Ant Man, I Guess
Sep. 24th, 2015 05:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fenlingsI saw Ant Man a few weeks ago, and I keep meaning to post about it, but it was just so bland it didn't really make an impression.
I absolutely agree that Hope (or Janet!!! I love Janet!) should have been the Wasp protagonist and Scott the specialty sidekick. But that brings me to my main plot point confusion: what exactly is Scott's skill? The movie seems to say that he was a one-time computer hacking thief who got carried away and drove his boss's car into the pool. But then he suddenly knows parkour? And safe-cracking techniques?? How did his electrical engineering degree teach him those things? And why did Hank think he was good enough for the heist to contact him in the first place?
Oh, Paul Rudd. He's very likeable. But I just didn't buy that he was as stupid as the lines he says. He doesn't seem hapless - he's too polished. I needed more of a human disaster Clint Barton vibe to buy some of his stupidity. Like I would absolutely buy Simon Pegg saying to police "Wait I didn't steal anything! I was returning something I stole!" but when Paul Rudd said it it seemed like a line. Michael Pena, on the other hand, was a joy and delight and 100% believable. I wish we could have spent the entire film with Scott's friends.
The fight with Falcon was fine and so was the old timey intro (with fabulous CGI youthification of Michael Douglas), but if that's what Edgar Wright left over, it definitely wasn't worth losing him. Some of Edgar Wright's influence survived: The "Baskin Robbins don't play," the quick cuts of Hank's roundabout way of getting Scott to break in, the dog-sized ant at the end. Those were the humor high points, and I wonder what it would have been like if he'd stayed.
I absolutely agree that Hope (or Janet!!! I love Janet!) should have been the Wasp protagonist and Scott the specialty sidekick. But that brings me to my main plot point confusion: what exactly is Scott's skill? The movie seems to say that he was a one-time computer hacking thief who got carried away and drove his boss's car into the pool. But then he suddenly knows parkour? And safe-cracking techniques?? How did his electrical engineering degree teach him those things? And why did Hank think he was good enough for the heist to contact him in the first place?
Oh, Paul Rudd. He's very likeable. But I just didn't buy that he was as stupid as the lines he says. He doesn't seem hapless - he's too polished. I needed more of a human disaster Clint Barton vibe to buy some of his stupidity. Like I would absolutely buy Simon Pegg saying to police "Wait I didn't steal anything! I was returning something I stole!" but when Paul Rudd said it it seemed like a line. Michael Pena, on the other hand, was a joy and delight and 100% believable. I wish we could have spent the entire film with Scott's friends.
The fight with Falcon was fine and so was the old timey intro (with fabulous CGI youthification of Michael Douglas), but if that's what Edgar Wright left over, it definitely wasn't worth losing him. Some of Edgar Wright's influence survived: The "Baskin Robbins don't play," the quick cuts of Hank's roundabout way of getting Scott to break in, the dog-sized ant at the end. Those were the humor high points, and I wonder what it would have been like if he'd stayed.