Review: Ant-Man

by Trevor Kirkendall
★★★

We’re about to embark in a phase of Marvel’s Cinematic Universe that will make or break the studio’s ability to pull in hundreds of millions of dollars with each outing. This is a phase consisting of many of the studio’s lesser-known properties. We saw the studio’s success last summer with “Guardians of the Galaxy.” This summer brings us “Ant-Man.” Non-comic book readers such as myself will probably take one look at that title and think it’s nonsense. Despite it’s goofy sounding title, Marvel once again succeeds in producing a highly entertaining film.

Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) is a convicted felon being released from prison after a three-year stint. He wants to live an honest life now for the sake of his daughter, otherwise his ex-wife Maggie (Judy Greer) and her fiancé Paxton (Bobby Cannavale) may not let him anywhere near her. But it’s tough to find a job after being in prison. So he quickly turns back to being a burglar with the help of his goofy friend Luis (Michael Peña). They end up breaking into the home of Dr. Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) who has some kind of incredible shrinking suit hiding in a safe. When Scott puts it on, he’s shrunken down to the size of an ant.

Turns out, Pym would now like Scott’s help since he successfully stole the suit. Pym would like Scott to become what he calls the Ant-Man in order to prevent a copy of the shrinking technology from being sold by his former protégée Darren Cross (Corey Stoll). Pym thinks that selling this technology to governments could lead to chaos in the world. Pym and Scott along with Pym’s daughter Hope (Evangeline Lilly) plan a heist in order to break into the company and steal the technology from Cross.

There are probably folks out there who know who Ant-Man is, but there will be many more people in the audience who don’t. We do need an introduction, but there’s nothing more boring than a standard origin story. “Ant-Man” appears to have been conceived as a comical heist movie first, with the Scott Lang/Ant-Man character dropped in after the major plot points were already worked out. That’s what makes “Ant-Man” such a compelling film to watch. It’s a well thought out plot without seeming so heavy handed.

This does leave the film lacking in character development just slightly. It’s not that the characters in “Ant-Man” are boring or uninteresting, it’s that they’re too familiar. There are so many similarities between this film and some of Marvel’s earlier works where there’s barely a distinction between the films anymore. At times, “Ant-Man” seems very similar to the original “Iron Man” film. That’s not a horrible comparison since “Iron Man” is still probably one of Marvel’s finest offerings. But Marvel needs to look into diversifying their origin stories a little bit, especially with so many coming over the next several years.

Character aside, “Ant-Man” is loaded with a lot of sharp and witty humor thanks to the talented group of writers Edgar Wright and Joe Cornish with additional material from Adam McKay and Rudd. There are many parts of this film that have Wright’s DNA all over it (no surprise since he was initially hired to direct the film as well). Wright is one of the sharpest comedic minds in Hollywood today and it shows in his writing. McKay and Rudd added their own take on the material; most likely bringing the Scott Lang character into someone easier for Rudd to play. Rudd shines as Lang and he’s a perfect choice to play the part. That loveable every-man shtick he brings to all of his roles is largely left out for most of the picture, but he brings it out at all the right times. It’s a balanced performance from Rudd – one of the better offerings of his career, too.

Director Peyton Reed (“Yes Man”) is comfortably in control of the film despite having never worked in the action/sci-fi genre before. I don’t take any real issues with his handling of the film, but I can’t help but think how great this film could have been had Wright been sitting in the director’s chair. He left the project over creative differences with the studio, and he’s not the first person (nor will he be the last) to tell Marvel, “no.” But that leads me to wonder how in-control Reed is of this film, or if Kevin Feige is standing over his should dropping some not-so-subtle hints about what he and the studio would like to see.

Oh well. We can’t judge the film we wanted to see; we can only judge the film we did see, and Peyton Reed’s “Ant-Man” is a well-conceived heist film, filled with all the right amounts of witty humor. I had zero expectations for this and didn’t know what to expect, but it certainly is entertaining and a worthy addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Marvel seems to have found an origin story formula they like and they’re sticking to it. It’s working fine for now, but they need to expand their creative boundaries a little more moving forward. Otherwise, their forthcoming slate of features is going to get old real quick.

Review: Avengers: Age of Ultron (Trevor)

by Trevor Kirkendall

★★★

Marvel Studios deserves a good bit of credit for concocting a grand plan and sticking to it. I’m not sure studio head Kevin Feige even realized how big of an empire they would build when they first drafted their plans. And everything just keeps getting bigger. The centerpiece of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is the mash-up adventures of all the stand-alone characters: “The Avengers.” The Summer Movie Season of 2015 begins with the second all-star film “Avengers: Age of Ultron.” The film features everything people loved about the first one with a much larger cast, but ultimately offers nothing new.

