Why I'm watching
We were bored, full of burritos, and didn’t feel like going home yet.
Where I watched the movie
Local cinema.
Expectations
Another fairly good Marvel movie. Didn't seem quite as good, but reviews have been positive, so I had no idea what to expect.
So how was it?
Your typical divorced, down-on-his-luck, great-dad-trying-his-best character -- in this case, a cat burglar trying to find gainful employment -- bumbles his way into superhero powers. He then faces down your typical bald, egomaniacal, high-threadcount nemesis, helped by your typical grumpy-but-moral washed-out old scientist guy, and your typical badass hot woman who resents him for most of the movie, then kisses him.
Now with more ants!
It’s definitely worth a watch, and the story is fun, but don’t expect anything on the level of the main Avengers movies (Avengers, Captain America, Guardians of the Galaxy, etc.)
Recommendation
Fans of more comedic comic book movies; for some reason, this felt 90s to me, or like a Jim Carrey movie.
Feels
Fun, funny, family friendly.
Favorites
It might be by-the-book, but oh my god this movie got the comedy right. The fight scenes manage to be both awesome and completely ridiculous. See this for the fight scenes if nothing else -- no, actually, see this for the sidekicks if nothing else. His friends provide a constant background of hilarity, and it actually works with the story (rather than being obnoxious “comic relief”).
Least favorites
Maybe it’s just me -- I’ve been noticing this with a lot of movies recently -- but it felt extremely heavy-handed. We don’t need six conversations, several longing looks, and a close-up on the hero writing out his own motivation in a notebook (“when I get to see Daughter”) to understand that he loves his daughter and needs money to support her. But, whatever, the movie doesn’t take itself too seriously for this to really put me off.
There's some great casting on certain characters, but on the other hand, other actors just dragged everything down. The villain was good, but either the actor or the script (or the director) overdid it. But the worst was Michael Douglas; he was just completely out of place. I don't know what went wrong there, but he was not good.
So what did I really think?
Click "read more"... massive spoilers ahead!
The WORST was the love interest’s plot. The entire movie -- the entire reason we have this guy as Ant-man in the first place -- hinges on the fact that oh no no no, we can’t let the woman do this. She’s completely trained to use the suit, communicate with ants, throw a punch (better than he can!), etc. etc. etc. She grew up with this stuff, and probably helped develop it. And she's more than physically capable. But instead of using her, they have 2-3 days to train some random guy up to her speed. Because daddy doesn’t want his
And we’re very clearly supposed to emphasize with the father on this. Not only is it horrifically anti-feminist, it’s just plain stupid.
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