Ant-Man

26 Replies

 

Ant-Man reminded me a lot of the first Iron Man movie (which started this recent superhero craziness) so it makes a nice bookend as we close out Phase 2 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It is a small, focused and mostly self-contained movie about some good-hearted criminals who can’t be that good at their jobs since they all have served significant time in prison. But for whatever reason, Michael Douglas takes a liking to Paul Rudd. And really, it makes sense because Paul Rudd seems like a guy who you could trust with your superhero suit. So after a fairly long lead in, Paul Rudd learns to be Ant-Man and saves the world

The thing about superhero movies is: the plot doesn’t matter anymore. Every origin story is going to be the same, more or less. What separates the good from the bad is whether the movie (a) feels new or novel in some way; (b) makes you care about the characters and/or the outcome, even after having seen like 30 movies in this genre; and (c) makes you want to see the character join the Avengers/Guardians/Justice League for their next movie. On those criteria, Ant-Man is a smashing success.

I felt like this was something new and a movie that could have stood on its own. I cared about Ant-Man and wanted him to succeed. And after seeing Ant-Man, I hope that he joins the Avengers, if nothing else so we can see him interact with all of them.

And if/when Ant-Man jumps to the team, i hope Michael Pena tags along. He’s the funniest part about this movie and a huge reason why I enjoyed it as much as I did. Which was a lot, so i give Ant-Man nine subatomic superheroes out of ten!

Adding to the fun were the rumble seats, which are called D-Box at Cineplex for some reason. They were hard to choose over VIP at Lansdowne (food and alcohol delivery to my seat is the best thing i can think of) but now they’re in Gloucester too so that makes them easier to recommend. I would pay the extra money again for an action movie.  Just be sure to turn the chair to its max setting, because obviously you want the most shake available! It’s not quite up to par with all the immersive movie rides we recently went on at Universal but it’s still fun and worth a try for the punching effect by itself. I look forward to trying them for Southpaw.

26 thoughts on “Ant-Man”

  1. Created by RCW

    Nice write up and completely agree with your angle on what needs to happen to make these films most enjoyable. Haven’t yet worked up the stomach to try the theatre rumble seats…fun watching others get thrown around, however.

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      1. seanathant Post author

        Paul Rudd is always great, regardless of the script quality, and I liked the casting choice a lot. Especially because its Broadway connection for Jay and I as we’ve seen him on stage there. And we also saw Bobby Canavale there of course, because he is in everything!

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  3. Brittani

    Great review! I agree about Pena, he was my favorite part of the movie. The getaway crew needs to tag along with Ant-Man wherever he goes. Wasp can stay at home though, I wasn’t a fan of her.

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  4. In My Cluttered Attic

    Folks I’ve talked to who have seen it, liked the movie. The trailers didn’t didn’t spike my interest enough to want to go see it (though trailers—these days—generally do nothing for me anyway, and give far too much away), but now I’m curious enough to see what all the fuss is about.

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    1. seanathant Post author

      I agree there have been a ton of spoiler filled trailers recently. Minions and Paul Blart 2 come to mind as ones where they seem to have not even considered whether they were giving too much away.

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      1. In My Cluttered Attic

        Your right seanathant, those two movie trailers were excellent examples. In recent years trailers for films seem to have been giving us the cliff note version of a movie. If we don’t want to see it, at least we can say, we saw it already. Fortunately for those of us who do—we can say we won’t have to pay the multi-plex price, and can now wait for the DVD.

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  5. Jay

    Nice review, Sean. I liked this too and for once I didn’t have a lot of follow-up questions afterward, which means they actually made a movie that doesn’t alienate the half of the audience that is accompanying the rabid half. WE’RE the ones they need to win over, after all. I definitely like Michael Pena as you know I always do, and felt that Paul Rudd was not sublimated by the suit, thank god. Felt it was a little nasty to tease me with John Slattery and then yank him away.

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  6. Jay

    I was not, however, totally won over by the rumble seats. If you like, you could pay me $10 to sit beside you during Southpaw, and I’ll gladly punch you repeatedly. Otherwise I’m not sure I’d do it again. Yes, comparing them to the immersive rides at Universal is probably unfair, but the comparison is there, and these are very pale indeed.

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  8. ruth

    LOVED Michael Pena here, he’s a great comic relief. The movie is a lot of fun and Paul Rudd is an effortlessly likable actor, so that helps.

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