“Age of Ultron” opens with our team of heroes already assembled going after Loki’s scepter from the first film, which is being held and experimented with by the last holdouts of Hydra. Here, we meet two of Hyrda’s test subjects, the Maximoff twins Pietro (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen), whose backstory leads them to hate Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.).

With the scepter recovered, Stark and Dr. Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) use it to try and create a type of artificial intelligence Tony has been working on. He envisions this program being used for peacekeeping purposes that would one day render The Avengers as obsolete. Initial tests fail, but it ultimately takes hold within the computers at Tony’s house and puts itself into one of Stark’s iron robots. Thus, the birth of Ultron (James Spader). He learns from the Internet that humans are bad and must be destroyed. He enlists the help of the Maximoff twins to help with his diabolical scheme. Our team of Avengers must stop Ultron and the Maximoff’s before they destroy the world.

Of course, the movie wouldn’t reach its full two-and-a-half hour run time without tons of plotting exposition in between the highly stylized, CG-filled action sequences. There’s also a ton of bro moments with Stark, Captain America (Chris Evans) and Thor (Chris Hemsworth). We also get some more back-story on Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner) that seemingly comes out of nowhere. There’s even some dark back-story and a little love interest for Agent Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson).

“Age of Ultron” is loaded to the brim with so many characters and so many different stories that it feels like it might just break the hard drive it was created on. But from the early concepts behind these films, how could anyone have thought they were going to be clean, polished and concise? That’s what the stand-alone movies are for. “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” remains the best film Marvel has produced because it’s the only film in the studio’s history to work off a script with a complete beginning, middle and end, and actually pull off the high-octane action sequences effectively. It’s also the only film of the bunch that didn’t necessarily feel like a superhero film, but rather a political thriller with superhero as the protagonist.

“Age of Ultron” takes everything that Marvel has done in its past and doubles down. The action sequences are grander and longer. The in between sequences of exposition are more drawn out and detailed. The disposable army of clone soldiers – I mean, Ultron robots – is bigger and faster. Okay, now I’m just getting picky with that remark. Writer/director Joss Whedon actually has improved upon the things that flawed the first film. Yes, there’s a lot of down time he fills with exposition and back-stories, but there are some moments that genuinely do feel like a heart felt attempt. Are these moments necessary to advance the plot of the film? Not really, but he wants to give these characters a little more humanity. Suddenly, Hawkeye in particular doesn’t seem like just a waste of space with a bow-and-arrow. It ultimately feels forced and out of place, and increases the run time considerably.

Whedon has also cleaned up his direction of the combat sequences this time. I’d be worried if he didn’t. “The Avengers” was bogged down by moments where everything was happening so fast that you couldn’t tell what’s going on. “Age of Ultron” is that way too, but they’re not as prolonged. He doesn’t stick with the same moments for nearly as long, given everyone a little more time to process what’s happening. Christopher Nolan experienced the same thing when he got involved in the action genre. His fistfights in “Batman Begins” are so muddy compared to what he accomplished in “The Dark Knight.” Same thing applies here with Whedon. Remember, this is only Whedon’s fourth film. (And I may have just committed a cardinal sin by mentioning a DC film in a review about a Marvel film. Oops.)

As big and grand as “Age of Ultron” is, it never feels like it’s overwhelmingly crowded. There are always a lot of characters on screen and there’s different stories coming at you from different directions, but it’s never more than you can process. This isn’t the work or a filmmaker trying to completely mess with your mind and senses, but rather the work of studio and filmmaker actually working well together for a change. Whedon respects the source material so much that he doesn’t want to offend anyone by leaving anything out. (Although, I’m sure there are things people want to see included, but won’t.) Whedon and Marvel have gone hand-in-hand thus far in this highly successful experiment that is the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He leaves the film and story in good hands moving forward as he won’t be involved in the future films, at least not as a director or writer. He’s set up a lot of high expectations for fans of this studio’s work, and he leaves us with a film that will likely meet the expectations of almost all in attendance. It doesn’t offer up anything new or revelatory to the series, but it does offer us the same amount enjoyment that this studio has become famous for delivering.

Review: Guardians of the Galaxy

by Trevor Kirkendall

★★★½

Is it just me, or is “Marvel Studios” becoming synonymous with “quality movies?” In case “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” didn’t make you think that way back in April, James Gunn’s “Guardians of the Galaxy” will.

