dating
or partners, the man has to be the way. Yeah.
(15:05):
I would say that Paul rud for me, does a
lot of the same things that I feel Chris Pine does,
where he can be alongside a powerful woman without feeling
threatened or needing to take away any of her spotlight. Yeah,
there's never like a pool of attention. Yeah, and I
think they're both men that would be like, no, she
can kick my ass like that truly is how they are.
(15:25):
That is that is how Scott Lang is and that
is how Steve Trevor is to me, where they're like, oh, ship, no,
this is what I need her, I need her. Um
not saying that Steve Trevor is a superhero. But just
I feel like those actors are perfectly cast and that
they're they're comedic and they're able to yeah, they don't
feel threatened, and and the woman can really also shine
(15:46):
alongside them. I feel like that comes from the comedy background,
because I feel like in comedy, you know, you're you're
as good as you make your scene partners look and
you kind of kind of boost them up, and that
makes you look good because has comedy is all about
almost like a game of tennis where you bat it
and everyone gets a turn to swing. Where do you
feel like we're acting acting and you know, it's all
(16:08):
about having your moment and stepping out, and that's what
can kind of lead to, like, you know, kind of
pushing people to the side, unless it's like to powerhouses
like Denzel and Viola and Fences and it's just like
tennis of spit and dramatics, an all star home run game.
Just like, I'm great, Yeah, that's a perfect I didn't
(16:31):
want to read this quote from Entertainment Weekly. It said
the writers were so excited about now being able to
show Hope fully formed and what she is as a superhero.
Her power set, how she fights, and what are the
injustices that matter to her that she wants to write.
That's part of the really fun thing of the film.
And Lily felt by van Day becoming the Wasp. There
was this incredible satisfaction and hope, something that she has
(16:53):
been waiting for her whole life, which is essentially an
affirmation from her father has come. Um. Also just yeah,
I mean watching The First aunt Man, which I watched
again before we went to the screening, I don't know, like,
I'm really glad that she got that she got this film.
I'm really glad that she got this film because it
was I understand that wasn't necessarily her point in the
(17:15):
First aunt Man, but um, it was so funny forgot.
I was talking to Kim Horser from The Young Turks,
were sitting next to each other. We were kind of
talking about like even her new haircut, which doesn't seem
like a big deal, but like the way that they
had made her in the first film was really unapproachable,
kind of like an un you know, like she was zy,
she she was icy. She reminds me of like Soma
(17:36):
Blair's characters. You know what, I mean where it's like
this really like businesswoman, like you know, and and I
was excited that she could down the suit and and
be a superhero. Um yeah, I feel like yeah, because
they were trying to build that like she's professional and
this guy's a slacker, and they were kind of leaning
on that. And yeah, when you do roles like that,
(17:57):
it does kind of box, you know, her into the
corner of being like no fund zone, you know, whereas
like this time she got to be all funds. And
I feel like this movie really took kind of some
of the you know, the fridging of you know, Hank
Pim's wife almost immediately and all that stuff. But like
now you can like almost remove that tag because it
(18:19):
led into something. But lots of times the movie it
just ends right there, that's just the motivation, and we
never see the wife again. But now we get the
wife to come back, and then they work together to
bring her back from this well. And we have another
smart woman in the room who's like way ahead of
everyone else, actually scientists putting antenna's in people's heads, like
(18:40):
you know, showing them. She's like, oh guys, you did
so like in the most mom way too. She was like, oh,
you guys did really good and you came so close.
You need a little adjustment, and that's where I am
come get me. Um. I loved her character and I
almost fel thought that we didn't get enough of her,
like so on the outskirts of this story, and she
kind of brought her before the final battle with like
(19:03):
the crime mob guys. Very funny. Interesting. Yeah, that they
decided to also have that storyline in there, like see
you storyline, um, which I do want to get into.
And we will write after this break and we're back
(19:28):
and uh. I also wanted to talk about some of
the external characters because for me, Louise stole the show
so good, so stupidly good. When is Michael pa going
to get his anser? When is he going to get
his outfit? I honestly was like, to give us our
(19:49):
Latino superhero. He needs to suit up. He even hinted
at it. He was like, we're gonna get it. He's
going to get an outfit. He even said like, oh,
it doesn't even need superpowers. Let's the same. Yes, it
wouldn't have made any sense, that's not what was happening,
But I really wish that he had at least gotten
his suit. What if in the second cut scene they
(20:09):
had been like and you just see him like, oh
grab they made one for me. Yes, we deserve and
hes okay calling Marvel now, um, truly he's so great
and and that's what I feel like. We've we talked
about this in our m c U episode where you know,
(20:30):
Paul Red was also a writer in this UM and
so I feel like that's important and that's why it
works so well is a lot of times you have
these people with comedic backgrounds, uh coming into also work
on the film and that and I feel like I
feel like that's also another reason why a lot of
these Marvel films have been successful is because you have
a lot of the actors that are rooted in comedy.
(20:53):
And yeah, he's just one that he would be a
great Can you imagine him in his own film? Yeah? No,
That's that's what I really liked about this, which is
one of the reasons that you know, everyone suggested Thor
Ragnar Rocket. I eventually finally saw, but this was just
like a straight up comedy, just the action comedy this this.
When I was watching this, I was like, Oh, this
(21:14):
is what your summer action movie used to be action packed,
filled with comedy, moved along, good story, and and it
blew me away. It honestly did, because I was laughing
the whole time, and then I'd be into the the
action that was special effects which really heightened the action,
which again bringing back to like, why is this such
a great? Like comic book series and comic books play
(21:36):
with perspective so much in their art design and in
their storytelling methods to see like not just the cars,
but like when he goes thirty feet tall and he's
in the ocean, or like um, even the knife fight
with Wasp where she in the kitchen. The entire kitchen
scene fight is amazing and she's like blowing things up
and like shrinking itself and it's like you've kind of
(21:57):
seen it before but never really done as well as
the is, and it's it's just so fun. I really
respect what they were able to do just from a
special effects point of view. Well, that's what I thought
was so good about Domino and Deadpool, where you I
feel like when people are presented a power, uh in
like a superhero power in movies, there's this effort to
(22:17):
be like, Okay, this is just a tool, and we'll
just use it to solve these unrelated problems we throw
at it. But then you have characters like Domino and
even ant Man in the Wasp where they're like, how
do we have fun with this? How do we create
fun interesting action scenes? And same thing with Domino, like
her walking down and everything dodging her and her getting
like that was so fun to watch. And it's because
(22:39):
they're like, Okay, let's take this power that's kind of weird,
like luck, and what fun can we have with this?
And with this is like they could have just had
it because I feel like, you know, aunt Man was
all about like you either shrink or you get big,
and you do what you gotta do. At those sides
where this one was like, no, you're using it to
miss direct. You're shrinking, getting big, coming up behind people
like that's taking your dream home to the beach? Had
(23:02):
interested Like they really did explore the idea of like
what can we do if things can shrink? And I
was blown away every time I liked it. I was
really excited. I wanted to say that this was it
was like a classic heist movie really had a lot
of those same elements that you guys were talking about
as far as it being like a summer blockbuster. Um,
(23:24):
I did want to say the Russo brothers were heavily
involved in this as well, since they wanted it to
sync up with Infinity War. So UM. Peyton Reid, who's
the director of ant Man in the Wasp, fed it
was inspired by the films After Hours in Midnight Run
for the look and feel of ant Man in the Wasp. Um.
