Ant-Man

Ant-Man is a huge surprise for me this year. As one of this year's few blockbusters, it didn't impress me much with its trailer, it was very sterile and uninteresting and was a shoo-in for the weakest Marvel movie, but oh how wrong I was. Ant-Man is very creative, inventive, overly funny to the point I was sorry I couldn't roll on the carpet in the cinema (that was taken care of by the discovery of Michael Peña, every time he was on screen he put a smile on my face). The action is clear, detailed and I've not had the opportunity to see action from this perspective anywhere before, so it was pleasantly refreshing. Paul Rudd portrays an ordinary guy, he's no chiseled model, but just an ordinary struggling father who has bad luck, you can easily relate to him being a likable guy. Evangeline Lilly is a seductive and promising babe, Michael Douglas is actually the only acting class in Ant-Man with an amazing facelift at the beginning, and Corey Stoll, I have a minor complaint about this guy, he didn't really stand out for me as the villain (he didn't have much room either), Marvel has pulled out bigger aces in this area. But anyway I dare say Ant-Man is the funniest and most entertaining Marvel movie ever. The highlight is definitely the unusual finale and Scott's heist skills. (16/07/2015)

Probably the funniest Marvel movie to date. The absolutely incredible Michael Peña steals every scene, even if he’s just passing through. A classic structure of the birth of a hero clad with original ideas and it’s fun. Edgar right obviously played about with the story. The beginning without action is really refreshing and the finale is packed with ideas. Infiltration, the fly trap, the keyring, the fight on the little train. Everyone’s going to go on about Hamster in a Nightshirt (I just love that series), but originality is long since a thing of the past in this branch. Paul Rudd gives a decent performance, no surprises, but plays his part, Douglas enjoys playing Pym and he shows in the intro just what a great choice he was. I’m very happy about Evangeline Lilly and I hope we see her in the future Avengers, there can never be too many good (and attractive) female roles. Corey Stoll stays surprisingly in the background with no surprises up his sleeve. I don’t know how much Peyton Reed remolded Wright’s original vision, but the result is still first-rate family entertainment with a pinch of heist. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggP5YDziMSY (15/07/2015)

It's the same thing over and over again, only with family values coming more to the fore, as well as clearly defined characters and more humour, especially provided by Michael Peña. If there's anything new to talk about here, it's the central character's perks, as the visual antics are carefully staged and the zooming in and out is handled in a brilliant, dynamic, and entertaining way. Sadly, though, Peyton Reed is otherwise pretty much a routine man, because a script this leaky can't be in a movie with any ambition, and that goes for Marvel's save-the-world movies as well. (14/12/2015)

This is the least uniform Marvel movie material, with the original creator peeking out at you from every other scene. It’s in the hands of an old hand fulfilling a studio assignment that clearly meant stepping on the gas in family values and withdrawing his hand on a miniature goofing around (the parrot model run and the train finale literally scream for extra minutes). The protagonists, pure as lilies (the scars from the past are more so cosmetic, without the need to dissect them more), are quite boring, and Michael Peña's sidekick is the best. 3 ½. (08/11/2015)

Marvel saves the world for the thirty-sixth time, in the same story template, just by slightly different means and with more jokes. And that’s what they want to keep serving us for the next years. There’s nothing wrong with this movie, it just has nothing new to offer me. But the acting’s pleasant and the technical aspect perfect in the traditional Marvel fashion. The de-aged Michael Douglas is even better than the de-aged Schwarzenegger was in Terminator Genisys, it’s chilling. (16/07/2015)