“Guardians of the Galaxy” follows Peter Quill (Chris Pratt), an intergalactic thief who likes to be called by his outlaw name: Star Lord. He works alongside Youndu (Michael Rooker), a mercenary who steals artifacts from around the galaxy and sells them for enormous profit. Quill has been tasked with picking up this film’s MacGuffin: a small silver orb.

Of course, they’re not the only ones looking for it either. The evil Ronan (Lee Pace), a ruthless fanatic hell bent on destroying the universe, also wants it since he thinks it will help him attain his goal. Working alongside über-villain Thanos (Josh Brolin), who was teased at the end of “The Avengers,” Ronan sends Gamora (Zoe Saldana) to steal the orb from Quill and bring it back to him.

Gamora has no intention of actually doing this since she’s well aware that Ronan is a complete mental case. She ends up getting tangled up in a scuffle between Quill and a couple of bounty hunters, Rocket Raccoon and Groot (voiced by Bradley Cooper and Vin Diesel). All four end arrested and thrown into an intergalactic prison where they meet Drax (Dave Bautista). Drax also has a bit of a vendetta against Ronan. It’s up to the five of them to break out of prison and retrieve the orb before Ronan can get his hand on it.

It’s been a while now since I’ve had a truly memorable movie going experience from a summer film. Sure they’re still huge in size and production value, but so many of them just aren’t fun anymore. They’re dark and serious instead of being fun. I’m not trying to say anything bad about the serious films like “The Dark Knight,” but they don’t all have to be like that.

Enter Marvel and “Guardians of the Galaxy” to restore my faith in the mega studios’ ability to make movies fun again. Like Pixar before it, Marvel seems to be on a mission to create movies that contain stories very well told. Sure, you can say Pixar movies are for kids and Marvel movies are for comic book fans, but that’s not the case anymore. These studios are making movies for everyone now.

“Guardians” reminded me a lot of the first “Star Wars” film (that’s “Episode IV – A New Hope” for all you young people who’s parent’s did you wrong by showing you the films in episodic order). From the structure of the screenplay to the design on the characters, the “Star Wars” influence in this film is everywhere. It’s more homage than a direct rip-off though. And if you’re going to make a giant space opera such as this, it’s not a bad film franchise to emulate.

Everything about this film works just the way it needs to. Written by Gunn and Nicole Perlman, the script is sharp and witty. All of the humor in this film is well placed and well timed. The plot is thick and the characters are many, but it is never confusing to follow. And unlike other characters in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, these characters are all very relatable to every member of the audience. It’s not hard to find likable characteristics, despite being aliens, a raccoon, and a talking tree.

It is hard to pick out a character that steals the show, however. I liked every character in this film, including the villain. Lee Pace has been one of my favorite actors since his stint on the short lived ABC series “Pushing Daisies.” He’s probably one of the best villains I’ve seen in a Marvel film. He’s evil to his core and Pace plays it effortlessly. Chris Pratt is an obvious choice for Peter Quill. As is Zoe Saldana for Gamora. The two work well together and I have a hard time seeing anyone else in these roles. But Rocket and Groot are the real show stealers. Their Han Solo/Chewbacca relationship is the perfect addition to an already motley crew of heroes.

I loved this movie. I can’t think of any simpler way of putting it. I haven’t had this much fun at the movies in a very long time. It’s able to funny without being campy. It doesn’t overuse its CGI. And director Gunn handles it all very well. And the soundtrack is sensational, probably one of the best movie soundtracks to come along in years. Marvel movies aren’t just for the comic book fanboys and fangirls anymore. They’re out to make quality films for everyone. “Guardians of the Galaxy” is proof of that.

Review: Guardians of the Galaxy

by. Joe Moss
★★★1/2

The Marvel Universes’ newest blockbuster to be, “Guardians of the Galaxy,” directed and co-written by James Gunn, starts firing on all cylinders right off the bat. Not a shoot ‘em up, blow ‘em up adrenaline junkie rush, rather an emotional rush—foreshadowing events for later in the film. However, from that moment on, the movie is hilarious, pretty much a non-stop adrenaline rush til the final credits. I laughed wholeheartedly and am planning on a return visit to the theater to see it one more time within the week.

