Before Friday, I hadn’t been on any Cinematic Adventures recently, in-fact, I think the last films I saw were Tomorrowland and Poltergeist, but I remained only timidly excited for the film. I like Paul Rudd and I like a lot of the films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. They play it safe a lot with their origin stories, like the first Captain America, Hulk or Thor, but films like Guardians of the Galaxy and Iron Man offer up reasons for why I am an avid-supporter, … the Daredevil show isn’t bad either.
But this one had a lot of messiness involving it’s creation, what, with Edgar Wright bailing out of it last minute. After watching the film, I can tell you that, while it’s enjoyable, it falls in the same category as the weakest titles in the series. The acting wasn’t bad, and while I found Michael Pena to be more overbearing and neurotic than funny, he wasn’t as bad as he could have been. I would compare him to Kevin Hart, in that, they depend on him too much as a funnyman and it doesn’t mesh well with everything else in the film. Although, Ant-Man had an abundant amount of humor in it that’s meant to keep everyone from noticing how paper-thin the narrative’s depth is, but the thing is, the humor seems like it’s meant to be done by Wright. The jokes are straight out of his play-book, but because they’re not directing in the specific way he would’ve told them, they miss more than they hit.
Paul Rudd seems like a cool-guy though, and I am happy he’s finally having a spotlight for himself, because he’s charismatic and likable. I think he did fine for what he had to work with. The film itself just didn’t have much happening for it, the heist and everything with it, none of it really had me immersed in the same way that some of Marvel’s higher tier flicks like Winter Soldier had. The film plays it safe and is the absolute definition of formula. I am fine with origin stories, and while Marvel likes to do the same thing in each of them, sometimes they do something completely different. This isn’t one of those examples, they take every trope they’ve ever established and do the hell out of it. The love-interest, the generic bad-guy, and the dependency on humor, it’s all there. I think what Marvel is doing is terrific with their Cinematic Universe. Are they over-saturating the market? They’re participating, but they’re only one of three major companies releasing films, and if they could subside some, it wouldn’t be a big deal. But what they’ve done is mind-blowing, and for the most part, it has led to some of the best superhero films and some of the best science-fiction movies. (Guardians of the Galaxy!?) But they do have some mistakes, and while I thought those mistakes were lost after Phase One, this film seems to make all of them.
On the bright-side though, the action-scenes are top-notch. I really liked watching them, and they showed sparks of inspiration and what I’ve come to love about certain comic-book movies. I also liked the nods and references to other members of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which has become a prominent part of Marvel’s balanced breakfast.
In conclusion, I think Ant-Man is likely in my top-three least favorite films of the Universe, but it did have glimpses that made it watchable. Problems riddle it, jokes don’t land, and there isn’t much depth at all, but as a fun, mindless film that seems more phoned-in than what we usually get from Team Marvel, it isn’t too bad.
Rating: Average
Before Friday, I hadn’t been on any Cinematic Adventures recently, in-fact, I think the last films I saw were Tomorrowland and Poltergeist, but I remained only timidly excited for the film. I like Paul Rudd and I like a lot of the films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. They play it safe a lot with their origin stories, like the first Captain America, Hulk or Thor, but films like Guardians of the Galaxy and Iron Man offer up reasons for why I am an avid-supporter, … the Daredevil show isn’t bad either.
But this one had a lot of messiness involving it’s creation, what, with Edgar Wright bailing out of it last minute. After watching the film, I can tell you that, while it’s enjoyable, it falls in the same category as the weakest titles in the series. The acting wasn’t bad, and while I found Michael Pena to be more overbearing and neurotic than funny, he wasn’t as bad as he could have been. I would compare him to Kevin Hart, in that, they depend on him too much as a funnyman and it doesn’t mesh well with everything else in the film. Although, Ant-Man had an abundant amount of humor in it that’s meant to keep everyone from noticing how paper-thin the narrative’s depth is, but the thing is, the humor seems like it’s meant to be done by Wright. The jokes are straight out of his play-book, but because they’re not directing in the specific way he would’ve told them, they miss more than they hit.