While the first film was more of a heist film,
(23:47):
which I still think, this one was like a highest film.
But Read described this as a part action film, part
romantic comedy and wanted this one to be a little
more of like an Elmore Leonard vibe, where we have villains,
but we also have antagon us, and we have these
roadblocks to our heroes getting to where they need to
be and getting what they need for this mission. So,
regarding the opportunity for character development, Read used the actions
(24:08):
of Lang in Civil War to fuel potential tension between him, Pim,
and Van Dyne. Since Pim is very clear in the
first movie about how he feels about Stark. True, I
forgot about that. I forgot that he had made those
comments about how here criminal with them, Yeah, and how
he feels about the Avengers and being very protective of
this technology that he has. So yeah, and they're pissed
(24:31):
the whole time. Yeah. Yeah, they were pissed that whole
first chunk, and and it just became clear why and
it made sense the way they delivered it, and it
was great. I feel like they have questions though, because
they didn't sign the accord, they weren't involved with the
initial actions, so I'm still confused as to like they're
scientists and they built suits, like why are they in trouble?
(24:52):
A little confusing there, but um, I like the way
that it gave, Like I feel like a lot of
times when we have here trying to redeem themselves, like
Tony at the start of like the Civil War stuff
was like I forget which actress comes up to him
and is like my son died into Koba and it's
(25:12):
your fault and you don't care about like like it
became such a self loathing kind of like, oh woe
is me, I'll shut everything down because like I need
to feel empowered. But here we have a guy who's
just like I just want to help people, and my
biggest fear is like I just won't be able to
be there for my daughter, and how do I balance
out those two needs in a way that nobody gets hurt?
(25:33):
And it becomes more of a I need to take
responsibility for what's happening and find a pass through as
opposed to like I'm just gonna shut everybody else down
and out. Yeah, yeah, that was real fun. I think
since we've been talking about the Marvel timeline as a whole,
I need to to remind everyone that this is our
last Marvel movie of the year. I was thinking that
(25:53):
as I left the theater, and I was distraught a
little bit. But look, we've had three really great Marvel
for homes this year, right. We started with Black Panther. Uh,
then we got Fanos Do you want the Big Snap?
Which caused like a bunch of chaos, and then they
leave us with like it's so funny, lighthearted, No snap,
there's like a bunch of your characters, and then they're
(26:14):
like mans will be back and that question mark. Guys,
when that question mark comes up, I was like, yeah,
that was just ruel and unusual. Can we have number
four now? Because Avengers four is what's coming out next right, No,
it's Captain Marvel. Then Avengers four, we got our girl
coming up to happen. That's gonna be so interesting too. Yeah,
(26:35):
because there are a lot of questions I have about
Captain Marvel, because the fact that I was gonna say
Samuel Jackson, but I meant to say Nick Fury has
the that reader is that's a huge question for me.
It's like, when did you get in touch with the Beeper?
I know we're focusing a lot on the year. It's
in the nineties. Yeah, so we'll be going back to
(26:58):
to see probably that initial injury actions. That's what I'm
looking for. She have some TLC Like I already am
looking forward to the soundtrack. The soundtrack had better be bonkers,
although some rumors I'm hearing coming off that set are
really scary and I'm so nervous about, like what's going
to happen. I love Bree Larsen's like a champion of
(27:18):
like women in poc folks, so I need this movie
to be really good for her. Wait, what are you hearing?
This is the place to spill it. This is why
you come to I've heard a lot about doing a
lot of reshoots, a lot of hold ups, um, just
on the set trying to get through just the day um,
and apparently not everyone is satisfied with the way the
(27:38):
script is that happen. Well, I mean, Marvel is really
good about like whatever is happening behind the scenes, We're
gonna polish it up before y'all see it. That's gonna
stay family business. So we'll see. But as Marvel's first
solo female movie, there's a lot I think writing on this,
but we'll say for aunt Man, I really liked um.
(27:59):
We talked about two women, but I feel like the
most important relationship was aunt Man and his daughter. Know
that whole opening scene of like, well, I'm on house arrest.
How do I entertain a ten year old I'm gonna
make a giant maze and he tried to steal? Can
I tell you when when she asked to be his partner.
I think I saw if he get a little, oh gosh,
if he was next to me and he got a little,
(28:20):
I could hear him gasp. Whatever. We have been told
that we have to warn him when it's a father
daughter film as his friends, which I didn't tell you,
I guess about Coco and then he tweeted a picture
of him weeping. It wasn't there was pictures of tears
on my face. You were weeping. It's okay that you
wept during Cocoa. You have a little baby girl. It
(28:45):
was a lot. It was like it was like someone
it was like to keep it on subject. It was
like ghost phased her hand into my heart right there,
just the reveal and just when they connect all the
dots before your eyes and you're just like it just
takes your whole soul. Because that's also like another soft
(29:08):
spot to me too, is like father daughter time skips
where there's like a gap because like and there was
kind of like that in an interstellar Yeah, and I
was like it shredded me. Was like, can you imagine
you going to your daughter's deathbed and knowing you're gonna
live way longer than or because of the time like that,
(29:29):
Like that type of cerebral kind of thing always taps
into me. Like that's so interesting to me, and that
what a what a like what A just thought, Yeah,
I'm definitely a daddy's girl. Into the whole storyline of like, oh,
I would love you my partner, but I would be
a bad dad. You love her so much, Oh my god.
(29:49):
And then and then the blended families narrative of it,
you know, whereas in the first film, like their divorce
was kind of very angry and there wasn't a lot
of trust there to now like her you husband being
able to hug him and like, no, we're family, we
all love you. Like It's actually I love seeing blended
families that work in our cooperative but so often we
see that there's just like discourse and no we likes
(30:12):
each other, and it's like frustrating. I think that there
are more blended families that work than there are blended
families that don't work. True, true, So let's let's get
down to the nitty gritty. We're gonna rated blank out
of ten nerties. We said ten nerties right now, five
ten nerties because you don't. So many other people do five.
(30:36):
So let's uh yeah, let's give it our ratings and
then talk about, you know, maybe where we see the
future of this as well as Marvel. Right after this
break and we're back, Joel, what do you what are
(31:00):
you ranking? I'm gonna give this seven nerdies. Ok Um.
I thought the film jagged a little bit in certain places. Uh.
And as you mentioned earlier, the Steaks are just not
very high, especially coming off of Infinity Wars where everything
was at stake. Um, it's solid but not great. But still,
(31:23):
is there something that would have done it for you?
Like something else the Steaks? I mean, I feel like
I hear you and and that is actually the argument
that I made. But um, I do feel like they
kind of needed a break. Maybe I feel like they
knew coming off of Infinity War. Um, well, you know,
I'll just save this for mine. I just think that
if the fan of Snap had happened in the middle
(31:45):
of the film, I agree. I just feel like all
like dealing with all of the chaos that they were
dealing with, plus half the population is gone and what
is going on? And I definitely can't go back to
the Avengers because like at this point, his bracelet is
still on his house or US bracelet and he knows
he's not supposed to contact the Avengers. But also, guys,
what for real is going on? I think that would
(32:05):
have been just exciting and like chaotic. Yeah, I would
have raised the stakes, but I get it. I'm not
upset with it. I will still like write or Die
for a man forever. It's so fun write or die.
Hell yeah, if you w about you. Um, I'm gonna
go ahead and give it nine out of ten nerd
Yeah because I it was a solid comedy movie that
jokes all hit for me. The action was all there.