Peter Quill (Chris Pratt…and Wyatt Oleff in the beginning sequence) is a young boy of the 80’s in the throws of personal agony. His mother is dying of cancer, and the only way he knows how to cope is to lose himself in the world of “awesome mix”-tapes from his mother. On her deathbed, she gives him one last gift (which he refuses to open) and wants to hold his hand to say good-bye. Rather than take her hand, he cannot cope with the pain and loss of both of his parents, so runs away. Not only runs away, but is abducted by a traveling group of mercenary-thieves led by Yondu (Michael Rooker). [Yes…All of this within the first 10 minutes of the film.]

Flash-forward to today, and we see a very tech-savvy Peter in the midst of acting out a sequence much like an Indiana Jones film, but with a lot more galactic gadgetry. He steals a silver orb from a dead planet, and just as he is about to leave, is confronted by Korath (Djimon Hounsou) and emissary of Ronan The Accuser (Lee Pace) who desires the orb for himself as a means of taking over the galaxy and destroying anything that may get in his path. No plot spoilers here…

Peter barely gets off the dead planet, and makes his way to Xandar to trade his trinket [no we still don’t know what this REALLY is] for cash (units) when he is confronted by a lethal, green beauty, Gamora (Zoe Saldona) who also wants the orb for her own nefarious purposes—and 4 billion units. As she attempts to take the orb, Peter and she are confronted by Rocket (voiced by Bradley Cooper) and Groot (Voiced by Vin Diesel) who want to abduct Peter and turn him into Yondu for 40 thousand units. Much shenanigans ensue and the lot finds themselves in prison. And it is here we are finally introduced to the last Guardian, Drax (Dave Bautista), who desires to kill Gamora since she works for the psychotic Kree, Ronan, who is in cahoots with Thanos (Josh Brolin), to destroy the universe.

No more plot lines….now let’s get down to brass tacks. The plot I have summarized for you is only about 12%  of what occurs within the film. If you think this is insane, just watch. While overly convoluted, the screenplay never seems to lose itself and all of the main points are well addressed and answered by the end of the film—yet, a few new caveats are well planted to lead us into the sequel.

Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista and Bradley Cooper are a great team. They work so well together, and get so into character, they you almost completely forget who they are as individuals. I think that Chris' ability to infect every line he delivers with a great amount of facial sarcasm and joy is what truly sells the film. Between his facial expressions and Bradley Coopers quick-tongued barbs, there is not a scene of the film where I wasn't laughing, crying, or both.

The entire plot, while loosely based off of the Marvel stories by Dan Abnett and Andy Landing, is a completely new twist on who each of these characters are and from whence they came. The writing team of James Gunn (Scooby-Doo, Super) and Nicole Perlman have re-envisioned the entire Guardians universe so that they have complete freedom to inline the script with the other Marvel movies already completed and in the pipeline. And while they do try to remain true to a few points of the comics, the entire Star Lord premise for this film is given a new evolution.

The editing team of Hughes Winborne, Fred Raskin and Craig Wood was amazing. The movie seemed to flow seamlessly through each sequence--even with all of the green screen. Additionally, I LOVE the soundtrack. The music is almost a 6th main character...it makes the movie what it is. A film that does not take itself seriously (much like the Guardians themselves), and yet...works! As I stated at the beginning, this will be another summer blockbuster for the Marvel Universe. Go...Have Fun...Laugh hard.  AND remain through BOTH of the credit Easter Egg sequences...

Review: The Amazing Spider-Man 2

by Trevor Kirkendall

★★½ 

Disclaimer: reviewer is not what one would refer to as a “fanboy.”

My only knowledge of how the stories in these comic book movies work is solely based on what the filmmakers bring to the table each time. That and a quick search of Wikipedia before and after the screening never hurt either. I can also say that I’ve never been really big on the Spider-Man adaptations that have been brought to the screen in the past. “Spider-Man 2” in 2004 is the one very big exception. That’s still one of my favorite superhero movies of all time, placing fourth on my Best Ten of 2004 list.

Outside of that, the series has been pretty stagnant. “Spider-Man 3” in 2007 killed Sam Raimi’s interest in it with Sony not even wanting to continue on with him and Tobey Maguire. So they did what any of us would have done: they rebooted it. Also, they had to make another movie pretty quick or else they’d lose the rights to the franchise. That might now have been so bad. The rights would have gone back to Marvel Studios. Then we could have had Spider-Man hanging out with Iron Man, Hulk, Thor and Captain America. Oh well. I bet they really do regret selling the rights to some of their most valuable property now.

