REVIEW: Ant-Man (12A)

Ant-Man (don't forget the hyphen) is out at cinemas now and is the latest offering from the House of Ideas. Starring Paul Rudd as Scott Lang and the inheritor of Hank Pym's (Michael Douglas) suit, Ant-Man is the latest Avenger to have a stand alone movie. Rocked by director fall outs and trouble from the outset - plus living in the shadow of the most recent Avenger's movie - can it live up to expectations... and is it any good?

Ant-Man starts with a nod to the 80's where an aged Peggy Carter and Howard Stark are trying to reach a deal with a younger Hank Pym over his Ant-Man technology - but the plan doesn't go too well. Although the sequence is just a bunch of people in a room - the special effects are subtle but brilliant. Michael Douglas is de-aged to look younger, while the ever pretty Hayley Atwell is computer generated to look older. We then fast forward to present day - a brawl in a prison where Scott Lang (Rudd) is serving time for burglary (not robbery because that implies violence - he's a cat-burglar). He gets released on the a same day and goes back home in an attempt to connect back with his estranged daughter Cassie, who views him as a hero.

Lang gets back to his friends apartment as he needs a place to crash, and by a friend through a friend through a friend (which is done in a comedic fashion) he learns that an old bloke has left his house empty and there's something of value in the safe. Working out that he needs money to get a place so he can see his daughter, Lang reluctantly takes on the job. After a really clever break, in all he finds is "a motorbike suit and a helmet". They escape without incident and Lang decides he's taking the suit anyway and goes back to the apartment.

Lang gets curious over this suit as it is not your run of the mill bike suit so, like all of us would, he tries it on... but for some reason stands in the bath tub. As he fiddles around he finds it shrinks him to the tiniest size and becomes Ant-Man. While small and negotiating a running bath tub, nightclub and falling out of a window, Hank Pym's voice in his helmet explains to him that the place he broke into was the Pym residence and he let him take the suit. He then recruits Scott Lang to take over the mantle of Ant-Man and take on the might of the disillusioned Darren Cross and the YellowJacket suit - built for war and to be able to take on the myth that was Ant-Man.

There's an array of great cast members all working together on this movie - Atwell is in it only at the beginning (again in a flashback) but Evangeline Lilly plays a great Hope Van Dyne - Pym's daughter. The movie is slightly comedic and funnier than the previous Marvel ones and I think they took a risk with this one. There are a lot of people reviewing this movie and hammering it - but to be honest I found this movie quite good. No, it's not anywhere as near as the Iron Man or Avengers movies, not even Captain America. But it's infinitely better than the Marvel's of old - Fantastic Four and Spiderman. I really enjoyed this - though I had my reservations about Rudd as Lang and that Ant-Man would be in a stand alone movie.

The special effects are used in a different way - instead of seeing BIG - which we all know Marvel can do with ease and panache - it's all about the small. Ant-Man controlling ants as allies, clever moments like fighting inside a briefcase or a toy train track are both inspired and funny in a strange way.

I think this movie needed to be made regardless of whether it was good or not because it's needed to take the overall story of the MCU forward. The incorporation of these characters and in particular the tech (suit, Pym particles, etc) will help set up Phase Three. I erroneously stated in my Age of Ultron review that AoU was the end of Phase 2 - but it isn't - this movie is. If you stay to the end of the credits you will know why.

Overall this movie was good. Funny moments, a different perspective and sets up the next phase nicely. Yes it could have been better - but it will do. Roll on next year for Captain America. If you still  want your Marvel fix though, Fantastic Four - or Fant4stic will be out around 8th August.
 

Ant-Man is out now in all good cinemas.

UPDATE: I have been to the cinema to see this a second time in 3D - nothing to write home about but still good fun to watch a second time around.

 

POPSCORE: 8/10

What am I talking about? Ant-man movie
Where can I find out more? http://marvel.com/antman

If you like this try: Avengers: Age Of Ultron (2015), Iron Man trilogy

Anything else?
This is actually the end of "Phase 2" of the Marvel Cinematic Universe or MCU. Definitely. I'm right this time.
One of Lang's friends goes undercover as a security guard. He says "Can I whistle?" and Lang comes back with, "No, don't whistle." He does so when he's undercover and whistles the tune "It's a Small World After All."
The movie was originally due to be directed by Edgar Wright, but he left and it's now directed by Peyton Reed.
Thomas The Tank Engine and Baskin' Robbins are featured in this movie.
There IS a sequence a few minutes into the credit sequence so don't leave as soon as the credit roll - and there's an even BETTER bit at the end.
Apparently, Ant-man WILL return...  