(32:27):
I think that there was There was no stakes they
could have put on this movie after Infinity War that
would have compared, so there was no use trying. So
it was great way to cap the year off with
something fun and light but leave us with a nice
little tingled taste on our tongue to get us excited
for next year. Michael Penia is amazing. He killed it.
(32:47):
And then we introduced another a poc Ranto park that's funny. Um,
not to mention another poc ghost, you know, just just
floating in there making it work. Everyone really brought it.
It was it had a heart, it was good. It
was just great. I thought it was just my jam
Like everything about it was perfect for me. Does this
(33:08):
mean that you liked? Oh yeah, I really like Thor.
Ragnarok is definitely super fun, super entertaining, same thing like
super funny and it is just a fun ride throughout. Um,
I swear to I feel like Odin dies in every
thor if what I know about he's the krillon of them,
(33:32):
And if what I know about Ragnarok and Asgard is correct,
I feel like he's going to be in the next
Door movie and he's going to find some way to
die again. Yep, yep. Um. Hopefully that means Loki finds
a way to come back as he does. Um, I
don't know. I think he's gone. The next nap seemed
pretty final. Well you never know. Um. I'm very excited
(33:53):
that we have ghosts now in this world. I'm excited.
I hope that they do more with their character and
maybe that means that she might be in the future
a Vendor's m c u ones and not just in
ant Man films. Hopefully that means that we get to
see her now that she's kind of been persuaded to
the other side. Well, we know there is a female
lead movie coming up somewhat soon. Tessa Thompson took all
(34:18):
of the ladies and to Kevin Fikey and said, excuse me,
it's time for us to have a movie, and Kevin said, sure, okay,
So I mean I would love to see like ghosts
and Valkyrie and like Wasp and maybe um Captain Marvel
Black Widow. Yeah, all of them just kicking ass doing
a secret mission. Hell yeah, I'm going to give this
(34:39):
eight out of ten nerdies, maybe eight and a half.
I don't know these numbers. I don't know if matters. Um. Yeah,
I agree that it had. I agree that the stakes
weren't really high, and maybe that's what they needed in
this moment, especially after Infinity War. And um, Paul Rudd
is just so likable, said a sweet kind man. Um
(35:03):
and uh, I loved Evangeline Lily just kicking ass and
taking names. Um and yeah, I agree. Michael Penia, Holy crap.
I mean, he just like stole the show. I you
know what, I probably would have given it a ten
if he had gotten his own if he had gotten
his own suit. Okay, scratch what I said about the
(35:24):
fan of staff in the middle. Give Michael Panya a
suit in the middle and keep his exactly the same.
Because here's the thing. If you're like, oh no, but
blah blah blah, like that wouldn't work. It would because
the whole reason that Scott Lange works, the whole reason
Paul Red's character works is because he is a regular
guy hits what would happen if? And that's also Paul
Red's what Paul Red said as far as why he
took this role, aside from it being a Marvel film
(35:46):
and making him a lot of money. Um, he said
that he liked the fact that he was a regular
guy and his motivations are being a father, like those
are his you know, it's not necessarily to be a superhero,
and so I would love that. I would love to
see Louise. There's no reason why he couldn't also be
a regular guy with a powered suit. I mean, he
even said he would be happy with a suit without powers.
(36:07):
And I don't want to throw our baby out there
because I know he would die. It would be like
confidence all of a sudden, though, Like you would see
him kecocking a little bit, kind of like it's knocking
the Latino man the suit without powers and throw him
on the front lines, like I know what's going to
happen together. Um, but yeah, so so I feel like
he could. I I don't know. I I hope his
(36:31):
manager's pitching for it. I don't know. I feel he
could step into the role of another character. This is
the soapbox and the hill I'm going to die on
is that he should. It's a worthy hill, Like I
don't know if he saw he did he also save
their but a couple of times. Yeah, well I thought
was it like Twelve Soldiers, which he was in a
little bit earlier this year, Like Michael Opinion has the
(36:51):
range to go the distance, like you can hit those
serious notes. He's obviously got the comedy and like outside
of the m c U, someone used to give this
and a role that can start winning him awards because
he's like worthy. And I feel like we waste so
much of our like really great POC talent and we
don't recognize until like it's like, oh, Viola Davis is good.
She's been good for so long. We're just now getting
(37:12):
to give her quality rules because suddenly we see her.
I just want us to start recognizing the talent earlier
so we can get like a bigger discography of their
work like they deserve. Hopefully. Michael pos Agent is like
out here hunting scripts because he needs something. He needs
someone big in the leading role. No, I could see
him as a superhero. So um, anyways, this has turned
(37:32):
into my platform to push Michael Penia as a superhero
in the m c U. All right, well we talked
about this film. Where can people find you Joel and
Joel Monique And you can find me all over the
internet at Juel Monique if you hit me up with
you at the Instagram, it's Joel Underscore Monique. Also at
(37:53):
Pejaibo where we talk all things feminist culture. It's great. Uh,
DC Universe I their versus the other day and that
was so much fun. So check that out for Catwoman
um bootleg Universe videos coming soon. And oh, I don't
know when this is coming out, but in like fifteen
days from whatever today is, I'll be launching a Patreon
(38:15):
for my new show, which is called Getting Out, which
seeks to chronicle the history of black horror in cinema,
both from a creative standpoint and from a like the
actual film. So the creators, producers, p a s, critics, directors, writers,
all of them telling their horror stories of being black
in Hollywood, but also talking about black horror films and
(38:37):
how it's shaped them and their work. Uh so you
can check that out. Hell yeah, I did want to
add one more thing. I forgot of watching these films
back to back, the first ant Man in then this one.
Michael Douglas cannot die. Every time, I'm like, is he
gonna die? He's not gonna do? Is he die? Is
he he's what her hand went through? His neck is dead?
(39:00):
He's not dead. I should have been a death and
you guys, I understand, I love him as well. I understand,
but also like, I think that would have given it
a little bit of steaks. I don't think anyone died
in this film, except for a bunch of like side henchmen.
But I don't think anyone died. Yeah, even those guys
(39:21):
just kind of got shocked and dipped with some truth serum.
And you know, truly was a kid like a kid's
it's a kid's Yeah. And the jokes were even not
they were pretty PG most of them. So wow, And
no death a film a superhero film. I'm sure someone
will correct me. I can't think of anyone that died
in this film. But Snap does not count as a
(39:42):
death either. I feel like, besides the like cars flipping
over and you know, down the San Francisco streets, I
think we've all universally agreed that those don't count as
death deaths are just guys being knocked out and sent
to the bad guy heaven. Yeah. Um, I am at
Miss Danny Fernandez. It's M S D A and I
(40:03):
F E R N and easy. If he and I
will both be on a panel Friday at Comic Con.
I believe we're in the library the auditorium. I think
our panels at three pm. Um, it's geek podcasting and
you and I will be on a panel immediately after that.
So if you want to listen to me talk for
two hours, please do. But also we're we're gonna be
(40:24):
at a anime expo I think in San Diego Comic Con,
So come out, yes, yes, uh, And I'm your boy.
