Ant-Man

posterI know you are all waiting to hear whether or not I liked Ant-Man. I thought it was pretty awesome. It reminded me a bit of Iron Man with the way it blended action with humor. It also kept the story fairly simple. Scott becomes Ant-Man, takes on bad guy, defeats bad guy. What else do you really need? Was it perfect? No, but it was definitely fun.

What I Liked

-Paul Rudd. He was fantastic as Scott Lang. He is pretty great in anything. There were definitely some hilarious scenes. The part where Hope and Hank have their reconciliation and Lang ruins it by pointing it out. I liked that they stuck with his background as a computer expert who turns to burglary (I also enjoy that he uses the verb burgled). It was also cool how they made him into an internet hero since he robbed from the rich and gave the money to the poor.

-The rest of the cast was pretty good. I loved Michael Douglas as Hank Pym and I definitely liked how they made him the original Ant-Man. He was a covert SHIELD operative with a special suit. This also allows Marvel to make another Ant-Man film set in the 1970s or so. I always love Evangeline Lilly (although I wish Sawyer would show up in every film she is in and call her Freckles). Also, Michael Pena was hilarious.

-The climatic battle with Yellowjacket. They did not make it ridiculous. I loved how they were fighting on the toy train set and when one of them would throw a train car at the other, the camera would go back to normal mode and show the toy landing harmlessly on the ground. As I said many times when watching the previews, I would be really upset if there was a scene of something crashing into a building and Ant-Man having to stop it.

-I also enjoyed that even though there were plenty of cameos, the movie did not make them seem too obtrusive. They fit in with the flow of the film. Does that make sense? Allow me to explain. One of the complaints I have heard was that those cameos feel like marketing for other films. However, I would argue that isn’t that the entire point of this expanded universe?

I like that Scott’s first response when told about what they are up against is to call the Avengers. Then when he tries to break into the place where Hank has his hickermadoodle it turns out to be the Avengers new base of operations. It would be a little weird if he did not come up against another super-hero. The fight between he and the Falcon was really cool. There was no long explanation as to who the Falcon is, the movie just assumes you have seen the other films. Call me crazy, but I enjoyed it.

The Stuff I Was Not So Cool With

-The actual plot. I get that this suit is pretty badass. And I enjoy that Hydra is there trying to buy this technology, but can someone explain how armies of little guys would be better than armies of Ultrons? Not the Ultrons that can be easily defeated by a bow ‘n arrow, but the actual tough ones that have to exist somewhere. Yes, the Yellowjacket suit would be great for spy stuff, but it would not really replace whatever full-scale army someone was trying to build. I mean Ant-Man had enough troubles with Falcon’s cool goggles that detected him. 4551768-6290241984-ant-m

-Also, did no one at Pym Tech (soon to be Cross Tech?) think it was weird that the building was being infested with bugs. It would have been cool to see an Orkin man show up and start spraying the building.

-Why does Hope’s suit (if you saw the mid-credit scene) have wings? I get that she will be the new Wasp, but if you can put wings on her suit, why can’t Scott get some wings? Why does he have to fly on an ant’s back?

-I am confused about the end credits scene. Why do Falcon and Captain America need Ant-Man’s help? If you did not stick around, allow me to explain the scene. The two of them are looking at Bucky Barnes (Winter Soldier) and Falcon says maybe they should ask Tony for help and Cap says “no he is stuck at the accords” (or something to that effect), then Falcon says “I may know a guy…” and the screen goes black with “Ant-Man will return…”

Obviously this ties in with Captain America: Civil War. But again, how will Scott be able to help with Bucky? Yes, they may want Scott on their anti-registration team (I am guessing that is what Civil War is about), but would that be the best time to discuss it? I also could not tell if Bucky’s arm was pinned under something and maybe they need someone with advanced mechanics knowledge? Not really sure this counts as something I did not like, just something that bugged me.

I liked the movie. I feel like this is one of the few that I could watch a few more times. Lately I have been thinking about that criteria and I wonder how well the Marvel films will hold up? That will need to be something for another day.

Author: Ngewo