Set It Up (2018)

Honestly Netflix, I am kinda upset at you. With all your learning algorithms, you should know; and I mean KNOW with like precision accuracy, that I will basically watch anything with Lucy Liu.  This blog might be Exhibit B behind that I actually went to see Ecks vs. Sever in the theaters. 1  So....

How is it that Set It Up was not recommended to me like immediately? The ads should have followed me around the internet until I relented. I had to type into the search bar to find it and for that you fail Netflix, FAIL! 

This is an obvious overreaction to a non-problem...but still Netflix. Know your customer. 

There is no real need to critique Set It Up. Competence is in high supply these days. Brilliance is not. But, solid B+ material can and is being made in abundance. It is nice to see that the genre of the Rom-Com is not extinct and that it has a future home on streaming services. Obviously, I would like to see Rom-Coms take more risks and be either brilliant or wretched, but that model isn't exactly a sustainable way to run a long term entertainment industry.    ....maybe a few will slip through the cracks....?

So Set It Up takes basically no risks in a well worn genre. It hits all the highlights and conspicuously avoids any fail opportunities. Thus does it succeed. And, of course, Lucy Liu. 

I liked that two people of color are depicted as successful in their professions and as a realistic couple. Obviously, it's not all roses for the characters, but I like that these roles went to Liu and Diggs. 

I also thought the whole nervous naked peeing thing in an elevator was stupid funny.  Well done. 

2.8 out of 5 stars

 

Ant-Man and The Wasp (2018)

Cassie: [to Scott] You can do it. You can do anything. You're the world's greatest grandma.

I'm not really going to bother "reviewing" Ant-man and The Wasp.  It was fine. It lives up to all the other Marvel movies. It made me laugh. It me my expectations which were vaguely positive.

3.4 out of 5 stars.

Done.

But what I want to talk about is something stranger. How do you go about power down a series without making people hate it? I talked about this before in a post about Jurassic World: Power Creep. The next biggest, baddest, scariest thing has to be out done by the next next biggest, baddest, scariest thing. Monster movies that induced vomiting in audience in the 1950s look like laughable children's toys to modern viewers.

Referencing a different medium entirely: When Magic: The Gathering (MTG) released a block of 3 sets that basically broke their game -Urza Block in 1998-1999, it was a problem. It was fun to have the power of the gods, but it was unsustainable. The sets to be release in 1999-2000 could not get more powerful with being ridiculous and destroying their very business. So, their solution was to radically power-down the following sets in an attempt to restore balance.  Basically, they made 3 pretty bad sets on purpose. And it worked. -sort of.  MTG survived 1999-2000 and continues today. But those 3 sets are considered today to be so terrible that the cards are worth basically no money to collectors and no one plays them.

The above was MTG's solution to the same problem facing the MCU. How do you power down the expectations of the audience after Infinity Wars?  We just came from a movie that ended on the powerful note of half the universe was destroyed. What universe+1 issue can you find to carry on being impressive?  Marvel's answer seems to be Ant-Man: smaller budget, smaller cast, tiny terror, no sense of mass destruction, but with big dose of size-based comedy.

Will it work?  I think the film stands on its own, just fine. But it remains to be seen if it worked to reset audience baselines before going back to Infinity War II

The Incredibles 2 (2018)

"It means fire, Robert." -Edna Mode

Yeah, I watched another sequel. I know better. I do. But..."this is how they get ya". Honestly, I do feel better about The Incredibles 2 than most sequels. There were 14 years between releases. The length of time between some how makes me feel better. It just does. It makes me think that the sequel was not hastily made or pushed out to capitalize on buzz, but created, at the very least, with intention.

As such, I would say Incredibles 2 was a qualified success. It was markedly different from its predecessor and yet stayed within the boundaries of its world and believability. It was not as good as the original -it just wasn't.

But there were many things to love, if not adore.

1. Competent Voice Acting and a good script
1. Brad Bird as Edna Mode should narrate audio books. Or have a podcast.
2. It was Funny -I would think funnier than the original. I certainly laughed more. 
1. Reflux ---perfect
1. “Name's Reflux. Medical condition or super power, you decide.”
2. Jack-Jack's fight with the Racoon
1. Better than many real fights. 
3. Dedication to the details
1. What makes PIXAR movies special to me is that, while they do not use the most detailed or technologically sophisticated imagery in their styling. They always ALWAYS have the character behave and emote so that the audience is ensorceled.  
1. Exhibit A for me was Violet milking out her nose. They went the extra mile. 
1. 1

One thing I will say is that I was a little confused as to the underlying "uber-man" esque quality of being a Super within the world of the Incredibles. I don't think that there's necessarily anything wrong with stories about certain people being blessed with abilities and others not- as a general. Yet, the cultural structures come undone when you start working real-world issues like law and equality into the mix.

3.73 out of 5 stars.