If you I F Y N W A, D I
b W e at, if you way on Twitter and Instagram,
if D's on Twitch, uh, you'll been coming out on
Twitch holding it down. Gotta say thank you. Oh hold on,
a few of you have called me out because I
(40:45):
think when I first told you all about the Twitch,
I said I'd be shouting you all out, and you're like,
where's my shout out? Fluff is the first guy who
just will keep bugging me for the shout out? John
Green eight seven. You came through with the Fall and
then a few other there's a lot nerd fan. Make
sure you do hashtag nerd fan when you sub so
I can write it down now and you get your
(41:05):
shout out. Also today, just so you know, we just
released sub Merged. So so if you're listening to this today,
you can go to tea public, go to the Nerdificent Store.
We have to stay nerdy. Tease lots of fun tease,
get get suited up, get booted up. We got stickers
all of that from your laptops and what have used
(41:26):
to make sure you check out that merch store. And
uh yeah, I guess this is when I say stay
nerdy
Hello, Hello, Hello, and welcome to Nerdificent. I am one
of your hosts, Danny Fernandez, and sitting across from me
as always coming in live and direct across from Danny.
But we have a guest today. Let's talk about her?
Do we have pop culture critic Joel Money. Hey, how's
it going. It's good. I'm really glad to be here. Guys,
I'm glad to have you here. We all actually saw
(00:30):
the same film last night, but we were in different
theaters and you got stuck in the theater. I guess
that notoriously, people don't want to be in it's a theater.
Film critics don't want to be critics don't like three D.
They're like, why are we doing this? There's always seats
left over. But I'm cool with it. But I feel
like we've gotten to a level of three D where
it's like, I don't really see a difference. Classes is that? Like?
(00:52):
I know, so last night when you so, when you
when you get invited to media screening, sometimes they'll ask
you if you want to be in two D or
three D? And so I was there picking up our
tickets and I was like, oh, I guess who who's
going in a what I was like kind of asking
my friends, and I know notoriously in the film critic
community that they don't like going into three D. So
I almost wanted to go in there, but I didn't.
(01:14):
I caved and I went with the rest of the
nerds in a two D. I'm gonna let the nerdive
crowd know that unless you like just love three D,
don't don't spend your money on this one. It's it's
not like dr strange or like seeing three D was
like a legitimate experience, true, that is the special effect
for a wild This one was like there's a couple
of moments with him when he gets soups tiny where
(01:37):
you're like, oh, this is really cool. It's shiny and
like fun. Three D is good here. Otherwise it's just
kind of like almost flubber silly, Like there's the moment
where dudes leaning out the door to say goodbye to
his daughter, and that's like in a wonky three D,
you're like too much three D. I love when Harold
and Kumar did their three D movie because they kept
making fun of three D technology, like they would just
(01:59):
point out like their fingers would go out, like just
and that's why we have this this, you know that
type of technology. But I'm gonna, you know, next time,
I'm gonna I'm gonna go against the grain. I will
be in there with you, rebel. And also because you
can show up later, you can you don't have to
be there an hour before the movie started. Yeah. Okay,
So the movie that we're talking about is aunt Man
(02:19):
in the Wasp, which is dropping this weekend, so when
everyone's listening, this is if we haven't said a spoiler review, Yeah, really,
not too much to spoil in my opinion. I mean,
there's there's a few key things. I think there's It's
not like Infinity War. Yeah, but definitely you probably should
have seen Infinity War by this point because we will
(02:42):
be trying to there will be like light connections that
bring up. I went with somebody who hadn't seen Infinity
Wars and trying to explain everything to them like yeah,
like I'd be like, okay, so don't worry about that,
and uh, okay, so this is aunt Man. I mean
that that post credits thing must have been so wait,
(03:03):
so we're gonna let people in case this is auto
plane on your for some reason, and we don't want
you to write us this is your spoiler warning. Moving forward,
we will be talking about spoilers, not only with Marvel
Films with Infinity War, but with ant Man in the Wasps.
So turn us off and bring us back if you
haven't seen it yet, yes, okay continue Sorry? Yeah, so, yeah, no,
(03:26):
there was a post credit scene that definitely has to
do with Infinity War. Um as a young aunt man
going back into the I guess subatomic h the quantum
level of shrinkage to get the health because it seems
like at the end they're they're working with ghosts and
uh and they're basically healing her with the sub atomic stuff.
(03:49):
But while he's in there, they they poof, they turned
in the dust. So he's stuck in there for now. Yeah. Yeah,
if you haven't seen Infinity any Wars, someone will have
to spoil all of Infinity Wars. I just I straight
up to him, like, so, here's who's gone at the
end of Infinity War. I just try to catch you up.
You don't even watch the movie. I'm just gonna give
the oral history of it. But yeah, I know, Danny,
(04:11):
we were talking before and he said that you, like
everyone knew that this ending was coming, and I wanted
to ask if he felt the same, did you feel
like because I was kind of like no. My theater
was also kind of like no, I something would happen
with the snap, That's just what makes sense. We're trying
to catch up in the timeline. But for all three
of them to be gone and for him to be
stuck there, I was a little shocked. I know, I
(04:31):
like the way they did it, because I almost did
forget about like Infinity War. I was like in ant
man Land. I was good and I and I write
when he was calling to them and they weren't responding.
Because when I was like, oh, yeah, this is when
it's going to happen, I thought it was going to
happen towards the end of the movie. But then I
knew that it must be in the postcard. I knew
(04:52):
that it was going to happen at some point. So
that's what I will say. I thought that it was
going to happen to him, though I honestly thought we
would get in the middle of the movie with like
maybe either him or another character, and then we have
to figure out how to get to the end um
So I thought leaving it to the end was maybe
almost a little bit of a cop out, but also
I understand they have to make their entire film. Yeah,
(05:14):
That's what I like about it is I would love
because I feel like the post credit scene used to
have like a through line. I feel like with the
older ones, like in Phase one, it was basically Samuel L.
Jackson recruiting everyone, and I felt like in Phase two
and three we kind of lost that because there was
no reason for there. So now it's going to be
(05:36):
fun that there is this through line of like at
the end of these new movies, we'll see who poofs
and then it makes the second cheese are not almost
worth it? Like this one, I was like, well, let's
just stay because sometimes there's the end. I was like,
I think they were just doing it. Care about this, Yeah,
but I am pro make the important one earlier because
(05:59):
I did, because because I would love if that's the
trend and I can finally be like, all right, I'm
not going to stay all the way until the end
of the credits. Even though my mother in law, for
she went to like film school, so sheps like, we
got to look at all the credits, so yeah, inside
Leewin Davis doesn't have a post credit scene if you
(06:20):
were wondering, because I definitely watched it with her and
had to sit there to respect to all the people
who bring you semmah. Yeah, So let's talk about the
film itself. We did have an introduction to a new character,
Ghost Yeah, which is played by Hannah John came in.
I believe that's her last name. She you would recognize
her from Game of Throne. She was also in Ready
(06:41):
Player one kill Joys, and I recognized her from Black Mirror.
She's in uh fifteen million merits. Yes, well that's like
the first season. Remember it has Daniel Kalua. Oh yes,
where we first meet Daniel. For many of us are
there and everyone from Black Mirror. Why wouldn't you. The
(07:03):
Brits know what they're doing, they acting, and they're they're
so much better than we How American American access sounds
so good a ship. I can barely tell the diffience
British and on Australian accident, let alone pull off either.
