Ant-Man

I avoided this movie when it first came out, and assumed I would not like it if I did happen to stumble across it. It seemed like just a step too far--into the absurd--for the Marvel franchise. But I happened to spot it in the on-demand listing and couldn’t resist the superhero siren-song. And the verdict is...it’s OK. Not awful, not great. The premise is indeed absurd, even for a superhero film; the formula--wisecracking, flawed do-gooder; oddball supporting cast; tech as both savior and source of villainy; ham-handed attempts at building a realistic emotional foundation--is competently done, but has been done better; and the promises of things to come, given what precedes, don’t really generate that much excitement. I suppose it’s all fine, but I can’t help feeling that, if all this effort had been put towards generating something truly new and interesting, that’s exactly what we might have gotten.