Movie Review: Ant-Man *Spoiler Free*

Movie Review: Ant-Man Spoiler Free

Marvel's Ant-Man is arguably one of the better movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe thus far. Some people have said better than Avengers, Age of Ultron but I wouldn't go quite that far. Mostly because, come on, no Marvel solo movie is ever going to top an Avengers team up - though Winter soldier came close by being a mini team up film.

I'll admit I was disappointed when Edgar Wright departed as the director of this film. Up to that point, for me, it was the most interesting reason to see the film. However Peyton Reed coming in at the eleventh hour to direct, may not have produced the same movie but there's plenty of scenes that still feel a lot like what Edgar may have done.

That said, Peyton's done a sterling job of crafting a film that had a tough act to follow, being the last film in Marvel's Phase 2 and coming straight after an Avengers movie. It does have a bit of of a slow start (certainly not boring) but stick with it as Paul Rudd's transformation into Ant-Man is both fun and awesome, with the finale delivering one of the best and most original fight sequences you'll see in any superhero movie.

Ant-Man is a much smaller story than Age of Ultron and it's actually nice to not have quite so many characters to keep track of. The basic plot sees the original Ant-Man, Hank Pym (Michael Douglas), needing to stop his former protégé, Darren Cross (Corey Stoll), from developing his own version of the Ant-Man technology and enlists the help of former burglar, Scott Lang (Paul Rudd), to don the mantle of the Ant-Man in order to steal Darren's work.

Along the way family relationships come into play with Scott Lang trying to go straight, through regular employment, in order to pay child support and have access to his very young daughter, Cassie (Abby Ryder Fortson). As well Hank Pym has a fairly strained relationship with his daughter, Hope (Evangeline Lilly), who works for Darren at Hank's former company, Pym Tech.

It all sounds fairly straight forward superhero stuff, with a bit of family thrown in but I promise you, you'll see plenty of superhero action here that you haven't seen before. The one place where this movie really succeeds is convincing you that the Ant-Man is one of the coolest superheroes in the MCU thus far because he's not just a guy that shrinks down to ant size. I was skeptical that Ant-Man could be a character I'd get excited about and want to see more of but Paul Rudd is very likeable and the way his powers and abilities are implemented is exceptionally creative. It's just a joy to see him in action.

The way the film is tied into the wider MCU is really well done. The story is fairly self contained but you get enough glimpses of the past and present day MCU that you'll leave excited for what you may see in future Marvel films, starting with Captain America: Civil War, due out next year.

If you're following the MCU then this is a must see chapter that fleshes out a little more history of SHIELD. If you just want to see a good stand alone, fun superhero film this one delivers that too.
I do recommend this film very highly. There's so much good about it that I haven't even mentioned. Well worth seeing in a cinema and a great addition to the MCU. I really hope to see more of Ant-Man in upcoming films.

Comments

James Gunn's Social Media Monkeys Joke Was a Highlight of His Superman Movie For Me

B efore James Gunn's Superman Movie was released there was a whole rumor going around that the movie would feature monkeys on computers trolling Superman's social media, sparking much outrage. #supersh*t. I didn't know this was even a thing until just prior to writing this article. I did a search to see if anyone had posted a clip of the monkeys scene from the movie and got pages of discourse featuring videos and articles prior to the film. Most of it from Gunn detractors (let's say) seeing it as some kind of childish swipe at them... well not them specifically but, you know, those other people who have every right to hate on anything sight unseen. Anyway, I'm not going to give even one such example a link or air because it's kind of sad watching someone devote so much commentary to a throw away gag that is absolutely a nod to James Gunn's Superman trolls. The whole reason this post exists, is to say I loved the joke, because fourteen years ago, and I...

How to Transfer Any Line Art to Your Griptape - Easy Skateboard Griptape Art Tutorial

Dog Star Griptape Art by TET Griptape art is once again gaining popularity amongst modern skateboarders. For those of us who have tried to create our own griptape art, using paint pens, you'll know reproducing your design onto the grip, without making any mistakes is incredibly challenging. Mostly because you just have to go for it and draw the design freehand, with paint pens, directly onto the griptape. You can make the odd mistake here or there but if you get the proportions of the design completely wrong, it can be very difficult to fix. Often you just have to live with the mistake. To address the problem I've come up with an easy way anyone can transfer a line art design to their griptape, removing almost all the anxiety of getting the proportions wrong. In fact, you could do this with any line art design, even if you have no drawing skill at all. Watch the video below to see my technique in action and/or skip past the video where I highlight the basic steps to get your de...

