Ant-Man (2015)

Now we know its time for Captain America Civil War, its coming up this weekend and I’m stoked! Next up on the watch list is Ant-Man.  I’m not going to lie that I like Paul Rudd but I’ve never really seen anything that has wowed me yet. Ant-Man has a good enough trailer but nothing that screamed for me to go see it especially since it was released during Fantasia Festival time so I was busy going to see all those lovely indie films that I didn’t catch this one.

Let’s check it out! 🙂

Ant-Man (2015)

Director: Peyton Reed

Cast: Paul Rudd, Michael Douglas, Evangeline Lilly, Corey Stoll, Bobby Cannavale, Judy Greer, Abby Ryder Fortson, Michael Pena

Armed with a super-suit with the astonishing ability to shrink in scale but increase in strength, cat burglar Scott Lang must embrace his inner hero and help his mentor, Dr. Hank Pym, plan and pull off a heist that will save the world.-IMDB

Ant-Man is an interesting addition to the Marvel universe.  For one, I had no idea what to expect since I don’t even know what Ant-Man’s story is to start with.  After watching Avengers: Age of Ultron and having movies for the bigger names in the universe like Ironman and Captain America and Thor, etc., its nice to see the little guys get their own movie.  I mean, Daredevil and Jessica Jones and that universe being created on Netflix series is fantastic for those characters because there is more story and character to build up.  Ant-Man doesn’t really have a lot of skills and I’m going to guess that its hard to make a lot more out of his character although I wouldn’t mind seeing more.  Ant-Man in general is a different experience where its pretty toned down.  There are pretty much two action scenes which makes for a more quiet movie focused on how Ant-Man came to be.  And that’s work well enough to slow things down and build on what the Pym Particle is and what this is all about: how Ant-Man’s suit and science works.  In the heart of Marvel’s style, there is still quite some good humor to keep things light-hearted.

 One of the best parts of Ant-Man that surprised me since I’m not a huge fan of most of the cast, not that they aren’t talented, is the characters.  Ant-Man grew on me in his fatherly ways.  I still felt like some parts didn’t make a whole lot of sense and then I think about how much they can go with Ant-Man as a character and I don’t feel like there’s a lot more to do with it other than building a supporting Avenger since the team seems to original team after Ultron seems to be busy with their own worlds and lives. Paul Rudd gives a charming performance of Ant-Man as is Michael Douglas as Dr. Pym and the even seemingly smaller role his daughter Hope has.  Although she seems to be in the background, I don’t remember a whole lot except being there to inevitably form a connection/relationship with Ant-Man in a love and hate fashion, I guess. Its been a while I’ve seen Michael Douglas in any movie and this is a decent one.

Most of the time the supporting characters in the background turn out to be expendable jokers can actually hurt the movie but in this case, the three guys that Paul Rudd brings in to help actually turn out to add to the humor of the story, keeping it light and fun.  I do like Marvel movies because of that a lot and these three, while still sometimes being a little stupid, wasn’t bothersome to watch.  It helped to set possibly the tone of what Ant-Man and further stories would be, especially since it has already announced a sequel, not that I have the slightest on how that is going to turn out. I’m not sure about T.I. yet but Michael Pena’s Luis and David Dastmalchian’s Kurt both delivered some chuckles for me.

Finally, we’re talking about the villain, YellowJacket/Darren Cross, whichever you prefer to choose. Darren Cross is a little crazy and obsessed over finding the serum/particle, whatever you call it, that can answer how to shrink a person and prove that he can do it also just like his mentor, Hank Pym. The hateful, crazy and obnoxious personality he has was done so good.  The moment he steps on screen, you know he’s the bad guy because you just want to punch him in the face.  Now that is some impressive acting.  There’s not a lot of build-up for his character and in fact, more screen time doesn’t always make him a great villain but I think in the spectrum of things, he embodies a villain better than other Marvel movies are because he’s human and really out of it. That point is reinforced when he’s not the YellowJacket for a long time in Ant-Man either.

Overall, Ant-Man is a nice addition to the Marvel universe.  Maybe not my favorite but it is full of quite charming individuals.  I’m not sure what to look forward to in its sequel but I’m down with Paul Rudd as Ant-Man and his character in its most clueless way, should being some more laughs just like this one has.  It felt light and fun which is weird because this is supposed to be a sci-fi thriller according to IMDB. As a superhero movie, it hits the points it needs to and that is what matters. It was definitely an unexpected turn of events for me because it did start off a little slow.

Have you seen Ant-Man? What do you think about it?