So I don't know if I could do one, but
I don't want to offend any Australian people, so I
am not going to. But um, yeah, they they're so
(07:24):
much better than we are in every way. Anyways. Yeah,
so she she was also in tomb Rader, oh, in
the Force Awakens. Yeah, and so yeah, she's been in
a lot. Just in case anybody was wondering, Ghost is
a actual Marvel character. It actually the Ghost was actually
a male in the comic books. They swapped it to
a female. But in the comic books it was like
(07:47):
this character with like kind of an unknown origin who
has the same abilities, can be intangible, can go through things,
and actually was in the Thunderbolts, which would be cool
if they do do a Thunderbolts movie franchise, which so
deep cut Marvel truly. Yeah. So so that was so
(08:09):
just so you know, that is based off of a character,
and she was really cool. I liked her story. I
liked the kind of like you can see their side
of it, like they weren't just straight up bad, and
like in the end, you know, being able to kind
of redeem herself because she never you know, I feel
like sometimes when you have villains, they have to go
O D on how evil they are, so they make
them do some irredeemable steps and then you have to
(08:32):
kill them at the end. I love that she threatened
to do some irredeemable and then Lawrence was like, Madam Neo,
can't be doing that. Take it up. I don't know
if I've ever told either of you, but like Laurence
Fisherman is like my number one crush. Like when I
saw him at Infinity Wars, I was like, and he's
talking to Angela Bath, like this is so sexy and
I don't know what to do with I didn't know
why he was there, Like I realized that it was
(08:55):
because he's now in Marvel's Crazy. I was like, whoa,
Just like it's funny when you go to the premieres
and you're like, oh, like it's so fascinating who gets
invited to these things? You know, but it's it's wilde.
I saw Lawrence Fishburn when I worked at the Improv.
He was going Brendan Small had a show and he
showed up to it, like he was outside and he
(09:17):
was like just smoking a cigarette and I was just
staring at him the whole time, and I like, but
like you know that where that thing where like you
stare but like when they look at you, you you kind
of look away. And then when he walked back in
he winked at me. I was like okay, I was like,
all right, you knew I was staring. That's so great
And this is such a perfect role for him, like
this kind of fatherly but also like arrogant scientists like him,
(09:42):
like the fighting between him and um, oh my gosh,
why am I blinking on names? Hang him? Yeah, like
that whole office like back and forth about who was
writing how do things go down? Like you wanted to
do like a whole twenty year revert of just them
in the lab. I'd watch it. Yeah. But also they
like dropped the nugget that he's goliathe like they are
like and Goliath, which means he lives past Civil War
(10:05):
because in the Marvel comic books, Goliath dies in Civil War.
The Thor robot that Tony makes shoots Goliath with lyone
in the heart, and that's kind of where people just
kind of were like forgets used Tony Stark. Um. But yeah,
so like that's a fun thing that I wonder if
they'll revisit you to him this Yeah, because they're gonna
(10:26):
have like fifty people in their poster next time. They
had like forty. So yeah, so this um aunt Man.
The Wasp takes place two years after the events of
Captain America's Civil War and before the events of Avengers
Infinity War. So Scott Lang aunt Man now is under
house arrest after the events of Civil War, tries to
about which they bring up a lot how he fought
(10:49):
in Germany. Um tries to balance his home life as
a father with his responsibilities as aunt Man. Um and
then Hope Van Die and Hank Pim present him and
she is the Wasp present and with a new haircut,
very so good. Um presents him with a new mission
to bring to light secrets from their past and also
bring back her mom, played by Michelle Peiffer. Yeah, that
(11:12):
was that was That was pretty much a fun through
line because I was, you know, when I approached this movie,
I was very I had many thoughts. One first thought
obviously was where was he an Infinity War? But then
also the movie starts off with him being so angry
at him, to the point where I thought this was
going to be a fault for the movie for me,
because it's like they seem so angry, but it's like
(11:33):
a huge chunk of plot they're not really explaining. But
they ended up touching on it where I Hope is
mad at aunt Man because he didn't come to her,
basically didn't trust her enough to invite her to go
help him out in Germany, and Hanks just mad because
he went to Germany with the suit and kind of
basically made them made them criminal. His actions made them criminals.
(11:54):
So and then you kind of revisit it towards the
end when like once again the FBI is onto a
because he was telling Louise and it was kind of
a newish take on that classic balance in your real
life and your superhero life. That was real fun. He
was trying to he he knew that if he did
not stay home, he would go to jail again and
he'd not see his daughter. But then he also knew
(12:16):
that he wanted to help Hank and Hope bring back
her mother and his wife. So I thought that was
a pretty fun motivation because I feel like we're finally
starting to get to this place where superhero movies aren't
just bad guys versus good guys. And you know, this
one was a little more gray, you know, there was
you know, you kind of were rooting for Ghosts when
(12:36):
you found out that her motivations were pure and she
was just trying to save her own life, and he
just it was kind of the thing where it's like,
I wish you would go about it differently, but I
understand why this is so important to you totally. And
the thing I like about this arc is that the
idea of the two year gap, the fact that he's
been on house arrest, gives us like three really cool things. First,
Randall Park gets introduced to the series of an FBI agent.
(12:58):
He's so freaking fun, but on top of that, just
so damn charming, like show me close up magic. I
was like, ran, I really would like him to do
more like through the m c U. I hope they
bring this character back and we get more into like
FBI shield stuff. His line when it was what you
want to go to dinner? I love him. He's here.
I agree, he's so precious to the reason I love
(13:19):
and stand real hard for the ant Man series. It's
I feel like it's the only superhero movies currently out
other than maybe Spider Man, but even the Spider Man
is so geared toward making sure adults feel included in
the conversation. I feel like comics are four kids like
you obviously have adult named comics and comics that are
reaching out to an older audience, and those are also great,
(13:39):
love them. But I feel like we should be able
to take kids to these movies and they should be like, yes,
beyond just like here's a giant gun kids like you know,
and so like the whole Hot Wheels that you can
just expand, like me and my friends are freaking out
because like what kid wouldn't want that? Like you take
a little hot wheel suitcase in just any car, now
you can drive it. That's amazing. And finally, I just
(14:00):
really like the fact that we get to see Wasp
kicks so much ass, like the whole car chase scene
where she's like chumping in and out of windows and
flying around dope. I know, I did kind of like
that aspect that you get to see that Wasp is
actually more capable than ant Man, you know, like she's
like she's hand yeah, and she's flying and she's doing
(14:22):
like she's her you know for the most part. When
when Paul read as Aunt Man has to fight, he's
more just running away and kind of fun, where she's
just like straight up like doing kicks. And that that
was a real cute and fun moment when he gets
the suit back when he kicks and he was like,
I learned that from you, and she's like, yeah, good form.
I was like, oh, yeah she is. Yeah, she is
(14:44):
better than him at this. And I feel like they're
always sometimes seems to be just an air of like
we have to, you know, let people know the man's
the man, you know, and that kind of weird uh machismo,
not even chimo, but almost gender politics where it's like
if if you have a man and woman they're dating
or partners, the man has to be the way. Yeah.
(15:05):
I would say that Paul rud for me, does a
lot of the same things that I feel Chris Pine does,
where he can be alongside a powerful woman without feeling
threatened or needing to take away any of her spotlight. Yeah,
there's never like a pool of attention. Yeah, and I
think they're both men that would be like, no, she
can kick my ass like that truly is how they are.
