Ant Man Review

First let me address the elephant in the room. Yes, I know Edgar Wright, the director of comedy classics like Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, was supposed to direct Marvel's Ant Man but he left due to creative differences. However, Marvel still decided to use some of Wright's original script for the movie and even gave him writing credits. Odds are in a few years Wright's original script and ideas may find there way online but for now I am reviewing what Ant Man I saw in theaters, the Peyton Reed directed version. For what its worth, I thought it was pretty good.

I wouldn't say its up to par as other Marvel films like Guardians of the Galaxy or Winter Soldier but still it is enjoyable for all audiences. I enjoyed Paul Rudd's performance as thief turned hero Scott Lang as well as Michael Douglas's performance as Hank Pym, the original Ant Man for all you non comic book readers. In fact, most of the actors do a pretty good job in this movie. However there is the black sheep that is Michael Pena's character, Luis. I have read many reviews that thought Pena's character resembled more of a stereotype than an actual person and the same was said about the rest of Scott's heist crew. I however found both Pena's and the rest of the crews acting to be quite enjoyable, even though I could see some ethnic stereotype oozing out. But its nothing too offensive so don't worry PC people of today. Now onto the plot.

The basic plot of the story is that Scott Lang is a thief who wants to do good because he needs money to pay for child support so he can see his daughter again. He comes across the Ant Man suit during a theft from there ends up being trained by the original Ant Man, Hank Pym, so that he can enter a research facility to steal the Yellow Jacket suit made by Pym's former associate Darren Cross, played by Corey Stoll. However, Hank's daughter Hope believes that she should be in the suit but her father won't let her because he is afraid he'll lose her like he did her mother. From there its your basic Marvel super hero story. Good guy fights bad guy, lessons are learned, pasts revealed, a Stan Lee cameo, and Avengers build up.

One can really tell where the Wright script is being used and where the revised version is being used. I can't help feeling that Wright wanted to make it more of a comedy action film like Hot Fuzz while Marvel wanted a super hero heist movie. Marvel also felt like this is just the precursor to the Civil War movie that comes in 2016, the same year Batman and Superman are supposed too duke it out for the first time on screen. That being said there are a lot of Avengers references in this movie, including a cameo by one of them as well as their new base. But the cameo was worth because it gave us a cool scene and some connection to future films. There is also a subtle hint of a certain swinging and wall crawling super hero that is set to debut in the MCU soon. These were probably added on once Marvel got the rights to said character.

One thing I did enjoy about the movie was the Ant Man suit. Whenever there was a shrinking scene it looked damn impressive. You can really tell Marvel had to wait until the technology was right to make this movie. The fight scenes that feature the Ant Man suit are some of the most fun fights in super hero movies with things shrinking a growing quickly. Thankfully scale gags were used very little in this movie which is a good thing as I would have grown tired of them.

Ant Man is a great movie for the Marvel cannon. It's a fun movie that builds up something bigger in the near future. Mind you however that there is some serious tone issues. The film tries to mix Wright's script with the Marvel script and it makes for some odd tone issues. But if you can look past those I'm sure you can enjoy the film.

Minions Review

With the ever growing popularity of Disney Pixar's Inside Out, it is safe to say that movie going public lost interest in the Illumination Entertainment's newest addition to the Despicable Me franchise, the Minions movie.

Now the idea of telling the backstory about the small, yellow, pill shaped assistants to the despicable Gru sounds like an interesting idea until you remember that the whole movie has to feature the Minions. Don't get me wrong I enjoy the Minions but I don't think they can carry an entire movie. They were usage is best as comic reliefs to the drama surrounding Gru and his adopted daughters. The Minions use a language that mixes Spanish, English, and gibberish. Starting to see where people can get a little annoyed? Now a little Minion gag here and there would be just fine but a whole movie dedicated to the small annoyances does not sound fun. But I have to be honest, I smiled through the whole movie. 

The plot revolves around three minions named Kevin, Stuart and Bob as they try to look for the most evilest master in the world. They do this because this is all the minions know, working for an almighty evil, and without that all mighty evil to work for the minions get depressed and may eventually die. Eventually, the trio finds their new master in the form of Scarlett Overkill, voiced by Sandra Bullock, and her husband Herb, voiced by Mad Men star Jon Hamm. Both provide fun performances, especially when Bullock's character starts acting crazy. But their performances fail to elicit a reaction that a certain "despicable" character gets at the end of the movie. All the kids in theater were happy to see this character pop up and interact with the minions during the credits. It made me wonder why we didn't get that movie instead. The minions growing up with the person would have had the heart felt drama the first Despicable Me film had.

Deep down I enjoy the Despicable Me movies, there is something so upbeat and enjoyable about them that I find myself coming back to the movies whenever they are on TV. But all good products are not without their faults. For instance, the second movie gave popularity to the either loved or hated song "Happy" by Pharell Williams. Also, a lot of characters just straight up die in the Minions movie. These aren't sad or dramatic events but rather if the comedic violence of Tom and Jerry had grim consequences. There was also a lot of adult jokes in the film which felt weird. Not Ted 2 level, but it's there when you see it.

While the minions themselves can get annoying, I'm talking near Jar-Jar Binks level of annoying, it never got to the point where I wanted to leave the theater, unlike a certain Jai Courtney film made me do. Overall the movie Minions as well as the Despicable Me franchise is fun and harmless. Inside Out is the far superior product in theaters but Minions offers something different and fun for kids and adults.