His Movie Review: Ant Man (2015)

Why he watched it: Getting generally good reviews

His rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars

His review: Of all the superheroes in comics and the movies, the Hulk is by far my favorite. If we are drawn to the superhero we wish we could be, then I definitely want to the giant, powerful creature driven by rage. Something about letting go of thought, of diplomacy, and simply destroying stuff is my fantasy.

Shrinking to the size of ant, is therefore, the antithesis of that fantasy. Hence, this film lacks that personal connection for me. As a film, it hits all the superhero buttons—good guy, bad guy, and the world at stake. It also has the wise older mentor, the funny sidekick, and the love interest, the fight scenes and the setup for the sequel. The hero has a bit of Tony Stark’s sarcasm, but not his egoism. The mentor is Captain America, saving the world from his technology and harboring a personal tragedy caused by that technology. The bad guy is a bad guy, driven (but not really fully convincing) by the mentor’s rejection.

And the technology—I guess it’s cool, shrinking and controlling ants. I wasn’t awed by it, but it works in this paint-by-numbers mix. I can understand the critiques about the sidekicks being ethnic and stereotypical, although there was an attempt with the Latino sidekick to challenge the stereotype (he is a wine and art connoisseur). I liked how his stories are told—those scenes are fun.

Nothing really special in this movie, but not the worse Marvel film (Howard the Duck? Daredevil? The first Hulk?). Perhaps even better than Age of Ultron.