ANT-MAN

Paul Rudd, one of my favourite comedy male actor from "The Object of My Affection" from yesteryears, played the lead Scott Lang in this new Marvel comic movie Ant-Man. He has always played a non-leading actor role and this movie should be a big break for him to be more than just a second fiddle.

The other main cast includes Michael Douglas as Dr Hank Pym, Evageline Lilly as Pym's daughter Hope Van Dyne and Corey Stoll as Darren Cross. Dr Pym, a leading scientist from S.H.I.E.L.D. resigned in 1989 from the corporation when he found out that they were replicating his shrinking technology in the form of an Ant-Man suit, which he believed would cause mayhem if it fell into the wrong hands. When Darren, a former protege of Dr Pym's, invited him to a preview of his yet to be perfected new technological product the yellow jacket in the present day, a mortified Dr Pym decided to take the next step to prevent the completion of the yellow jacket.

Pym spied on a criminal Scott for some time, tested him and decided he was the best candidate to wear his Ant-Man suit. Scott, who was recently released from prison and was trying to make ends meet so that he can provide child support to his wife in order to secure visitation rights to see his daughter, was finally convinced to help Pym for the sake of his daughter. Hope, who was dating Darren and was also spying on him for Pym, joined in to train Scott to be ready to don the shrinking suit and lead the legion of ants to fight alongside him.

The movie was light-hearted; there were many comedic moments and was action-packed enough to entertain the audience. It gave new meaning to the name Anthony or Antony. There was also mention of Tony Stark and a brief cameo of Sam Wilson or the Falcon, when the Ant-Man attempted to borrow, or steal, a device from the Avenger's headquarters.

As with all other Marvel comic movies, the audience is rewarded if they stay back until after the post-credits. In this movie, there are 2 easter egg segments where they were treated to a preview of the upcoming movies; one on the female wasp and the other on Steve Roger's Captain America and Bucky Barnes' Winter Soldier.

Scott in the Ant-Man suit

the evil Yellow Jacket

Dr Pym explaining to Scott

a bewildered Scott when he learnt his successful break-in was a setup

Hope

an injured Scott

TERMINATOR: GENISYS

Hollywood is fond of remakes and , and they are also fond of inviting actors from former movies to appear in current ones to evoke past memories or to provide a sense of humour. The first 4 Terminator movies were screened in 1984, 1991, 2003 and 2009 respectively.

This latest movie set in 2029 wasn't so much about John Connor, leader of the resistance against the machines, but focused more on the relationship between his parents Kyle Reese and Sarah Connor. Saved by John Connor as a child, Kyle was raised to join the resistance in the fight against the Skynet and its machines. The resistance failed to destroy Skynet and Kyle volunteered to be sent back in a time machine to 1984 to protect a young Sarah Connor from harm. Thereafter, the characters were originally planned to be sent to 1997 to change the events but instead moved forward to 2017 to stop the launch of a new global operating system known as the Genisys, which was supposedly Skynet.

Well, this movie was action-packed but it was a tad too confusing for me as they seemed to shuttle between different timelines which altered past and future events. Jason Clarke who played John was second fiddle to Emilia Clarke's Sarah and Jai Courtney's Kyle. Arnold Schwarzenegger reprised his roles as the terminator machines T-800 and T-800 (model 101) and he went from young to old through the times. There were two scenes of Kyle going all naked for the time travel and there was the famous Arnie naked scene as well and his deadpan looks and corny "I'll be back" phrase. Lee Byung-hun seemed to be Hollywood's favourite Asian or Korean actor to play similar roles as the villain (e.g. in the G.I. Joe movies) or killer machine in this as T-1000.

At the end of the movie, there was an easter egg segment, which hinted at a possible sequel.

Arnie as T-800 (model 101) in a rare Kodak moment

Sarah Connor and Kyle Reese

John Connor who was infected by Skynet in the future

T-1000 the killer machine

Kyle and John

BIG HERO 6

Hiro and Tadashi's friends

I watched two hero movies recently and the first one "Big Hero 6" is the latest animated movie on our screens that was inspired by Marvel Comics' superhero team. 

