ANT-MAN

Paul Rudd's superpower (if you will) is his ability to elevate any film he is in simply by radiating his boyish charm.  

So I was looking forward to this MCU outing - I thought it might be less ponderous, and quirkier, than the usual MCU fare - and as a bonus it features a heist.

But it was a let-down.  

The problems start with the three main characters: Scott Lang, who is chosen by Hank Pym to wear the Ant-Man suit that he invented, Pym himself (Michael Douglas) and Pym's daughter Hope.  

The relationship between father and daughter should provide the film with some emotional heft, given that she blames her father for the death of her mother, but it doesn't.  

Maybe it's the performances, maybe it's the screenplay.  It's all rather contrived and therefore unconvincing.  When Pym tells Hope the truth about what happened to her mother (she was trapped in the subatomic world, never to be seen again) it should be a powerful moment but all I could focus on was that he didn't have a good reason for withholding this information for so long.

Juxtaposed against the emotional angst Pym and Hope are suffering, Scott's attempts at levity often come across as immature and crass.

Hope resents Scott because she wants to be the one to get to wear the suit, and it sucks that the screenplay doesn't find a way for her to get to do this.

The villain is totally underwhelming, and what is at stake, that Pym's discovery might be sold to Hydra, didn't do much for me.  

For some reason I wasn't on board for Ant-Man using real ants; I would have preferred to see him succeed on his own, using some ingenuity.  Sadly I didn't think the screenwriters managed to come up with very interesting uses for the suit's powers.

The much anticipated heist also turned out to be a nothing-burger.

Some minor characters provide some weak moments of humour.

As you can see I’m struggling to find positives even though the film is OK if you’re in an indulgent mood.  Clearly I wasn’t.

RATING: x Find Something Better To Do