(15:25):
That is that is how Scott Lang is and that
is how Steve Trevor is to me, where they're like, oh, ship, no,
this is what I need her, I need her. Um
not saying that Steve Trevor is a superhero. But just
I feel like those actors are perfectly cast and that
they're they're comedic and they're able to yeah, they don't
feel threatened, and and the woman can really also shine
(15:46):
alongside them. I feel like that comes from the comedy background,
because I feel like in comedy, you know, you're you're
as good as you make your scene partners look and
you kind of kind of boost them up, and that
makes you look good because has comedy is all about
almost like a game of tennis where you bat it
and everyone gets a turn to swing. Where do you
feel like we're acting acting and you know, it's all
(16:08):
about having your moment and stepping out, and that's what
can kind of lead to, like, you know, kind of
pushing people to the side, unless it's like to powerhouses
like Denzel and Viola and Fences and it's just like
tennis of spit and dramatics, an all star home run game.
Just like, I'm great, Yeah, that's a perfect I didn't
(16:31):
want to read this quote from Entertainment Weekly. It said
the writers were so excited about now being able to
show Hope fully formed and what she is as a superhero.
Her power set, how she fights, and what are the
injustices that matter to her that she wants to write.
That's part of the really fun thing of the film.
And Lily felt by van Day becoming the Wasp. There
was this incredible satisfaction and hope, something that she has
(16:53):
been waiting for her whole life, which is essentially an
affirmation from her father has come. Um. Also just yeah,
I mean watching The First aunt Man, which I watched
again before we went to the screening, I don't know, like,
I'm really glad that she got that she got this film.
I'm really glad that she got this film because it
was I understand that wasn't necessarily her point in the
(17:15):
First aunt Man, but um, it was so funny forgot.
I was talking to Kim Horser from The Young Turks,
were sitting next to each other. We were kind of
talking about like even her new haircut, which doesn't seem
like a big deal, but like the way that they
had made her in the first film was really unapproachable,
kind of like an un you know, like she was zy,
she she was icy. She reminds me of like Soma
(17:36):
Blair's characters. You know what, I mean where it's like
this really like businesswoman, like you know, and and I
was excited that she could down the suit and and
be a superhero. Um yeah, I feel like yeah, because
they were trying to build that like she's professional and
this guy's a slacker, and they were kind of leaning
on that. And yeah, when you do roles like that,
(17:57):
it does kind of box, you know, her into the
corner of being like no fund zone, you know, whereas
like this time she got to be all funds. And
I feel like this movie really took kind of some
of the you know, the fridging of you know, Hank
Pim's wife almost immediately and all that stuff. But like
now you can like almost remove that tag because it
(18:19):
led into something. But lots of times the movie it
just ends right there, that's just the motivation, and we
never see the wife again. But now we get the
wife to come back, and then they work together to
bring her back from this well. And we have another
smart woman in the room who's like way ahead of
everyone else, actually scientists putting antenna's in people's heads, like
(18:40):
you know, showing them. She's like, oh guys, you did
so like in the most mom way too. She was like, oh,
you guys did really good and you came so close.
You need a little adjustment, and that's where I am
come get me. Um. I loved her character and I
almost fel thought that we didn't get enough of her,
like so on the outskirts of this story, and she
kind of brought her before the final battle with like
(19:03):
the crime mob guys. Very funny. Interesting. Yeah, that they
decided to also have that storyline in there, like see
you storyline, um, which I do want to get into.
And we will write after this break and we're back
(19:28):
and uh. I also wanted to talk about some of
the external characters because for me, Louise stole the show
so good, so stupidly good. When is Michael pa going
to get his anser? When is he going to get
his outfit? I honestly was like, to give us our
(19:49):
Latino superhero. He needs to suit up. He even hinted
at it. He was like, we're gonna get it. He's
going to get an outfit. He even said like, oh,
it doesn't even need superpowers. Let's the same. Yes, it
wouldn't have made any sense, that's not what was happening,
But I really wish that he had at least gotten
his suit. What if in the second cut scene they
(20:09):
had been like and you just see him like, oh
grab they made one for me. Yes, we deserve and
hes okay calling Marvel now, um, truly he's so great
and and that's what I feel like. We've we talked
about this in our m c U episode where you know,
(20:30):
Paul Red was also a writer in this UM and
so I feel like that's important and that's why it
works so well is a lot of times you have
these people with comedic backgrounds, uh coming into also work
on the film and that and I feel like I
feel like that's also another reason why a lot of
these Marvel films have been successful is because you have
a lot of the actors that are rooted in comedy.
(20:53):
And yeah, he's just one that he would be a
great Can you imagine him in his own film? Yeah? No,
That's that's what I really liked about this, which is
one of the reasons that you know, everyone suggested Thor
Ragnar Rocket. I eventually finally saw, but this was just
like a straight up comedy, just the action comedy this this.
When I was watching this, I was like, Oh, this
(21:14):
is what your summer action movie used to be action packed,
filled with comedy, moved along, good story, and and it
blew me away. It honestly did, because I was laughing
the whole time, and then I'd be into the the
action that was special effects which really heightened the action,
which again bringing back to like, why is this such
a great? Like comic book series and comic books play
(21:36):
with perspective so much in their art design and in
their storytelling methods to see like not just the cars,
but like when he goes thirty feet tall and he's
in the ocean, or like um, even the knife fight
with Wasp where she in the kitchen. The entire kitchen
scene fight is amazing and she's like blowing things up
and like shrinking itself and it's like you've kind of
(21:57):
seen it before but never really done as well as
the is, and it's it's just so fun. I really
respect what they were able to do just from a
special effects point of view. Well, that's what I thought
was so good about Domino and Deadpool, where you I
feel like when people are presented a power, uh in
like a superhero power in movies, there's this effort to
(22:17):
be like, Okay, this is just a tool, and we'll
just use it to solve these unrelated problems we throw
at it. But then you have characters like Domino and
even ant Man in the Wasp where they're like, how
do we have fun with this? How do we create
fun interesting action scenes? And same thing with Domino, like
her walking down and everything dodging her and her getting
like that was so fun to watch. And it's because
(22:39):
they're like, Okay, let's take this power that's kind of weird,
like luck, and what fun can we have with this?
And with this is like they could have just had
it because I feel like, you know, aunt Man was
all about like you either shrink or you get big,
and you do what you gotta do. At those sides
where this one was like, no, you're using it to
miss direct. You're shrinking, getting big, coming up behind people
like that's taking your dream home to the beach? Had
(23:02):
interested Like they really did explore the idea of like
what can we do if things can shrink? And I
was blown away every time I liked it. I was
really excited. I wanted to say that this was it
was like a classic heist movie really had a lot
of those same elements that you guys were talking about
as far as it being like a summer blockbuster. Um,
(23:24):
I did want to say the Russo brothers were heavily
involved in this as well, since they wanted it to
sync up with Infinity War. So UM. Peyton Reid, who's
the director of ant Man in the Wasp, fed it
was inspired by the films After Hours in Midnight Run
for the look and feel of ant Man in the Wasp. Um.
While the first film was more of a heist film,
(23:47):
which I still think, this one was like a highest film.
But Read described this as a part action film, part
romantic comedy and wanted this one to be a little
more of like an Elmore Leonard vibe, where we have villains,
but we also have antagon us, and we have these
roadblocks to our heroes getting to where they need to
be and getting what they need for this mission. So,
regarding the opportunity for character development, Read used the actions
(24:08):
of Lang in Civil War to fuel potential tension between him, Pim,
and Van Dyne. Since Pim is very clear in the
first movie about how he feels about Stark. True, I
forgot about that. I forgot that he had made those
comments about how here criminal with them, Yeah, and how
he feels about the Avengers and being very protective of
this technology that he has. So yeah, and they're pissed
(24:31):
the whole time. Yeah. Yeah, they were pissed that whole
first chunk, and and it just became clear why and
it made sense the way they delivered it, and it
was great. I feel like they have questions though, because
they didn't sign the accord, they weren't involved with the
initial actions, so I'm still confused as to like they're
scientists and they built suits, like why are they in trouble?