BYTE: A-May-Zing May!

Welcome to May - it's spring time and summer is round the corner!

Time for some movie blockbusters MAYbe?

 

Well, let's be honest Avengers: Age of Ultron will take some beating. have you seen it yet? Finnally you guys in the US have got to see it too - and it looks like it's going to be a (Hulk) smash hit!  The next anticipated behemoth of a movie is Star Wars in December. But you don't have to wait that long to get a superhero fix as Ant-Man and Fantastic Four will be popping by over the summer. If you wap in the Minions Movie and the new "in-your-head" Pixar movie, we still have some things to look forward to.

 

It's been a crazy month so far with no signs of stopping. We are only three days in and we've had the birth of the royal baby - a little princess who is yet to be named. I'm going for Scarlett Diana, but who knows?

 

Sadly though, we've also lost people - the legendary Ben E King (famous for Stand By Me, one of my favourite songs from the 60's), the iconic writer Ruth Rendell and Rebecca Ferdinand, Rio Ferdinand's wife have all passed away the last few days. Sad times, and our thoughts at P&TP HQ are with their families. #RIP

 

There's a lot of stuff going on in this month too. Yesterday it was World Free Comic Book Day and I picked up quite a few free comics. I had picked up Secret Wars #0, and Avengers one, a 2000AD one and others at my local Forbidden Planet. Did you get to get some too? If not, don't worry - it happens every year so make sure you're up bright and early for next time. And, the following two days later (or tomorrow as I write this) is May 4th - which is Star Wars Day. I had to explain this to someone - May The Force... May the Fourth... oh never mind. If you are a member of Star Wars: The Old Republic MMORPG (like myself - unfortunately my character is called StarJediLord - sorry; but feel free to add ;-) ) they are doing some celebrations, so get logged on for some free digital swag, including, I hear, a free droid. Meanwhile if you are misty eyed about Knights of The Old Republic, the awesome game from a few years ago, Google Play is selling it on Android for the ridiculously low price of £2.33 (not sure how long for) - check it out https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.aspyr.swkotor. 

 

In the UK, on May 7th we are having a General Election, and, 5 years ago, I tried setting up a blog and my first post was all about it. Sadly, the blog never got past about 4 entries, and, as an homage to that, I might rerelease one of the movie reviews I did back then for you. I reckon, one of them was Iron Man 2 but I could be wrong.

 

Looking at the latest stuff as well:

>   Xbox Live:  Games with Gold this month includes the full game of Mafia II on XBOX 360 and for the posh 'uns who have XBOX ONE you are treated to Pool Nation FX (still) and Castle Storm Definitive Edition to download free if you are a subscriber.

>  PSN: PS Plus this month hasn't really updated just yet so nothing new to report on this front. Though you can get Destiny for £24.99 if you don't already have it.

 

If you want a free game for your PC, and you like the Ultima series, you can get a free digital copy of Ultima 8 by signing up to EA's Origin and you can download it for free - it's an initiative they have called "On The House". If you do sign up, they do this regularly so it might be worth keeping the account. We've had quite a few games already and my collection is building up - but most of them are older games, but still goodies. Hey, what do you want for free? Please note, though, I am not sure if this would work outside the UK but you could always have a crack to see if it does.  

 

As always we have Loot Crate and Nerd Block unboxings to look forward to...

 

...AND Marvel Collector Corps!

Anyway I've wrote enough now - have a MINT MAY and I'll see you soon.

 

Keep being awesome!

 

Until next time

Paul

REVIEW: Avengers: Age of Ultron (12A)

Oh my goodness! It's finally here after three years of waiting and one of the most hyped up, advertised and eagerly anticipated movies that I have ever experienced in my life. Avengers: Age of Ultron is here, in the UK, now.

 

Let's start with a quick catch up - after phase one and the absolutely astoundingly marvellous amazing Avengers Assemble in 2012, we moved into phase two. But let's not forget the constant battling and grumbling between all the heroes. Then everyone's mind was blown as they all worked together, we saw the Hulk in action and everyone went home happy and felt the need to binge eat shwarma's. I wonder if there is any link to the fact that once this movie hit the cinemas, a load of shwarma shops appeared in my local town?

