So I decided to wait a few days after viewing the movie, because I left simply thinking:
AWESOME!!!!! OHMYGOD! OHMYGOD! OHMYGOD!
Which, although a good representation of my mind at the time, doesn't necessarily make for a good review.
So here we are, about half a week later, and it's time for me to dig in, which I'll do in five points:
1) Spider-Man is pretty much point-on.
Tom Holland (In the Heart of the Sea), was, for me, the breakout surprise of the film. Yes, he was shown in the second trailer, but the film (and the actor) does such a good job of bringing Spider-Man to life, that even though he only in the film for ten minutes or so. Seriously, Spider-Man was worth the ticket price alone.
2) The movie is two and a half hours long, but uses it all wisely. As compared to say Age of Ultron or perhaps more specifically Batman & Robin (1997), the movie has an even dozen superheroes, all of which have extensive backstories and motivations, and gives each of them good service. Obviously most of the focus goes to Captain America and Iron Man, but even the smaller players, like Vision and Ant-Man, have scenes which develop their characters while moving the story forward.
3) The de-aging effect introduced in Ant-Man is still blowing me away. Yes the film has some spectacular effects, things explode and the action is quite intense, but an early scene showing a teen aged Tony Stark interacting with his parents shocked me with how seamless it looked.
4) Yes, some of the sides chosen seemed to feel like a way to make sure the teams were even. A sort of "team A already has a flyer - let's move him to team b", did feel a little artificial, but the result had me overlooking the issue at the time.
5) The Black Panther gets a great introduction. Without going into spoilers, Chadwick Boseman's Black Panther is served quite well by the film, making a character, new to most of the audience, one in which they'd like to follow into a standalone film. A great addition to the film, and definitely helped to show more of an Avengers World.
The movie is well worth watching, and although I'll admit, in many ways I'm a cheap date when it comes to Marvel movies, I'm continually impressed by how much I, a Canadian, am enjoying the Captain America franchise.
All right, before I begin my review of Ant-Man I have to begin by stating my bias.
I'm a fan of Superhero movies.
I'm a fan of Paul Rudd.
I'm a father of daughters.
As this Superhero film starring Paul Rudd focuses quite strongly on the internal relationships between fathers and daughters, I was pretty much sold.
The movie has a great sense of humour about itself, works more as a heist movie, and kicks up the comedy quite nicely as compared to all the Sturm und Drang that comprised Avengers: Age of Ultron, and although it does tie in strongly to the earlier film, (Cameos, name dropping, and many references to both Tony Stark and his Father), I found the film stood quite nicely on its own, and here (mild spoilers) where three of my favourite bits.
1) Michael Douglas as Hank Pym circa 1989 - although only occurring in a scene for about three minutes, I was pretty blown away by how they got this seventy-year-old actor looking like he had recently finished filming Wallstreet (1987) - I know this has been done recently with both Schwarzenegger in the Terminator Franchise and Jeff Bridges in Tron Legacy, but seriously, this looked really good, and added a nice touch of historical context to the story.
2) The lack of massive-level destruction - although there was a lot I liked about Man of Steel (2013), watching an entire city get leveled in wave after wave of mechanized destruction, I'm feeling a little worn out on on the whole massive-level of destruction used in a lot of these films, whereas Ant-Man nicely side-steps this by playing the destruction on a much smaller (pun intended) level.
3) The use of a technique wherein a narrator speaks for everyone in a flashback - although Comedy Central's Drunk History has been using this technique for years, I first came across it in Max Landis' The Death and Return of Superman, which was both a wonderful way to spend fifteen minutes (which you can do here) shows just how effective this technique can be.
The movie is a lot of fun, and if you've been sitting on the fence about it, honestly, go check it out, it's a lot of fun and a different flavour than you may be expecting. I for one, am hoping for a sequel.
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