Can You Say “Redundant”?
Marvel Origin Movie, Sci-Fi Sequel/Reboot Mildly
Entertaining, But Pale in Comparison to Flicks That Inspired Them
Well, we’re here, folks. This summer season, we’ve already
gotten our top-flight, highest-quality blockbusters (Avengers: Age of Ultron, Inside Out) and our similarly-huge and
almost-as-good second-tier entertainments (Jurassic
World, Mad Max: Fury Road
This review is obviously quite late (I saw Ant-Man four days ago and Genisys back on July 2nd), so
I won’t deny that my overall level of enthusiasm for both may have diminished a
bit in the time since I saw them. Not to mention, I saw Ant-Man late on Thursday night at its premiere, after a long day of
work when I was tired and (as a bonus—to me, not the movie), before it started,
I was engaged by trailers for movies I am much more interested in—December’s Star Wars sequel and next year’s Batman v. Superman film. But, in a
nutshell, despite some engaging action and a decent character moment here and
there, neither film really stands out to me as anything special. Generic is a word I have applied to
both. Fairly bland is another apt
description. And, for the Terminator film
in particular, I have thought and said and written repeatedly: it has no reason to exist.
TERMINATOR: GENISYS Grade:
C
Directed by Alan Taylor
**Note: You definitely
don’t need to see all four previous Terminator movies to understand this one,
but I’d recommend at least seeing or discussing the 1984 original so you have
an idea of the past/future timelines, who the main characters are, and what the
main gist of the sci-fi plot is**
After years of being imprisoned, tortured, and incinerated
by the super-smart machines that evolved out of artificial intelligence in the
late ‘90s (from a company called Skynet), the human resistance finally breaks
through in 2029, attacking the main Skynet compound under the command of
hardened, brilliant battle commander John Connor (Jason Clarke, the fourth
actor to play the role). The humans emerge victorious, but they soon realize
that, just as John always predicted, Skynet landed a sucker-punch before being
beaten—it sent an indestructible human cyborg, a Terminator, back in time. It
was sent to 1984 to kill a woman named Sarah Connor…before she could give birth
to the child who would grow up to be John, i.e. humanity’s only hope in the war
against the machines. To ensure this murderous/genocidal act cannot come into
play, the humans decide to send one of their own to defend helpless, unknowing
Sarah. The person they send is Kyle Reese (Jai Courtney, of Divergent fame), a good soldier and one
of Connor’s closest confidants (and, in Terminator
lore, John’s father).
MINOR SPOILER HERE (though, if you’ve seen the trailer, this
shouldn’t come as much of a surprise)—once Kyle gets to 1984 Los Angeles , things aren’t as he expected.
Sure, he’s almost immediately set upon by a lethal, shape-shifting,
liquid-metal T-1000 Terminator (Byung-hun Lee), but he’s then saved by a crafty,
intelligent, tough-as-nails Sarah Connor (Emilia Clarke, “Khaleesi” from Game of Thrones), who is already in on
the war against the machines and even already has a friend/protector who is a
terminator and was reprogrammed to be an ally before being sent back. She calls
him Pops (Arnold Schwarzenegger). Together, they prepare to be sent forward to
1997 to stop the Skynet-instigated nuclear war Judgment Day. However, Kyle
begins having flashbacks/memories of a life he never had (call it “a
disturbance in the Force” ;) ) that
implies a new, different date for Judgment Day. It takes place in 2017, and
Skynet is about to launch a new A.I. program called Genisys, a new software that will create a worldwide connection between all forms of electronic communication (which, our
protagonists know, will make it really easy for the machines to take over the
world). Kyle convinces Sarah to jump forward to 2017 instead of 1997, and they
do it, but they are almost immediately arrested and questioned by police who
question their story, identity, and sanity, and they’re set upon by an
unexpected new threat.
Without giving away a few more, mostly minor, details, that’s
honestly about as well as I can explain the confusing plot of this movie. Trust
me, it doesn’t really matter. My dislike of this film stems largely from the
fact that it is not only confusing and seemingly self-contradictory, but its
new, “alternate reality” timeline basically makes the 1984 original and the epic 1991
sequel, Terminator 2: Judgment Day—far
and away the best films in the series (and the only two made by the visionary
James Cameron)--meaningless. Like I said before, Genisys
has no reason to exist (not its fault), but its worst crime—beyond being
confusing, or boring—is rendering those two great, classic films obsolete. There’s
still some decent action and some cool scenes (there’s even kind of a big,
likeable, bounce-back performance from Arnold
Schwarzenegger), but the movie induces mostly sighs, never more so than a brief
early-credits bonus scene that hints that, as The Lost World tagline went back in the day: “Something has
survived”. Give me a break.