Set in a futuristic city known as San Fransokyo (hybrid city between San Franciso and Tokyo), the movie first introduced Tadashi Hamada who worked as a young robotics designer in a university. He and his friends at the robotics lab formed a team and designed products that were meant to serve mankind. Tadashi designed a healthcare robot known as Baymax and tried to influence his wayward younger brother Hiro to join him at the university.

Hiro was amazed with what he saw at the laboratory and tried to apply for admission to the university by presenting his new invention microbots at an annual exhibition. His microbots impressed the audience but unfortunately, a fire broke out and in a bid to save professor Callaghan, head of department of the team, Tadashi lost his life, leaving behind a grieving Hiro with his Baymax.

A despondent Hiro accidentally activated Baymax and through it discovered a villain who used his microbots. One thing led to another and the team found out that professor Callaghan wasn't dead and was behind the whole thing. I shan't give the entire story away but the ending was of course a happy one.

From the reviews, I discovered that the movie had an easter egg just like the rest of the Marvel comic movies but unfortunately I missed it!

Tadashi

CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER

I waited 2 years for this Captain America sequel to be out. Starring Chris Evans (as Steve Rogers aka Captain America), Scarlett Johansson (as Natasha Romanoff aka Black Widow), Samuel Jackson (as Nick Fury), Robert Redford (as Alexander Pierce), Sebastian Stan (as Bucky Barnes aka Winter Soldier), Anthony Mackie (as Sam Wilson aka Falcon), Frank Grillo (as Brock Rumlow), Cobie Smulders etc, this much anticipated 9th movie of the Marvel Comics cinematic universe was just alright for me.

What is interesting about the Avenger Marvel movies is that they all had embedded plots and characters that hinted at future movies and at the end of the movies, there were easter eggs that provided a glimpse of the movies to come.

In the movie, there was a conspiracy that sought to eliminate Nick Fury to bring down the espionage agency S.H.I.E.L.D.. Everything eventually led back to HYDRA, a terrorist organization, with its many secret agents such as Alexander Pierce, Brock Rumlow, and Winter Soldier, who was Steve Roger's buddy from his distant past. Who was Captain America supposed to trust when the agency he so trusted and worked with seemed to turn their back on him?

Stan Lee, as usual made a brief cameo as a security guard who lamented that he would lose his job when the Captain America suit in the museum he was guarding was stolen. Brock Rumlow, played by Frank Grillo whom I remembered from the TV series "The Gates", was carried away on a stretcher near the end of the movie. He was slated to play Crossbones, another villain, in the future movie.

Now back to the easter eggs. I saw only the first and left the cinema without knowing there was a second. In the first, it was intriguing to find the scepter that belonged to Loki from the Thor movies on display and the appearance of two new characters, imprisoned behind glass chambers. After some googling, it was revealed that they are Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch, children of Magneto from the X-Men series. Well, the audience would have to wait for at least another year to be able to catch it on the screen. In the second segment that I missed, it was apparently about Bucky who found his way to the Captain America museum and saw a video or was it a photo of him and Steve Rogers together and memories of his past came flooding back.

Meanwhile, I can only look forward to the "Amazing Spider Man 2" and "X-Men: Days of Future Past" coming up soon.

In the real world, I don't think there are any superheroes. Otherwise, the plane MH370 and its passengers wouldn't have disappeared without a trace.

Captain America and Black Widow

Captain and Nicky Fury

Captain America and Falcon

Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes

the Winter Soldier

the evil Alexander Pierce and Captain America

Brock Rumlow who would be Crossbones in future sequels

Brock Rumlow

THE WOLVERINE

Since "X2: X-Men United" in 2003 when Jean Grey disappeared, a few other X-Men movies were made with Wolverine gaining more onscreen presence. "The Wolverine" made a decade later, is sort of a spin-off movie due to Hugh Jackman's excellent portrayal of the character.

After what appeared to be Jean's death, Wolverine went into hiding out of guilt. His recurring nightmares of Jean beside him, night after night, turned him into a recluse. That was when he was brought to Japan and met Mariko, his love-interest in the comics. I didn't quite like the storyline though, with the Yakuzas and ninjas and the Viper.

For me, the best part of the movie was the easter egg segment, where Magneto and Prof Xavier appeared, and hinted of a huge storm brewing ahead of them, thus uniting both forces together to fight what was coming up.