Ant-Man (2015)

[dashrendar44]

I wasn't feeling this at all and I'm genuinely surprised. Nice little summer movie that starts out very slowly and painted by the numbers to find out its own rythm with no pretense except entertain like a nineties action comedy. So much better than Age Of Ultron, keeping the story simple and focused on a small set of grounded characters and framing it like a heist movie (Oceantz Eleven-like) is a nice change of pace in the MCU where everything is about an over-the-top threat that spells doom over the world/the universe. The sub-atomic sequence was a stand-out among all, brilliant and interesting idea visually (the fractals representation) that needed more time on screen. The main theme and music have nice callbacks to Lalo Schiffrin's scores as well.(The asymetric meters backed by percussions rythms like bongos and congas).

 

I liked the offbeat and quirks touches like setting up a nano fight to Cure's Plainsong playing on a phone intra-diegetically or Luis storytelling's sequences (best Stan Lee cameo in a while), makes me wonder how much better the movie would be if it was filled with that kind of imaginative sequences all the way through.

 

A- (Most of the time, the movie was B but that imaginative climax and microverse sequence elevated it).

Edited August 14, 2015 by MADash Rendar

[Omario]

Fun movie but was quite evident this was not one of Marvels best. Still not much to complain about. Pretty simple and straight forward story with some surprisingly fun action. Good popcorn flick for the summer

 

B

[IndustriousAngel]

B from me

 

Actually a fun ride in many scenes, otoh the story was uninspired and very by-the-numbers. In many scenes you could see how much potential in silliness there was which was never fully explored because it had to fit into the MCU ... which just is not necessary imho.

[TheMovieman]

I enjoyed it. The jokes mostly landed and Paul Rudd was the perfect choice for the role and having Michael Douglas in it doesn't hurt either. Not sure where I place this with other Marvel movies, it has the same bland villain, but I found it entertaining enough.

 

***¾, (B+, 7.4/10, 3/4)

[DAR]

I thought it was quite a lot of fun.  The action sequences were very inventive.  Rudd and Douglas were great.  Loses points for its villain, if he had a mustache he would be twirling it.  B+

[Ethan Hunt]

I can no longer claim Iron Man 2 as my least favorite MCU film. It was thoroughly awful

[Blankments]

Ant-Man is incredibly forgettable. I'll admit I remember enjoying it somewhat, but literally ten minutes after finishing it, I can't really remember why. There's humor here and there, and Paul Rudd and Michael Douglas have good chemistry. The action is neat in concept but is shot in the most boring way imaginable. Corey Stoll's hamminess is delightful, but unfortunately, he can't elevate the nothing character he's portraying. It, more than any Marvel movie I can think of, serves merely as a commercial for Ant-Man's appearances in ensemble films. I'm not sure if Ant-Man can hold a film on his own, and this definitely doesn't prove anything of that like. Rudd's performance and some cool effects might make Ant-Man worth seeing, but otherwise, it's an unnecessary, unoriginal origin story in a Cinematic Universe already much too full of that. D+

[Joel M]

This didn't age very well. There's enough cool stuff to make it feel exciting, mainly the refreshing small scale of the action and Michael Pena's delightful meme of a character but everything else seems like it is on autopilot. Everyone is perfectly casted including Corey Stoll as the sleazy villain, but none of it feels organic, the father-daughter relationship of the Pyms or Paul Rudd's struggles never connect. Even the character of Ant-Man is a blank slate that becomes somewhat likeable only because Paul Rudd is likable, but you never really become invested in him.

The movie is ok but so much of it feels like wasted potential. This should have either gone full action comedy like GOTG or they should have cared more about the non-action stuff. I hope the sequel is more well realised.

 

B-.