Little Package, Surprisingly Big Results
Grab your seats, class is in session.
The Professor is finally checking back in, kids. It’s been a while, due to some things here and there, but I’m trying to get back into the grind. Bare with me, it may take a little bit. The movie I saw today, however, deemed it necessary to get back. Today I checked out the newest Marvel release:
Now, anyone who knows me knows I’m a pretty skeptical guy. When they announced that they were doing an Ant-Man movie, I almost immediately thought it was going to be bad. It’s not exactly a major character with a huge following or a terribly interesting history. The most interesting thing about Hank Pym was his being the creator of Ultron, which has already been changed by Marvel. They gave that honor to Tony Stark. Then I heard that the idea behind the movie wasn’t even going to be Pym as the main character, it was going to be Scott Lang. Admittedly, I knew very little about Lang as I had stop collecting comics by then, but even still I was annoyed. Hank Pym was always the more famous Ant-Man, so why change that? Then I heard that the main star was going to be Paul Rudd. I’m not an anti-Rudd guy, but to me, there was no way he could pull off the superhero persona. He’s a comedic guy, it just wouldn’t fit. Then I heard Michael Douglas was in to play Hank Pym. An old Pym? Why? This movie was going to tank. But then it was Edgar Wright at the helm. Ok, now I’m leaning back in again. I love Wright. Shaun of the Dead is one of my all time favorite movies. It was now getting interesting. Unfortunately, Wright was not long for this movie and they moved on. I was back in the camp of this movie will suck. I’m very glad to announce that I was wrong.
This was a fun, fun movie. They managed to take a weird superhero and turn it into an action star. Paul Rudd? He was great. Totally smashed my opinion of his just being a comedic star. Yes, this movie was heavy in the comedy realm, but he also brought a lot of emotion to the character that made him someone you almost instantly rooted for. I won’t tell his story here, but trust me when I say it’s hard not to be on his side. Evangeline Lilly I didn’t know a lot about aside from the Hobbit movies. I didn’t watch Lost or Smallville, so that was my only exposure to her and while I liked her character in the Hobbit, to me it wasn’t one that stood out too much. As Hope Van Dyne? Definitely an excellent performance. She brings a new, strong female character that I’m sure people will be very happy to see. We’ll be seeing more of her in future movies, you can tell. And Michael Douglas? Not sure why I thought he would be anything less than awesome. He’s Michael Douglas, one of the best actors of all time and here was no different. His portrayal of Hank Pym is just fantastic. His tortured scientist and father role, as well as his mentor to Lang role, is perfect. I really hope he makes more appearances too.
The main star in this movie though, for me, was the action. Granted, it does take the movie a little bit to get going, but once it does, it takes off. The fight scenes are surprisingly good, considering how they had to be done. It could not have been easy to choreograph fights where a character is constantly shrinking and growing, but whomever they used did a great job with it.
Did I like everything? No, not this time around. I was not a huge fan of Corey Stoll as the main villain. He wasn’t bad, but he wasn’t exactly memorable either. He does enough to make himself hateable, but it wasn’t really a standout performance. I also wasn’t a huge fan of the “team” Lang works with. It was a little too slap-sticky at times for my liking, but it doesn’t really take you out of the movie. I can’t say I know another way they’d have been able to make it work, but maybe they could have toned the characters down a little bit.
Overall, this was a pleasant surprise of a movie. I can honestly say this is probably now in my top five of all the Marvel movies they have done to date, I enjoyed it that much. If you’re on the fence, and a fan of the Marvel movies, go check it out in the theater. I don’t think you’ll regret it. Stick around for the credits too, there’s two scenes that are very, very cool.
Until next time…
Class dismissed.
