Sunday 4 October 2015

Film Review - Ant-Man



 

Tiny Action Hero

Film: Ant-man
Cast: Paul Rudd, Michael Douglas, Evangeline Lilly
Directed by: Peyton Reed
Duration: 1 hr 57 mins
Rating: * * * 

Superhero films have reached a point of saturation. Firstly, there has been a plethora of super hero films in the last few years since studios have realized that it is a relatively easy way to make money. But worse, they all pretty much follow the same formula of crash, boom bang with the hero managing to save the day just in the nick of time.

Cashing on the success of such films, Marvel has introduced Ant-man, one of the less popular characters but a super hero all the same.  For a large part, Ant-man appears to be run of the mill stuff – the lead character has personal issues, family issues till he gets a chance to redeem himself. The last quarter of the film, especially the climax is the saving grace. 

Paul Rudd plays Scott Lang, a small time burglar who is separated from his wife and daughter. Dr. Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) a scientist has made a breakthrough invention that could change the world. For fear of it falling in the wrong hands, he doesn’t go the distance. But the bad guy (Corey Stoll) running the corporation does. 

As it has been happened since the days of The Seven Samurai, small time crooks are used to fight the more evil ones. Dr. Pym recruits Scott to be Ant-man, a super hero with a suit who can vanish, become really tiny (like Honey I Shrunk The Kids) and also command an army of ants. Dr. Pym’s daughter Hope (Evangeline Lilly) lends them support during the fight with the villain who like other villains, is aspiring to become the most powerful man in the world. 

Given that Ant-man can become really tiny, gives the director a lot of scope to work around in terms of the visuals. A fight scene atop Thomas the train is very well choreographed and it is only towards the end the film comes into its element. 

Establishing the characters has been a major issue with recent super hero films, they all have been walking on the road much travelled. Mercifully, the tone of Ant-man is on the lighter side with jokes coming in every now and then. 

To be fair, it hits a few roadblocks but delivers the goods in the end. 

Published in The Navhind Times on 26th July 2015

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