 

We started with the not-bad-but-not-brilliant Iron Man 3 with Tony Stark facing repercussions from his Battle of New York experiences and the Chitauri invasion masterminded by Loki. Fast forward and we had Guardians of the Galaxy which was a risk but a hit, and then the critically acclaimed Captain America: Winter Soldier. Now we have this - but how did it do?

 

I've read a load on the internet about this movie - Loki is in it, an Avenger dies, there's no post credit sequence, there's no teaser sting after the first bit of the credits, this, that, the other. I can tell you some of those are true and some are just rubbish. The bit where they say Stan Lee's cameo is awesome is true though - especially if you are clued into the Marvel universe.

 

The movie centres around Tony Stark and his worry over the events of New York and, in an attempt to protect the world,  he decides to try and create a defence mechanism to protect from potential invaders as he feels the Avengers, for want of a better term are "hopelessly outgunned."  His response to this is to create a robot defence using ideas from J.A.R.V.I.S and the power from Loki's staff (which was nabbed from him back in Avengers Assemble) with the help of fellow Science Bro, Bruce Banner.  But, while the Avengers are partying downstairs, the experiment he left to boil goes a bit awry and creates Ultron. Ultron is a sentient robot taking Tony's idea of saving the world to the nth degree by concluding that, to save the world, is to cause extinction of the human race. When Ultron crashes the party and the other Avengers find out Tony has been tinkering without their knowledge, this leads to a bit of a conflict between the team and also gives Ultron time to leave and start his world domination plans. The rest of the movie is all about stopping him.

 

The movie is fantastic and I can't take that away from it. From the beginning strains of the orchestral Avengers theme introduced to us in the first movie, to the fighting and CGI effects, this film is a visceral beauty. There are some unbelievably amazing shots and sequences which really stretch the imagination and the first 15 minutes or so is the Avengers kicking butt like they did in the New York battle of AA in 2012. Even some of the sustained shots of all the Avengers fighting individually are carried through with gusto and this is where the film really shines. But if you think that battle was immense - and it was - then there's a canny few others to ogle at. The Hulkbuster vs Hulk battle was amazing, and the finale was too. However, every single time there is a battle where there is people there is a massive emphasis on protecting the people and elaborate evacuation procedures. There's a few scenes were innocent bystanders are caught in the battle and an Avenger saves them at the last minute.

 

We also find out a lot more about the characters though some of it was probably unnecessary. Hawkeye gets a meatier role, and we find out a lot more about him and there is a hilarious sequence where all of the Avengers have been caught under mind control except him and he says something along the lines of "not this time, been there, done that!". There's a lot of comedy in this film, and there was a lot of laughing out loud in the cinema over it, but as the action moved on quickly your laugh when kind of haha -ooo as something exciting happened. I'm not entirely sure of Chris Hemsworth's comic timing, but Thor has a lot of comical lines too which makes the film quite enjoyable. Hulk gets lots of screen time too - and this is a good thing. There is also a similar joke like Loki's "ta-da" in Dark World, and the punching of Thor by the Hulk in AA in this movie too. And speaking of Thor there is an on-going joke over his hammer which I found amusing.

 

The soundtrack, story and special effects in this movie are second to none. The actors reprise their roles fiercely and the new additions to the team - namely Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch and The Vision fit in rather nicely with the rest of the cast. Having such a large set of main characters is difficult but they even managed cameos from Agent Carter, Heimdall and a little bit of support from War Machine and Falcon. It seems that this movie has got everyone together for a bit of a party and it's nice to see some of the old faces appear.

 

So what do I think? Well, I've been hyped to the max with this movie and I have been waiting 3 years for this and admittedly Avengers Assemble set the bar very high. I really liked the movie and think it is great but something about it was missing and I don't know what. Maybe it was that for all that James Spader was awesome as Ultron, he wasn't as fun as Loki. Or was it that we've seen all the surprises that we can and now it's about telling the story? The first movie teased and teased the Hulk and we didn't see him do his stuff until the very end. We didn't see the Avengers come together until the very end and when they did it was mind blowing. This movie they are already together and are fighting right from the off.

