- First time seeing it
- Liked it a lot
- The way this movie plays with size and scale is incredibly creative. This is another example of CGI done well. It uses the technology inventively to show us things we haven't seen before
- Scott's first shrinking experience was super cool, the briefcase fight was great, and the climax taking place on a child's train set was a stroke of genius. My favourite appearance by Thomas the Tank Engine, by far
- I LOVE YOU, PAUL RUDD. I am not shy about my man crush on Paul Rudd. I want to marry him and become a Hollywood power couple. I want to kiss him on the mouth. I would watch him watch paint dry. I enjoyed Paul Rudd in this movie, is what I'm trying to say
- