[movie] Ant-Man - surprisingly good reviews so far.

I must say after the departure of Edgar Wright I expected the movie to be a bit of a mess but it seems like it is a good movie. Not great but good.

Led by a charming performance from Paul Rudd, Ant-Man offers Marvel thrills on an appropriately smaller scale -- albeit not as smoothly as its most successful predecessors.

Mr Sunday Movies review

"You did a pretty good job of being the movie that you are."

Honestly, that's all I'm really looking for from the flick. Looking forward to it!

Several TV spots.

Falcon's in it? I don't need to know anything else. I'd pay just to watch Sam do barrel rolls heading to the grocery store.

I am all "Fandango'd" up and raring to go see this at the Big D screen on Saturday with a bunch of work friends!

Dare I say it's the cure for Marvel movie fatigue after Age of Ultron?

Kurrelgyre wrote:

Dare I say it's the cure for Marvel movie fatigue after Age of Ultron?

It is. My wife hated, no, loathed Age of Ultron. Just using her as a barometer of the average movie goer with no knowledge of the universe or reason to care. She was enthusiastic about Ant Man, saying that it was her favorite Marvel movie. I'd have to rewatch it, but I can of agree. In fact, I feel so much dread at the prospect of him being just one of a dozen+ CGI effects in a future Avengers movie. I just want him to get standalone movies with his crew.

It's the anti-Avengers 2, for sure. If you had told me 6 months ago that my 2 favorite Marvel things would be Daredevil and Ant Man I would have said that was crazy. Now it's reality for me.

Batman vs. Superman was a trailer in front of the movie and it just looks silly in comparison. I'm shocked.

I'm not surprised people are calling this the anti-Avengers. Like I was telling ccess in the AoU thread, this movie will probably click with people who felt overwhelmed by the scale and pacing of the Avengers movies simply because it looked like they were reducing the scope and bombast back down to the levels in the pre-Avengers Phase 1 films.

Same goes for Daredevil and hopefully the rest of the street level TV shows (at least up until the ensemble one at the end).

I think the MCU has been really good with the individual characters and their arcs. I'm not sure they've figured out how to make ensemble films & tv work, so I think it's best to just approach those with a different mindset than the solo films/shows.

I was hoping for good things from this movie and ended up feeling kind of disappointed. The film was oddly low energy. I took my kid to go see it and I think he was actually bored with it.

Michael Douglas was great and Evangeline Lilly was very solid, but Paul Rudd seemed totally overshadowed in any of the numerous scenes where he shared screen space with Douglas or Lilly.

The whole thing felt a little underbaked. The special effects were neither very special nor memorable and the overall story arc was okay, but the script probably needed to be torn down and reworked from scratch. I was really bothered by the Hispanic sidekick character who struck me as an offensive stereotype. The secondary sidekicks seemed like a really lazy and retrograde collection of ethnic tokens.

I think they had an opportunity to do a visually stunning film full of beautiful and disturbing microphotography and they totally decided to go do something else instead.

polq37 wrote:

The special effects were neither very special nor memorable.

You know that probably none of those ants were real, right? You can have VFX that call attention to themselves, or the kind that blend pretty seamlessly. Except for a couple of enlarged things in the final fight, I thought we got a lot of the latter.

My family all enjoyed it. My daughter really liked it. She was a little upset when

Spoiler:

Anthony died

I also appreciated how short it was, which made it feel lean and focussed. I feel the, "good, but not great" verdicts are probably about right. I also wish we'd seen whatever craziness Edgar Wright had cooking.

To me this still felt very much like an Edgar Wright film and I loved it. Can't crack my top two with Winter Soldier and Guardians, but it joins my second tier with the first Avengers film. Much like those three, can't wait to see this one again when it is out of theaters.

Saw it yesterday evening. I stand by everything I said above. Great movie and I'm glad they managed to pull it off despite being in development hell for so long.

Kurrelgyre wrote:

You can have VFX that call attention to themselves, or the kind that blend pretty seamlessly. Except for a couple of enlarged things in the final fight, I thought we got a lot of the latter.

This.

thejustinbot wrote:

To me this still felt very much like an Edgar Wright film and I loved it. Can't crack my top two with Winter Soldier and Guardians, but it joins my second tier with the first Avengers film. Much like those three, can't wait to see this one again when it is out of theaters.

That.

Just got back from seeing it with my youngest son. We share the opinion that it was pretty fun and much better than it had any right to be. It would be nice to see an Ant Man 2 at some point.

tboon wrote:

Just got back from seeing it with my youngest son. We share the opinion that it was pretty fun and much better than it had any right to be. It would be nice to see an Ant Man 2 at some point.