(24:52):
A little confusing there, but um, I like the way
that it gave, Like I feel like a lot of
times when we have here trying to redeem themselves, like
Tony at the start of like the Civil War stuff
was like I forget which actress comes up to him
and is like my son died into Koba and it's
(25:12):
your fault and you don't care about like like it
became such a self loathing kind of like, oh woe
is me, I'll shut everything down because like I need
to feel empowered. But here we have a guy who's
just like I just want to help people, and my
biggest fear is like I just won't be able to
be there for my daughter, and how do I balance
out those two needs in a way that nobody gets hurt?
(25:33):
And it becomes more of a I need to take
responsibility for what's happening and find a pass through as
opposed to like I'm just gonna shut everybody else down
and out. Yeah, yeah, that was real fun. I think
since we've been talking about the Marvel timeline as a whole,
I need to to remind everyone that this is our
last Marvel movie of the year. I was thinking that
(25:53):
as I left the theater, and I was distraught a
little bit. But look, we've had three really great Marvel
for homes this year, right. We started with Black Panther. Uh,
then we got Fanos Do you want the Big Snap?
Which caused like a bunch of chaos, and then they
leave us with like it's so funny, lighthearted, No snap,
there's like a bunch of your characters, and then they're
(26:14):
like mans will be back and that question mark. Guys,
when that question mark comes up, I was like, yeah,
that was just ruel and unusual. Can we have number
four now? Because Avengers four is what's coming out next right, No,
it's Captain Marvel. Then Avengers four, we got our girl
coming up to happen. That's gonna be so interesting too. Yeah,
(26:35):
because there are a lot of questions I have about
Captain Marvel, because the fact that I was gonna say
Samuel Jackson, but I meant to say Nick Fury has
the that reader is that's a huge question for me.
It's like, when did you get in touch with the Beeper?
I know we're focusing a lot on the year. It's
in the nineties. Yeah, so we'll be going back to
(26:58):
to see probably that initial injury actions. That's what I'm
looking for. She have some TLC Like I already am
looking forward to the soundtrack. The soundtrack had better be bonkers,
although some rumors I'm hearing coming off that set are
really scary and I'm so nervous about, like what's going
to happen. I love Bree Larsen's like a champion of
(27:18):
like women in poc folks, so I need this movie
to be really good for her. Wait, what are you hearing?
This is the place to spill it. This is why
you come to I've heard a lot about doing a
lot of reshoots, a lot of hold ups, um, just
on the set trying to get through just the day um,
and apparently not everyone is satisfied with the way the
(27:38):
script is that happen. Well, I mean, Marvel is really
good about like whatever is happening behind the scenes, We're
gonna polish it up before y'all see it. That's gonna
stay family business. So we'll see. But as Marvel's first
solo female movie, there's a lot I think writing on this,
but we'll say for aunt Man, I really liked um.
(27:59):
We talked about two women, but I feel like the
most important relationship was aunt Man and his daughter. Know
that whole opening scene of like, well, I'm on house arrest.
How do I entertain a ten year old I'm gonna
make a giant maze and he tried to steal? Can
I tell you when when she asked to be his partner.
I think I saw if he get a little, oh gosh,
if he was next to me and he got a little,
(28:20):
I could hear him gasp. Whatever. We have been told
that we have to warn him when it's a father
daughter film as his friends, which I didn't tell you,
I guess about Coco and then he tweeted a picture
of him weeping. It wasn't there was pictures of tears
on my face. You were weeping. It's okay that you
wept during Cocoa. You have a little baby girl. It
(28:45):
was a lot. It was like it was like someone
it was like to keep it on subject. It was
like ghost phased her hand into my heart right there,
just the reveal and just when they connect all the
dots before your eyes and you're just like it just
takes your whole soul. Because that's also like another soft
(29:08):
spot to me too, is like father daughter time skips
where there's like a gap because like and there was
kind of like that in an interstellar Yeah, and I
was like it shredded me. Was like, can you imagine
you going to your daughter's deathbed and knowing you're gonna
live way longer than or because of the time like that,
(29:29):
Like that type of cerebral kind of thing always taps
into me. Like that's so interesting to me, and that
what a what a like what A just thought, Yeah,
I'm definitely a daddy's girl. Into the whole storyline of like, oh,
I would love you my partner, but I would be
a bad dad. You love her so much, Oh my god.
(29:49):
And then and then the blended families narrative of it,
you know, whereas in the first film, like their divorce
was kind of very angry and there wasn't a lot
of trust there to now like her you husband being
able to hug him and like, no, we're family, we
all love you. Like It's actually I love seeing blended
families that work in our cooperative but so often we
see that there's just like discourse and no we likes
(30:12):
each other, and it's like frustrating. I think that there
are more blended families that work than there are blended
families that don't work. True, true, So let's let's get
down to the nitty gritty. We're gonna rated blank out
of ten nerties. We said ten nerties right now, five
ten nerties because you don't. So many other people do five.
(30:36):
So let's uh yeah, let's give it our ratings and
then talk about, you know, maybe where we see the
future of this as well as Marvel. Right after this
break and we're back, Joel, what do you what are
(31:00):
you ranking? I'm gonna give this seven nerdies. Ok Um.
I thought the film jagged a little bit in certain places. Uh.
And as you mentioned earlier, the Steaks are just not
very high, especially coming off of Infinity Wars where everything
was at stake. Um, it's solid but not great. But still,
(31:23):
is there something that would have done it for you?
Like something else the Steaks? I mean, I feel like
I hear you and and that is actually the argument
that I made. But um, I do feel like they
kind of needed a break. Maybe I feel like they
knew coming off of Infinity War. Um, well, you know,
I'll just save this for mine. I just think that
if the fan of Snap had happened in the middle
(31:45):
of the film, I agree. I just feel like all
like dealing with all of the chaos that they were
dealing with, plus half the population is gone and what
is going on? And I definitely can't go back to
the Avengers because like at this point, his bracelet is
still on his house or US bracelet and he knows
he's not supposed to contact the Avengers. But also, guys,
what for real is going on? I think that would
(32:05):
have been just exciting and like chaotic. Yeah, I would
have raised the stakes, but I get it. I'm not
upset with it. I will still like write or Die
for a man forever. It's so fun write or die.
Hell yeah, if you w about you. Um, I'm gonna
go ahead and give it nine out of ten nerd
Yeah because I it was a solid comedy movie that
jokes all hit for me. The action was all there.
(32:27):
I think that there was There was no stakes they
could have put on this movie after Infinity War that
would have compared, so there was no use trying. So
it was great way to cap the year off with
something fun and light but leave us with a nice
little tingled taste on our tongue to get us excited
for next year. Michael Penia is amazing. He killed it.
(32:47):
And then we introduced another a poc Ranto park that's funny. Um,
not to mention another poc ghost, you know, just just
floating in there making it work. Everyone really brought it.
It was it had a heart, it was good. It
was just great. I thought it was just my jam
Like everything about it was perfect for me. Does this
(33:08):
mean that you liked? Oh yeah, I really like Thor.
