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

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

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY

I must admit I had negative expectations of this Marvel Comics movie before I watched it and hence was pleasantly surprised to enjoy it.

In fact, I read that this movie took the box office by surprise too. I attribute it to the charismatic and humorous Chris Pratt, who lit up the screen with his presence in every scene he was in. Everyone suddenly sat up and took notice of the versatile Chris Pratt, who by far didn't seem to be in the league of big boys. I read that in US the women made up the majority of movie-goers for this movie and swooned all over him. They must all be so jealous of his wife Anna Faris, another comedian whom I like. With this movie, I am sure a lot of meaty roles will come his way.

Interestingly, Vin Diesel was the voice for Groot while Bradley Cooper was the voice for Rocket the genetically engineered raccoon. Who could recognize them and Lee Pace, behind the face of Ronan the Accuser, whom was the Elven King Thranduill in 'The Hobbit" series as well as the nomadic vampire Garrett in 'Breaking Dawn - Part 2'?

The easter egg segment though was really meaningless.

Gamora, Peter Quill / Star Lord, Groot and Drax

Do we see Rocket or Bradley?

Guest star Glenn Close as Nova Prime Irani Rael

Lee Pace as Ronan the Accuser

MAN OF STEEL

The much anticipated DC comics superhero movie "Man of Steel" produced by the Christopher Nolan of the well-known "Dark Knight Triology" did not live up to my expectations. It spent many years in its conception and casting before the movie was finally made. Heavily shrouded in secrecy and hyped to be a different and darker take as a departure from the earlier movie failure "Superman Returns", there were some hits and as many misses for this latest remake.

Starring Henry Cavill as the new leading man, Amy Adams as Lois Lane, and other actors such as Russell Crowe, Kevin Costner, this over two hour long movie was so packed in cation in the later part of the movie that it was a blurry mess for me. It was so deja vu watching the movie because the scenes of the city's mass destruction and alien space crafts resembled many recent action packed movies like "Transformers" or that involved alien invasions etc as the Man of Steel battled the evil Zod and his henchmen from Krypton.

The movie deliberately detracted from the comics and earlier movies in some ways in an attempt to inject some freshness into a superhero character that we all know too well and to create some mystery behind the Man of Steel. First of all, there was a radical change in the superhero's outfit to keep in time with the new age and gone was his embarrassing red underwear worn on the outside. They tried hard not to refer to the superhero as Superman and inferred that the famous S insignia was just a symbol of hope.

I have never seen a scruffy, bearded Superman but here he was looking more like the hairy Wolverine than the clean cut Superman that we all know of. The first hour of the movie was spent exploring how the troubled and confused young boy with superpowers tried to cope with his unusual and extraordinary abilities by hiding who he really was from everyone and subsequently was lost and ran from place to place after he failed to save his human father Jonathan Kent from a tornado. He only found his calling after he discovered a Kryptonian spaceship in the arctic, communicated with his birth father Jor-El through a hologram and learnt about his true identity and destiny.

I guess Henry Cavill fits the bill as the darker superhero with a lot of baggage but I am not used to his constant frown on his forehead. I did not like Amy Adams as Lois Lane and felt there was something missing about her. In my mind, Lois Lane is much more feisty than what was portrayed. In fact, I found her annoying as she was superhero's main distraction from saving the world. Never mind if many military men and civilians were killed, saving Lois seemed to be the order of the day when it came to the Man of Steel. Smooching was fine even though there was mass destruction and death around.

Unfortunately, I feel there was so much potential to this movie which was not tapped. For instance, they was a lot of inference to Lex Luthor with his name on buildings but there were no cameos of him or other superheroes like Wonder Woman, Batman, Green Lantern etc from the Justice League, which was a formula that the Marvel Comics used to great success in the other superhero movies involving the Iron Man, Thor, Captain America and so on. There was also no suspense created in crafting a character in the movie as a possible upcoming superhero like Robin in the Dark Knight series.

I guess movie making is getting more and more difficult by the day. When the audience is used to see something in several movies, the formula loses its freshness and appeal. Unless the directors and producers come up with something new, movies with age old formulas become run of the mill and will soon descend into boredom. 

Having said that, if they make a sequel, I will still catch it no matter how bad it is. A superhero will always be an extraordinary being with the limitless ability to do what the common lay person cannot do. That in itself, is the allure of a superhero movie.

THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN

Today's weather - sunny

After much anticipation, I watched this new Marvel Comics superhero movie starring Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Rhys Ifans, Martin Sheen, Sally Field and so on. I enjoyed the earlier spider-man movies that were first made a decade ago in 2002 with Tobey Maguire as the lead and had my reservations with this new version with a new lead whom I have never come across before.


In comparison, Andrew seemed like an unlikely hero with his scrawny body. But I guess one shouldn't be too judgmental and stereotype anything or anyone. This movie proved to me that I still have lots to learn everyday. I admit that Andrew Garfield is brilliant in this role and I can't think of anyone more suitable to play this well-known character.


This new take explored a deeper side into Peter Parker's life and personality and showed how this angsty and cynical youngster overcame his personal demons, insecurities and inadequacies to eventually become a vigilante who protected the innocent lives out there. The awakening journey he took wasn't an easy one with the loss of both his parents when he was just a child and the loss of his uncle Ben, which he was partially responsible for. I love the transformation he went through from a geeky boy-next-door who was constantly bullied at school to a geeky boy-turned-superhero who tested his new-found powers to a new superhero who learnt to take on this calling and responsibility to protect the innocent.


Oh, and did I mention I love the new spider logo with the long legs? Well, I certainly do. And Emma Stone as Peter's new girlfriend Gwen Stacy was definitely much more appealing than Kirsten Dunst's character Mary-Jane Watson.

CAPTAIN AMERICA - THE FIRST AVENGER

I was waiting in anticipation when I knew they were going to make Marvel Comics' Captain America into a movie. Just like Green Lantern, I looked forward to who they were going to cast as the lead character. When I read that Chris Evans was finally chosen to play this comic hero, I was even more eager to wait for the release of this movie.

However, somehow I felt Chris is a miscast for the role. The Chris I know and grew to love from earlier movies e.g. The Cell, Fantastic Four's Human Torch, is a very sunny, cheeky and fun-loving guy. Captain America's conventional and solemn Steve Rogers appears to be everything he is not. No doubt this is the first big break for him as the leading man since he came onto the scene, and if this is a success, it will spawn at least 4 more sequels. In terms of career, it is very good for him. But I see him more fitting as other superhero characters such as Flash. 


Recent newspaper reports of him suffering almost a mental breakdown was testament of the tremendous stress he was under. He bulked up so much for the role that it was simply unbelievable. Anyway, I will just enjoy the movie and wait for the upcoming series featuring Iron Man, Thor and Captain America in summer 2012 next year.


Coming back to the movie, I have always not been a fan of the Nazi war setting but I am sometimes amazed by how movie makers weaved history into the script, like in X-Men: First Class and this movie. What really got me amused and chuckling all the way to the end was how they made Chris looked like this scrawny, anorexic, geeky kid who wanted desperately to join the army, before he underwent the lab experiment that transformed him into the tall hunky soldier who later became Captain America. The costume was not as cool as Green Lantern but the shield is a classic.


By the way, I am looking forward to 'Final Destination 5', after watching the trailer shown before this movie screening. I am a huge fan of this cult series and watched every single one of the movies. The thought of a horrible death looming in your face and trying desperately to evade it at all costs is both extremely scary and nerve-wrecking.