I think unfortunately we're going to get Ant Man as just another random Avenger instead.

That was a surprisingly fun movie. I enjoyed it a lot.

Did anyone else catch Nick Fury in the beginning of the film?

Totally didn't catch that the grey-haired man in the first scene was

Spoiler:

Howard Stark

- that said, I loved the film. I loved that it stood on its own, largely removed from the rest of the MCU. I loved the brief reference to Spidey at the end. I loved the joke that never finishes its punchline:

Spoiler:

Ant Man to Falcon: Oh, you probably haven't heard of me (left unsaid - because I'm underground)

I loved Thomas, I loved the strange dog. I loved every damn thing about this film. It's the best MCU film since Winter Soldier, and really shows the greatest strength of the MCU - taking the characters and worldbuilding, and using them across genres - be it spy film, or heist comedy, or space opera.

Like seeing Wright's work, but i was never a fan of Ant-Man when i was reading comics and still not a fan now. Still beyond that... all in all a decent effort.

Tanglebones wrote:

really shows the greatest strength of the MCU - taking the characters and worldbuilding, and using them across genres - be it spy film, or heist comedy, or space opera.

They totally nailed the "heist movie" feel with the soundtrack too.

I thought it was fantastic - couldnt agree more with :

shoptroll wrote:
Tanglebones wrote:

really shows the greatest strength of the MCU - taking the characters and worldbuilding, and using them across genres - be it spy film, or heist comedy, or space opera.

They totally nailed the "heist movie" feel with the soundtrack too.

Michael Pena totally stole the show. Also, they at least set up the possibility of a sequel or at least a spinoff with a new Wasp.

Edit: Here is a cool list of some of the Easter Eggs. I totally missed The Ten Rings.

I think Paul Rudd was previously confirmed for Civil War, but I wouldn't be surprised if Wasp comes along too (sorry I'm forgetting the actress for her).

Loved the post credits scene.
"Its about time"
Could not have said it better myself. I cannot wait to see a:

Spoiler:

Wasp movie.

I know it isn't planned but it should be. The suit looks awesome!

Michael Douglass, Evangeline Lily and Michael Pena were the stand outs for me.
Paul Rudd is just Paul Rudd. He can't be adequately critiqued because he is just so damned charming in everything he does.

I will also second that a testament to this movie is making me care when

Spoiler:

Antony died.

Ant-Man Trailer- Homemade Shot for Shot

I just went and saw this with my brother last night. I was just hoping to like it, but I must concur that this is easily one of the best Marvel movies so far. I loved the general tone and the music. The supporting cast was great, and it was nice to have a Marvel movie plot on a smaller scale.

Also, the movie was hilarious. I must have laughed more than any other Marvel movie to date. I really lost it when

Spoiler:

he went in Falcon's pack and kept apologizing while destroying his gear. "Sorry! Sorry! You seem like a really great guy!"

Some really good lines and delivery in there. I would go see a sequel in a heartbeat.

This is probably the worse marvel movie I have ever seen. All the high praised might have gotten me to hyped for it. I didn't find it all that funny. I laughed at one scene. I don't like the comic version of ant man and I like the movie version even less.

The battle scenes were creative but didn't do anything for me. The story was kind of dumb. I couldn't look past story elements like getting put in jail that could have been solved rather easily. Instead of doing a fancy ant man jail break old ant man could have told the police he was invited over and forgot to tell his daughter since it was his house or he could have posted his bail since he is rich. Granted that is a small thing heh heh but it was big to me. The entire movie was like this.

Hank Pym needed to know that Scott Lang was committed. In fact, this is what Hope van Dyne keeps harping on about - Scott Lang is an unreliable flake. He left the suit in so Scott Lang needed to get himself out of jail instead of going with the flow and letting Hank Pym get him off the hook.

Presumably, since the primary purpose of the jail break was merely to prove Scott's commitment, Hank Pym would make it go away afterwards.

I liked it! I'm getting weirdly impatient nowadays though. Once or twice I had the compulsion to walk out. It happens to me in some movies.
Oh, and it's "About damn time". I can't wait to see what comes up next.

For the minor sidekicks, this is one of those times I legitimately think people need to understand the difference between 'one-note' and 'stereotype'.
And here's Peña..

The best part though is that the characters in the Luis 'flashbacks' are talking just like him. It's the best.
I hope to see that gag again and with Avengers and/or other very serious people aka Fury next time.

And I really love the neat little thing

Spoiler:

When the deal starts going south, you can see an exasperated look on the Hydra buyer's face. You know he's thinking, "Why is it this sort of thing happens every f*cking time I try to buy a superweapon?"