Fantasia Fest 2015: Dark Places (2015)

That was a fun ride, wasn’t it? Fantasia Festival this year had some great movies.  And I think I made some fantastic choices covering a range of horror with different pacing and styles.  There was thrillers and even one foreign film (which there was more though).  But, we are at the end and with a rather late showing of Dark Places (which was even later because the entrance was delayed).  I’m a huge fan of Gillian Flynn and Dark Places was written before Gone Girl.  Check out my book review here. I had mixed feelings about how Dark Places would turn out but there is no doubt that it has a pretty awesome looking cast.  Plus, hey, Nicholas Hoult non-zombie version. I’m down for that 😉 Plus, its an advanced screening, even if I only got the review up today, after its been released in theatres.

Let’s check this out! 🙂

Dark Places (2015)

Director: Gilles Paquet-Brenner

Cast: Charlize Theron, Nicholas Hoult, Sterling Jerins, Christina Hendricks, Corey Stoll, Tye Sheridan, Chloe Grace Moretz, Sean Bridgers

Libby Day was only seven years old when her family was brutally murdered in their rural Kansas farmhouse. Twenty-five years later, she agrees to revisit the crime and uncovers the wrenching truths that led up to that tragic night.-IMDB

I’m a huge fan of Gillian Flynn (like I said before). HUGE! I love all of her three books.  Even though, Gone Girl is by far the best one and the movie adaptation is just pure awesome and I’m not as big of a fan of Dark Places (its the last favorite of the three), the cast of Dark Places was one that made me at least know the performances would stand out. I’m going to tell you right away that Dark Places is an okay adaptation of the book, bordering okay.  One, its a bit long and dragging out in a lot of parts and two, it feels a little disjointed because of the interpretation of how the book was set up and how they did it. The one thing I worried about for this novel being not a good match for the big screen was that in the novel, we learn about Libby Day through what is going on in her mind, and she is one ugly inner beauty sort of person.  She’s really not all that likable because that helps her character build as the story goes along.  In the movie, even with a fantastic actress like Charlize Theron, its hard to show what is going on someone’s mind as they observe the situation and react silently and in their own way.  Its easy to lose or just never build the connection with the main character.

Dark Places does use the set up of the book by jumping from present day Libby linking back to her investigation and revisiting her past to flashbacks of the day before all the murders while also using her mom, Patty and her brother, Ben’s day to piece together the events.  I like that they effectively did that.  That way to tell a story is very Gillian Flynn if you think about it.  Its the art of creating one timeline with multiple points of reference for various characters to reach for the audience to piece it all together.  It makes it engaging to watch.

Except, something also makes it hard to watch.  I’d like to say its the set up of the storyboard adapted from the book.  Maybe its the slow start to introduce us to who Libby is now, 25 years later.  Maybe its to bring us to learn more about her and the situation she is going into but something didn’t wrong so well.  I think its the details or just picking the right pieces from the book to put together that will create the right amount of suspense.  It seemed to just keep revealing certain parts as a way to roughly enter a new character or a “shocking” new situation.  I don’t know, it just didn’t work so well for me.

However, just as I expected though, the strengths of Dark Places lie in their cast.  If anyone less talented than Charlize Theron was doing present day Libby Day, it might be even less expressive of the emotions we’d like to see.  In general, the character of Libby Day was portrayed well enough for us to see that she isn’t so appealing, not quite as hated as in the novel perhaps but we can see that she basks in the world of pity and manipulation and just pure laziness to avoid being caught in work.  Her world is contingent on money and compensation while she chooses to be ignorant of her brother.  I was a little disappointed with not having the investigation group so much but at least Nicholas Hoult still got a few moments to pop up.  The character I bought the most out of was Chloe Grace Moretz.  This is a dark novel and she is an actress that can pull off these dark roles really well.  Although I felt the setup and build for her character, Diondra was great but it was effective her (at least more if you haven’t read the book).  The rest of the cast from the younger boys to everyone else was a good mesh.

 Overall, Dark Places is okay.  The premise is solid because the original was a good piece with a strong story.  However, the adaptation did  not work quite as well.  The story did get lost in itself a little and felt like it didn’t flow so well.  Plus, while the runtime might not be the big issue, it runs a little too slow and doesn’t have the right pieces to make us thrilled with the story.  However, the cast is very well chosen and they do well with they have to work with, making it more enjoyable and mildly compelling. The choice to follow the layout of the novel was a good one and the atmosphere was set pretty well.  What is sad is that Dark Places has quite a bit of potential to be a great movie thriller, however a main character which bases a lot on her inner thoughts to move a story doesn’t work so well on the big screen, especially with a somewhat flawed adapted screenplay.

Have you seen Dark Places? Have you read the book? What are your thoughts?