Is AI Art 'Art'? The Say NO to AI Art Movement, and Why Human Artists Will Adapt

AI Art No T-Shirt by TET Also available on other items . Right now there is a big debate over not just whether AI art is 'art' but whether AI's are actually ripping off the work of actual human artists, without their consent, to create their images - particularly images 'in the style of' specific artists. From my own observations this debate started to get more traction when artist's signatures began appearing in the output of AI Art image generators. Is It Art? Cool Froyd the Cat Sketch by TET. My style is very much influenced by classic Disney and WB character styles. To get some clarity on how real human artists work (of which I am one)... we, that is all of us... take influences from the art that has come before. i.e. whatever artists we like, have studied, seen etc. we are influenced by. It shows up in our work, intentionally or not. If you really study my own cartoony art style you'll see I'm heavily influenced by early Disney and Warner Bros cart...

I'm Joining the Illuminati Brotherhood By Personal Invitation of Hiltom Rothschild... Wait, What?

How special am I to have finally come of age (53 years young) and am now eligible to participate in building the world alongside other members of the Illuminati Brotherhood... Yes I've received the call by way of an email, which I'm sure is real because I had to translate it from the Dutch language and it was personally written by Hiltom Rothschild, one of the non-existent members of the Rothschild family (or perhaps deep undercover because Google has never heard of them?). A Transcript of the email below: To: etourist From: Illuminati Brotherhood Subject: Illuminati Broederschap (Illuminati Brotherhood) I am Hiltom Rothschild, a member of the Rothschild family, one of the 13 families of the Illuminati brotherhood. I'm here to let you know that you've come of age and are eligible to participate in building the 🌎 world. It is a calling and a privilege to honor him with pride and gratitude as not everyone will ever be chosen by the LIGHT, many are called but few are ch...

Skateboarders Who Ever Dreamed of Dropping In on a City Building - Sandro Dias Just Lived Your Dream

Dias's drop-in from one of the lower platforms for practice. Image: © Marcelo Maragni/Red Bull I f you're a skateboarder living in a city you've probably looked at a building that has skate ramp vibes and imagined dropping in on it... well Professional Skateboarder, Sandro Dias didn't just imagine. The Perth Telstra Building as depicted in this fantasy poster print, Forbidden Skate Ramp by Harry Young. If you lived in Perth, Western Australia, any skateboarder who saw the top of the Telstra Building likely had the same thought about the ramp like quarter pipe at the top. Also, back in the day there was a classic skateboarding poster going the rounds that depicted Sydney as a literal skatepark with ramps built up, down, and over numerous buildings. Sandro Dias, who broke the record for the world's tallest drop-in on the 26th September 2025 by dropping in on a mega ramp built on the side of the curved façade of the 22-storey Centro Administrativo Fernando Ferrari (C...

Commodore Computers Are On Their Way Back With a New CEO and Many of the Original Team Founders

Commodore 64 Ultimate: Starlight Edition. An updated C64 for today. C hances are, if you grew up in the 1970s and 80's, the first computer your family owned was a Commodore 64 (or possibly the Vic-20, also by Commodore, that preceded it). I taught myself to code in BASIC on our Commodore 64 (C64), making ASCII based games (i.e. graphics made from the letters and symbols assigned to the various keyboard keys). I coded a Tic Tac Toe two player game, a simple shooting gallery game, and a flash card game to help me learn the Periodic Table, which (much to my... I want to say horror... got me bumped up to an advanced science class in high school). Later I'd go on to dabbling in true 8 bit, and 16 and 32 bit, graphical games, when we upgraded to the C128, Amiga 500, then Amiga 600, but I never actually finished anything because, by then I'd gotten into skateboarding, so I was trying to make my ultimate skateboard game - ambitious much? It was Commodore machines that showed me mak...

The Worst Book I Have Ever Read - Gulp: Travels Around the Gut by Mary Roach

TET and Mary Roach's Book, Gulp . I 'm the kind of person who only reads one physical book at a time. For context I consider a 'book' to be anything over 100 pages of mostly text. Basically your typical work of fiction novel or factual biography. It's not that I can't read more than one book at a time, I just choose not to because I don't set a lot of time aside for reading. Maybe 30 minutes a day when I'm on a good run with a really engaging text. Little did I know that Mary Roach's Gulp: Travels Around the Gut *, a book of 317 pages (minus the Acknowledgments and Bibliography) would become a bottle neck for my reading for the next three and a half years. As such, I'm calling it the worst book I have ever read. Despite how long it took me to read, it is not a bad book in the slightest, and is in fact, quite light, somewhat entertaining, reading for a book that explores the science, and the resilience of the human digestive system. I'm no st...

TET.Life (The Extraordinary Tourist Life)

Search This Blog