Ragnarok is definitely super fun, super entertaining, same thing like
super funny and it is just a fun ride throughout. Um,
I swear to I feel like Odin dies in every
thor if what I know about he's the krillon of them,
(33:32):
And if what I know about Ragnarok and Asgard is correct,
I feel like he's going to be in the next
Door movie and he's going to find some way to
die again. Yep, yep. Um. Hopefully that means Loki finds
a way to come back as he does. Um, I
don't know. I think he's gone. The next nap seemed
pretty final. Well you never know. Um. I'm very excited
(33:53):
that we have ghosts now in this world. I'm excited.
I hope that they do more with their character and
maybe that means that she might be in the future
a Vendor's m c u ones and not just in
ant Man films. Hopefully that means that we get to
see her now that she's kind of been persuaded to
the other side. Well, we know there is a female
lead movie coming up somewhat soon. Tessa Thompson took all
(34:18):
of the ladies and to Kevin Fikey and said, excuse me,
it's time for us to have a movie, and Kevin said, sure, okay,
So I mean I would love to see like ghosts
and Valkyrie and like Wasp and maybe um Captain Marvel
Black Widow. Yeah, all of them just kicking ass doing
a secret mission. Hell yeah, I'm going to give this
(34:39):
eight out of ten nerdies, maybe eight and a half.
I don't know these numbers. I don't know if matters. Um. Yeah,
I agree that it had. I agree that the stakes
weren't really high, and maybe that's what they needed in
this moment, especially after Infinity War. And um, Paul Rudd
is just so likable, said a sweet kind man. Um
(35:03):
and uh, I loved Evangeline Lily just kicking ass and
taking names. Um and yeah, I agree. Michael Penia, Holy crap.
I mean, he just like stole the show. I you
know what, I probably would have given it a ten
if he had gotten his own if he had gotten
his own suit. Okay, scratch what I said about the
(35:24):
fan of staff in the middle. Give Michael Panya a
suit in the middle and keep his exactly the same.
Because here's the thing. If you're like, oh no, but
blah blah blah, like that wouldn't work. It would because
the whole reason that Scott Lange works, the whole reason
Paul Red's character works is because he is a regular
guy hits what would happen if? And that's also Paul
Red's what Paul Red said as far as why he
took this role, aside from it being a Marvel film
(35:46):
and making him a lot of money. Um, he said
that he liked the fact that he was a regular
guy and his motivations are being a father, like those
are his you know, it's not necessarily to be a superhero,
and so I would love that. I would love to
see Louise. There's no reason why he couldn't also be
a regular guy with a powered suit. I mean, he
even said he would be happy with a suit without powers.
(36:07):
And I don't want to throw our baby out there
because I know he would die. It would be like
confidence all of a sudden, though, Like you would see
him kecocking a little bit, kind of like it's knocking
the Latino man the suit without powers and throw him
on the front lines, like I know what's going to
happen together. Um, but yeah, so so I feel like
he could. I I don't know. I I hope his
(36:31):
manager's pitching for it. I don't know. I feel he
could step into the role of another character. This is
the soapbox and the hill I'm going to die on
is that he should. It's a worthy hill, Like I
don't know if he saw he did he also save
their but a couple of times. Yeah, well I thought
was it like Twelve Soldiers, which he was in a
little bit earlier this year, Like Michael Opinion has the
(36:51):
range to go the distance, like you can hit those
serious notes. He's obviously got the comedy and like outside
of the m c U, someone used to give this
and a role that can start winning him awards because
he's like worthy. And I feel like we waste so
much of our like really great POC talent and we
don't recognize until like it's like, oh, Viola Davis is good.
She's been good for so long. We're just now getting
(37:12):
to give her quality rules because suddenly we see her.
I just want us to start recognizing the talent earlier
so we can get like a bigger discography of their
work like they deserve. Hopefully. Michael pos Agent is like
out here hunting scripts because he needs something. He needs
someone big in the leading role. No, I could see
him as a superhero. So um, anyways, this has turned
(37:32):
into my platform to push Michael Penia as a superhero
in the m c U. All right, well we talked
about this film. Where can people find you Joel and
Joel Monique And you can find me all over the
internet at Juel Monique if you hit me up with
you at the Instagram, it's Joel Underscore Monique. Also at
(37:53):
Pejaibo where we talk all things feminist culture. It's great. Uh,
DC Universe I their versus the other day and that
was so much fun. So check that out for Catwoman
um bootleg Universe videos coming soon. And oh, I don't
know when this is coming out, but in like fifteen
days from whatever today is, I'll be launching a Patreon
(38:15):
for my new show, which is called Getting Out, which
seeks to chronicle the history of black horror in cinema,
both from a creative standpoint and from a like the
actual film. So the creators, producers, p a s, critics, directors, writers,
all of them telling their horror stories of being black
in Hollywood, but also talking about black horror films and
(38:37):
how it's shaped them and their work. Uh so you
can check that out. Hell yeah, I did want to
add one more thing. I forgot of watching these films
back to back, the first ant Man in then this one.
Michael Douglas cannot die. Every time, I'm like, is he
gonna die? He's not gonna do? Is he die? Is
he he's what her hand went through? His neck is dead?
(39:00):
He's not dead. I should have been a death and
you guys, I understand, I love him as well. I understand,
but also like, I think that would have given it
a little bit of steaks. I don't think anyone died
in this film, except for a bunch of like side henchmen.
But I don't think anyone died. Yeah, even those guys
(39:21):
just kind of got shocked and dipped with some truth serum.
And you know, truly was a kid like a kid's
it's a kid's Yeah. And the jokes were even not
they were pretty PG most of them. So wow, And
no death a film a superhero film. I'm sure someone
will correct me. I can't think of anyone that died
in this film. But Snap does not count as a
(39:42):
death either. I feel like, besides the like cars flipping
over and you know, down the San Francisco streets, I
think we've all universally agreed that those don't count as
death deaths are just guys being knocked out and sent
to the bad guy heaven. Yeah. Um, I am at
Miss Danny Fernandez. It's M S D A and I
(40:03):
F E R N and easy. If he and I
will both be on a panel Friday at Comic Con.
I believe we're in the library the auditorium. I think
our panels at three pm. Um, it's geek podcasting and
you and I will be on a panel immediately after that.
So if you want to listen to me talk for
two hours, please do. But also we're we're gonna be
(40:24):
at a anime expo I think in San Diego Comic Con,
So come out, yes, yes, uh, And I'm your boy.
If you I F Y N W A, D I
b W e at, if you way on Twitter and Instagram,
if D's on Twitch, uh, you'll been coming out on
Twitch holding it down. Gotta say thank you. Oh hold on,
a few of you have called me out because I
(40:45):
think when I first told you all about the Twitch,
I said I'd be shouting you all out, and you're like,
where's my shout out? Fluff is the first guy who
just will keep bugging me for the shout out? John
Green eight seven. You came through with the Fall and
then a few other there's a lot nerd fan. Make
sure you do hashtag nerd fan when you sub so
I can write it down now and you get your
(41:05):
shout out. Also today, just so you know, we just
released sub Merged. So so if you're listening to this today,
you can go to tea public, go to the Nerdificent Store.
We have to stay nerdy. Tease lots of fun tease,
get get suited up, get booted up. We got stickers
all of that from your laptops and what have used
(41:26):
to make sure you check out that merch store. And
uh yeah, I guess this is when I say stay
nerdy
Nerdificent News
Hosts And Creators
Dani Fernandez
Ify Nwadiwe
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