Monday, May 2, 2016

Ant-Man (2015)



As all film genres go, with the amount of superhero movies that have seen the light of day already, it is hard not to admit, looking forward to one more superhero movie- no matter how big the bang and how ludicrously cast the star donning the suit- just feels bloody tiring.

The saturation level has been breached. I mean seriously, its exhausting.

After all, there are only so many ways that a building, or a block of buildings or a whole god damn city can be levelled (the worst way of course being the one Kal El opts for while defeating General Zod, in Zack "IMMA SLOWMO THE SHIT OUTTA THIS" Snyder's CGI orgy ode to the last thirty minutes of Matrix Revolutions)

Which might be why I gave this a miss for quite a while.

And now I figured, heck, if I'm idle enough to watch a piece of shit likeBatman v Superman: Dawn of Justice through till the end credits (Kickass batman, rest is as bad as what one sees every morning when one gets up and looks down before pressing the flush... just kidding... not as bad... I was trying to sugar coat... its way worse than that), I might as well watch something thats been receiving favourable reviews as well.

And behold, I loved Ant-Man.

Marvel finally seems to have found the answer to the big time saturation level breach that I mentioned earlier. And that is: Don't aim big. Aim small.

Literally.

This is a good superhero movie, and more so, a good movie. Paul Rudd is likeable as the guy donning the suit and Michael Douglas is a great addition to the list of mentors who take up half the screen-time in every superhero origin film.

Forgettable villain, yes. But I'm not sure if making him more villainous would've helped much.

Aside from the fact that the film doesn't take itself too seriously, two other things that I was happy to note were:

- They've gone 'Small' with just about everything here. So no epic boom and crash scenes. Yay! Even the final showdown between hero and villain happens inside a little girl's bedroom. AND JUST THE ROOF GETS DAMAGED! JUST THE ROOF!

- References to the Avengers initiative blend in smoothly unlike the eyesores Snyder gave me through his terrible Easter eggs to the Justice League universe in BvS.
Thoroughly enjoyable watch. I give it three out of five.

PS: Would've loved to see what Edgar Wright could've done with this material had he not walked out during production. His style of direction still shines through in some scenes despite his absence.

Catch trailer here:



3 comments:

Tejas Chitre said...

Still have the same apprehensions as you. Reconsidering after your recco. Also why did you watch BvS?

Ravi Kumar said...

I watched it because I'm prone to being stupid sometimes. :p

Have you seen Civil War though? That's a superhero film done right.

Tejas Chitre said...

Haha there really isn't any better reason for watching that abomination (going by the reviews and trailers).

On Civil War, Yes in did watch, in 3D Imax no less. But I'm done with superhero movies. Except for that Supremely awesome Airport Scene, I was close to snoring. Only went because I loved Winter Soldier but now I dont know.

The only exception is Guardians of Galaxy. Those bunch of A-Holes get another chance :)