 

In summary I really liked this movie, but I think it just fell short of my stupidly high expectation, but then again, who cares as it's a worthy addition to the Marvel universe. I need to see this again and I'm sure I will get to see more of what I missed as this movie has so much in it that is practically a treasure trove of Marvel stuff. Go see it yourself and make your own mind up - regardless it is action packed to the rafters and is a fantastic ending to phase two. Jeez, I can't wait for phase three.

 

Avengers: Age of Ultron is out now in the UK and comes out May 1 at all good cinemas in the US.

 

POPSCORE: 8.5/10

What am I talking about? Avengers: Age of Ultron
Where can I find out more? http://marvel.com/movies/movie/193/avengers_age_of_ultron

If you like this try: Avengers Assemble (2012), any other marvel Movie really

Anything else?
This is actually not the end of "Phase 2" of the Marvel Cinematic Universe or MCU - Ant-Man is.
This movie features Andy Serkis as Ulysses Klaue who has links to Wakanda (a clue to a movie in Phase Three perhaps?)
This film references Disney's Pinocchio
Kevin Fiege stated that there is a homage to Star Wars' the chopping off of hands in every Phase Two movie and this one is no exception.
There IS a sequence a few minutes into the credit sequence so don't leave as soon as the credit roll. Honestly, it's worth it.  

BYTE: Avengers April

Welcome to April - yes I know it's nearly over, but we still have some excitement left!

How are you? I haven't really had chance to get to the computer to write a Byte recently but now, before I have to go work, I'm taking a time out to connect with you guys once more.

How is it going? I hope you've been keeping up to date with my Twitter as I can update that more frequently with things that have been happening while I've been out and about. It's been a quite month Convention-wise but some interesting things have been happening. It's been a very exciting trailer-centric April, especially over the last week or so. We've been treated to the final Avengers: Age of Ultron trailer, and, to be fair, it looks blummin' awesome! Marvel have released some clips too - 4 no less, and they all look awesome - check out the YouTube stuff - https://youtu.be/_AFtMIBwKho?t=1s and check the other links too.

Other studios have got in on the act too though and we've seen trailers for the upcoming Batman Vs Superman and the much anticipated Star Wars: The Force Awakens. the latter nearly broke the internet when it concluded with an older Han Solo and Chewbacca saying "Chewie, we're home".  Oh, and let's not forget Ant-Man, the other Marvel movie release this summer.

Marvel has been very busy with those movies, and announcements about the furture - Dr Strange and Captain America 3 no less, they have also been working with Netflix on the new Daredevil TV series. I've seen the first episode and after 7 minutes I was impressed - it's is a quantum leap forward from the dismal Daredevil movie starring Ben Affleck. After I've seen the series, expect a review up - but for now, I'm really impressed - especially the little references to the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe).

My blog is getting more views and I'm working behind the scenes to set up my youtube channel and getting everything in place for that. I'm looking to do a little tune for the YouTube channel and looking into that - so expect it soon.

There's more film releases this month too - the major one, of course is Avengers: Age of Ultron next week - so expect a review (and I'll try and not spoil anything) especially for those of you who read my blog in the US (you poor guys have to wait til May 1!).

I've signed up to subscribe to Star Wars Online - that is, The Old Republic AKA SWTOR so if you'd like to join me on there - add paulosolo and you can explore the galaxy with me.

Looking at the latest stuff as well:

>   Xbox Live:  Games with Gold this month celebrates the success of Xbox Live they are doubling the free games and check this out! The full game of Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag on XBOX 360 and for the posh 'uns who have XBOX ONE you are treated to Pool Nation FX, Rayman Legends AND Child of Light to download free if you are a subscriber.
>  PSN: PS Plus this month hasn't really updated just yet but as of today you have Dishonored on PS3, MonsterBag and Killzone: Mercenary for the Vita and Never Alone on PS4. If you're into multi format there is also a game called Tower of Guns and Aaru's Awakening that you can download for all three. Of course these are active while your subscription is and will cease working if you are not a member.

As always we have Loot Crate and Nerd Block unboxings to look forward to.

Anyway I've wrote enough now - have an AWESOME APRIL and I'll see you soon.

Until next time

Paul

COMMENT: Avengers

Does anyone else think there is a slight resemblance of Uma Thurman's Emma Peel from the dire 1998 movie The Avengers and Scarlett Johansson's Black Widow from 2012's Avengers Assemble?
Or is it just me?
Just for the record though - I love both outfits :-)



Emma Peel does her best Black Widow impression...

... or is it Black Widow does her
 best Emma Peel impression?