Karen: OK, the movie has been out for nearly a week -go ahead and discuss it freely (that includes SPOILERS)!
Doug: We'll start, as we have in the past with some banter lifted over to this site from some email exchanges we've shared in the past few days. Obviously then you follow (for those of you who have seen the flick) with agreements and disagreements of your own. Again, if you've not seen the film and don't want to know about it, then get the heck out of here now!
Doug: We'll start, as we have in the past with some banter lifted over to this site from some email exchanges we've shared in the past few days. Obviously then you follow (for those of you who have seen the flick) with agreements and disagreements of your own. Again, if you've not seen the film and don't want to know about it, then get the heck out of here now!
Doug: Going to see Ant-Man at 1:30 on Monday (7/20/15). My oldest son saw it today (7/18/15). He liked
it; says it has a good sense of humor. Said the two end of credits
scenes were big.
Karen: We saw Ant-Man yesterday (7/18/15) and I enjoyed it. I wasn’t expecting much nor was I that excited about it but it was a fun film. I’d probably give it a solid B. They managed to make shrinking look cool. I agree with your boy, the two credit scenes were really good!
Doug: I just saw it and loved it! It's not better than either of the Avengers or either of the Cap films, but I think I enjoyed it more than Iron Man 3. Shoot -- if you melded the two Thor films together you'd get one great Thor film. So I'd rank this right in the thick of the Marvel Studios pictures.
Karen: We saw Ant-Man yesterday (7/18/15) and I enjoyed it. I wasn’t expecting much nor was I that excited about it but it was a fun film. I’d probably give it a solid B. They managed to make shrinking look cool. I agree with your boy, the two credit scenes were really good!
Doug: I just saw it and loved it! It's not better than either of the Avengers or either of the Cap films, but I think I enjoyed it more than Iron Man 3. Shoot -- if you melded the two Thor films together you'd get one great Thor film. So I'd rank this right in the thick of the Marvel Studios pictures.
Doug: Loved
the humor in the film. I think Marvel is onto something with Guardians of the Galaxy
and Ant-Man. Not that I'm saying all of their films should be borderline
comedies, but it's a refreshing sort of humor -- not fall-flat humor
like they attempt with the annoying lab asst. in the Thor movies.
Karen: I
really enjoyed it as well. I liked that it was light and fun, that it
didn't take itself seriously yet didn't spoof the material. It walked a
fine line, knowing how to work the humor of the premise and yet not turn
the whole thing into a joke. One of the trailers we got with it was for
"Batman v. Superman" and I kept returning to the contrast between the
two. Frankly, I like some humor in my super-hero films. They're people
in costumes with super-powers running around doing fantastic things
-there should be some light moments!
Doug: The
Special effects were good, and I just loved the final battle in the play room.
It really evoked some of the Dick Sprang Batman comics. I thought the effects folks did a nice job of giving off the idea that Scott Lang was really shrinking and growing, rather than disappearing and reappearing.
Karen: One
thing they did very well was convince me how neat shrinking powers are.
I never thought I would say that. The rapid-fire shrinking and growing
were brilliantly executed, and the scenes from the ant-sized perspective
were fantastic. I nearly came out of my seat during the trip to
"sub-atomica" or however you want to call it. That was extremely well
done, just like something out of the comics. In fact, I wonder if they
didn't look at some Kirby or Ditko books to get that right!
Doug: I loved
the scene with the Wasp, and am already looking forward to the new
Wasp. Easily Stan Lee's best cameo. Hilarious. And hey -- did I spy
Garrett Morris? I sure think I did! Did you have the one cop as Julius
from "Remember the Titans"?
Karen: The
flashback to the scene with the original Ant-Man and Wasp was just
wonderful, even if we only got to see them briefly. I love the idea of
these heroes existing prior to Iron Man and the others. And we do have
the promise of a Wasp in the future...
Garrett
Morris' cameo was inspired! I started laughing loudly, and I guess I
was the only person in the theater who remembered that SNL sketch! "Hey
Hulk, this guy's got the strength of a human!"
Doug: I
would have sworn at some point either Pym or Rudd would have used the
blue ring to become Giant-Man. Not totally disappointed, but definitely
see it coming in the future.
And do you suppose Sebastian Stan's 10 seconds on screen counts for his 9-picture contract?
Karen: The
throwdown with the Falcon was a real thrill. I felt so bad for
Sam...but it was great to see the two go at it. And the whole set up
-"You idiots, that's not a warehouse!" -classic. I really like how this
film integrated other elements of the Marvel universe in a way that
didn't seem forced, but natural. It also didn't feel like it had to
shape itself to support future films, which is something I think has
hurt some of the other movies.
That last clip in the credits was a nice glimpse at Civil War -I heard it was an actual scene from the movie. I was glad to see the Winter Soldier though; we were hearing so much about it being Cap vs Iron Man that it seemed like they'd forgotten about him, and I felt like Cap 3 needed to carry over his arc from the second Cap film.
That last clip in the credits was a nice glimpse at Civil War -I heard it was an actual scene from the movie. I was glad to see the Winter Soldier though; we were hearing so much about it being Cap vs Iron Man that it seemed like they'd forgotten about him, and I felt like Cap 3 needed to carry over his arc from the second Cap film.