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
No comments:
Post a Comment