“The Amazing Spider-Man” in 2012 was yet another bland telling of the Spider-Man character. This time, Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield) was updated to the modern times (since 2002-2007 was oh so long ago). Now we have Spider-Man keeping up with his loved ones via cell phones and searching the Internet for clues with Bing (who uses Bing?). He also seems like a bit of a hipster. Maybe I’m wrong, but that’s how I see it. Or maybe I’m just getting old and have nothing in common with the high school kids these films are about.

Nevertheless, “The Amazing Spider-Man 2” opens the summer movie season this year on a weekend that’s been pretty much synonymous with comic book action movies for the last several years. Here we find New York criminals being hunted down by Peter Parker, once again played by Andrew Garfield. One this particular day he’s running late to his high school graduation because he’s trying to stop a mad Russian criminal named Aleksei Sytsevich (Paul Giamatti) from stealing plutonium from Oscorp.

But things aren’t going so well for him and his girlfriend Gwyn Stacy (Emma Stone). He promised her father (Denis Leary) as he was dying at the end of the first film that he’d stay away from Gwyn to protect her and that’s weighing heavily on his mind everyday. Every time he kisses her, he can see her father in his mind, watching him and judging him – literally.

If there’s one problem that too many superhero movies outside of the Marvel Cinematic Universe run into it’s the overuse of villains in their films. We’ve already met Sytsevich. Now enter Max Dillon (Jamie Foxx) and Harry Osborn (Dane DeHaan). We know from the original series with Maguire that Osborn is best buds with Peter Parker who will later resent him and attempt to kill him. Dillon is a new one for us non-fanboys.

Dillon loves Spider-Man. He’s obsessed with him. When Spider-Man saves his life one day, Dillon can’t believe it. When taking a ride up the elevator with the beautiful Gwyn Stacy, he can’t believe she remembers his name. He wants to be liked. He wants to be needed. He wants to be remembered. All this is a bit difficult for him since Oscorp has used his new power grid designs and gave him no credit for it.  Eventually an accident happens which turns Dillon into an electrically charged energy bomb. He calls himself Electro.

It would be rather easy to get the story completely oversaturated at this point with what appears to be three different villains. However, everything is pretty evenly spaced out. Personally, I was surprised with the handling of the story. A script from the likes of Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci and Jeff Pinkner usually spells convoluted disaster (see “Transformers” and their much-loved-yet-much-maligned TV series “Lost” and “Fringe”). Spider-Man only faces one villain at a time rather than all three ganging up on him on different fronts.

But that’s about the only thing they did right. When the film isn’t showing high-octane action sequences of nothing but CGI, the movie is nothing but plotting exposition. We’re treated to scenes of people talking that don’t do much to drive the plot forward. I suppose everything might be trying to set up what will ultimately be “The Amazing Spider-Man 3” or the spinoff series featuring the Sinister Six. But this is “The Amazing Spider-Man 2” and it should be handled as its own stand-alone film. That’s the problem with most of these mega film franchises: they’re always looking ahead to the next film instead of focusing on this film.

 Could you imagine how dull all these movies Marvel Studios have been putting out would be if they only existed to set up the next “Avengers” movie? Sure, not all of them are great, but they all stand by themselves. “The Amazing Spider-Man 2” never feels to be a film all on its own, but rather a piece to a larger picture that might ultimately not be very satisfying.

And maybe that’s what director Marc Webb likes about these scripts. Maybe he prefers to see the characters evolve and grow throughout the entire series, however long it may be. His only other big movie outside of the new Spider-Man franchise is “(500) Days of Summer” which was nothing but growth and evolution of characters. That might work well enough for one movie, but if they keep it up for an entire franchise, that might be rather dull.

Still, “The Amazing Spider-Man 2” pays off well enough when they’re in the midst of action sequences. And that’s really what people are paying for, right?  Webb uses the CGI to lift his action sequences up to a level that’s exciting for every viewer. But who isn’t tired of CGI by now? The climactic battle sequences of this film feel like big screen cartoons. Filmmakers can integrate live action and CGI better than this. We’ve seen it before with Christopher Nolan in his Dark Knight Trilogy or Joss Whedon in “The Avengers.” So it can be done.

It’s hard for me to say this is a bad movie though. The 100 drawn out minutes of muddy exposition are indeed boring, but there are some good moments (especially one great scene in particular between Peter Parker and Aunt May, played by the great Sally Field); the other 40 minutes are quite enjoyable. There are some tense moments and the action sequences are well put together (even if it’s from a team of animators rather than a film crew). Looking ahead at a summer full of unimpressive titles, I guess it’s a good thing that we started out on a half way decent note.