**TERMINATOR: GENISYS is
Rated PG-13 for intense action violence and destruction, language, and some
partial nudity
ANT-MAN Grade:
C+
Directed by Peyton Reed
**NOTE: While Ant-Man
is introducing a new character to the Marvel canon, it makes constant
references to the Avengers and characters from those storylines. If you somehow
don’t know who/what the Avengers are, ask a friend to fill you in**
During the Cold War, a pioneering SHIELD (again, ask a
friend) scientist named Dr. Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) created something called
the “Pym Particle”, a serum that could allow people to be shrunk down to
microscopic size while still maintaining their full-size strength. He also made
a nearly indestructible suit to wear while using it, complete with triggers to
turn oneself large and small at will. However, he was turned off by SHIELD
heads who didn’t want his new creation—or wanted to misuse it for
personal/company gain—and left SHIELD, later starting his own company. Years
later, it turns out his protégé, Darren Cross (Corey Stoll) has developed a
similar technology and wants to put it to use right away in “stopping the world’s
wars”, which Pym doesn’t like. Deciding to steal Cross’ research and new suit—called
The Yellow Jacket—Pym allies himself with his estranged daughter, Hope
(Evangeline Lilly), and a career thief, Scott Lang (Paul Rudd), to help him
carry out this caper.
Scott is actually the film’s main character, and he is first
seen getting out of San Quentin prison after spending three years for larceny. While
his release means he is sorta-reunited with his young daughter, Cassie (the
adorable Abby Ryder Fortson), his immediate post-prison life is not
encouraging. He’s crashing a couch with an old prison buddy (Michael Pena) and
that buddy’s new accomplices (T.I. Harris and David Dastmalchian), who want Scott—who
intends to “go straight” for his daughter’s sake—to join them in their low-rent
capers. His daughter’s guardians are his no-bones-about-it ex (Judy Greer) and
her cop boyfriend (Bobby Cannavale). He briefly gets a job at Baskin
Robbins but is soon fired when his record is discovered. Desperate for cash to
at least feign a decent living in order to get a shot at visitation, Scott
finally agrees to one of his gang’s robberies, which involves breaking through
two high-tech vaults to the undoubted treasures
inside. The object of desire inside turns to out to be merely “a motorcycle
suit”, as Scott calls it. He thinks nothing of it, but he takes it, and, once
he puts it on, he shrinks down to the size of a small insect, and he can hear
Dr. Pym talking in his ear through a headpiece. It turns out Dr. Pym has been
watching him since he made headlines for his pre-prison robbery, and thinks his
expert knowledge might come in handy in snatching the Yellow Jacket. It also
turns out Dr. Pym has created a sort of neural-signal transmitter that allows
anyone wearing The Suit to communicate with ants of all kinds.
To be brief, I personally split Ant-Man into two halves: the first half, which is all generic
origin story stuff that you’ve seen done better at least half-a-dozen times by
this point, and the second half, which is almost entertaining and funny enough
to redeem the movie. Almost. With the
possible exception of Dr. Pym, played by Douglas in a solid portrayal, the characters are all
bland variations on well-worn types—Rudd’s wise-cracking Scott is a poor man’s
attempt at Tony Stark or Chris Pratt’s Star Lord, Evangeline
Lilly’s Hope is nothing but a potential love interest for Scott, and Corey
Stoll’s villain is the most obvious not-a-good-guy,
no-one-should-trust-him since Loki from the original Thor. Overall, Ant-Man seems to be trying to ape last year’s surprise smash Guardians of the Galaxy in being more irreverent and funnier and more
self-aware than the average superhero film, but, in doing so, it almost immediately
jettisons any chance the non-fanboy audience (like me) can take it seriously.
While some of the comedy works
(Dalstmachian, who may look familiar from a bit part in The Dark Knight, is a standout, with his thick Russian accent
punctuating a few amusing reaction lines), a lot of it is too in-your-face, and
proves fairly insufferable. Example: on the heels of a big, forced Relationship Building
But, again, the second half picks things up. The caper is
exciting, the use of (and animation of) the ants is creative and interesting,
the suit’s powers are cool, and Stoll goes hardcore villain to keep things
sinister enough. A few key moments in the action are shown via a real-life
visual scale (a catastrophic collision of The Yellow Jacket with an oncoming
Thomas the Train toy looks like mere toys falling over), making it effectively clever and witty. Though when all seems lost and Scott seems
without hope, if you aren’t sure he’s going to be just fine and everything is
going to end up all hunky-dory with his daughter and her guardians, you haven’t
seen enough movies. Ultimately, Ant-Man is
the least-inspiring Marvel movie since at least Thor: The Dark World.
**ANT-MAN is Rated PG-13
for action, language, a few scary moments, and some emotional content
Terminator: Genisys (2015)
Directed by Alan Taylor
Screenplay by Laeta Kalogridis and Patrick Lussier
Based on Characters Created by James Cameron and Gale Ann
Hurd
Starring: Arnold
Schwarzenegger, Jai Courtney, Emilia Clarke, Jason Clarke, J.K. Simmons, Matt
Smith, Dayo Okeniyi, Courtney B. Vance and Byung-hun Lee
Rated PG-13
Length: 126 minutes
Ant-Man (2015)
Directed by Peyton Reed
Screenplay by Edgar Wright, Joe Cornish, Adam McKay and Paul
Rudd
Based on the comics by Stan Lee, Larry Lieber, and Jack
Kirby
Starring; Paul Rudd, Michael Douglas, Evangeline Lilly,
Corey Stoll, Michael Pena, Bobby Cannavale, T.I. Harris, David Dastmalchian,
Abby Ryder Forston, Judy Greer, Wood Harris, and Martin Donovan; Featuring
Appearances by John Slattery, Haley Atwell, and Anthony Mackie
Rated PG-13
Length: 117 minutes