Paul Rudd seems like a cool-guy though, and I am happy he’s finally having a spotlight for himself, because he’s charismatic and likable. I think he did fine for what he had to work with. The film itself just didn’t have much happening for it, the heist and everything with it, none of it really had me immersed in the same way that some of Marvel’s higher tier flicks like Winter Soldier had. The film plays it safe and is the absolute definition of formula. I am fine with origin stories, and while Marvel likes to do the same thing in each of them, sometimes they do something completely different. This isn’t one of those examples, they take every trope they’ve ever established and do the hell out of it. The love-interest, the generic bad-guy, and the dependency on humor, it’s all there. I think what Marvel is doing is terrific with their Cinematic Universe. Are they over-saturating the market? They’re participating, but they’re only one of three major companies releasing films, and if they could subside some, it wouldn’t be a big deal. But what they’ve done is mind-blowing, and for the most part, it has led to some of the best superhero films and some of the best science-fiction movies. (Guardians of the Galaxy!?) But they do have some mistakes, and while I thought those mistakes were lost after Phase One, this film seems to make all of them.
On the bright-side though, the action-scenes are top-notch. I really liked watching them, and they showed sparks of inspiration and what I’ve come to love about certain comic-book movies. I also liked the nods and references to other members of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which has become a prominent part of Marvel’s balanced breakfast.
In conclusion, I think Ant-Man is likely in my top-three least favorite films of the Universe, but it did have glimpses that made it watchable. Problems riddle it, jokes don’t land, and there isn’t much depth at all, but as a fun, mindless film that seems more phoned-in than what we usually get from Team Marvel, it isn’t too bad. Before Friday, I hadn’t been on any Cinematic Adventures recently, in-fact, I think the last films I saw were Tomorrowland and Poltergeist, but I remained only timidly excited for the film. I like Paul Rudd and I like a lot of the films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. They play it safe a lot with their origin stories, like the first Captain America, Hulk or Thor, but films like Guardians of the Galaxy and Iron Man offer up reasons for why I am an avid-supporter, … the Daredevil show isn’t bad either.
But this one had a lot of messiness involving it’s creation, what, with Edgar Wright bailing out of it last minute. After watching the film, I can tell you that, while it’s enjoyable, it falls in the same category as the weakest titles in the series. The acting wasn’t bad, and while I found Michael Pena to be more overbearing and neurotic than funny, he wasn’t as bad as he could have been. I would compare him to Kevin Hart, in that, they depend on him too much as a funnyman and it doesn’t mesh well with everything else in the film. Although, Ant-Man had an abundant amount of humor in it that’s meant to keep everyone from noticing how paper-thin the narrative’s depth is, but the thing is, the humor seems like it’s meant to be done by Wright. The jokes are straight out of his play-book, but because they’re not directing in the specific way he would’ve told them, they miss more than they hit.
Paul Rudd seems like a cool-guy though, and I am happy he’s finally having a spotlight for himself, because he’s charismatic and likable. I think he did fine for what he had to work with. The film itself just didn’t have much happening for it, the heist and everything with it, none of it really had me immersed in the same way that some of Marvel’s higher tier flicks like Winter Soldier had. The film plays it safe and is the absolute definition of formula. I am fine with origin stories, and while Marvel likes to do the same thing in each of them, sometimes they do something completely different. This isn’t one of those examples, they take every trope they’ve ever established and do the hell out of it. The love-interest, the generic bad-guy, and the dependency on humor, it’s all there. I think what Marvel is doing is terrific with their Cinematic Universe. Are they over-saturating the market? They’re participating, but they’re only one of three major companies releasing films, and if they could subside some, it wouldn’t be a big deal. But what they’ve done is mind-blowing, and for the most part, it has led to some of the best superhero films and some of the best science-fiction movies. (Guardians of the Galaxy!?) But they do have some mistakes, and while I thought those mistakes were lost after Phase One, this film seems to make all of them.
On the bright-side though, the action-scenes are top-notch. I really liked watching them, and they showed sparks of inspiration and what I’ve come to love about certain comic-book movies. I also liked the nods and references to other members of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which has become a prominent part of Marvel’s balanced breakfast.
In conclusion, I think Ant-Man is likely in my top-three least favorite films of the Universe, but it did have glimpses that made it watchable. Problems riddle it, jokes don’t land, and there isn’t much depth at all, but as a fun, mindless film that seems more phoned-in than what we usually get from Team Marvel, it isn’t too bad.
GIPHY App Key not set. Please check settings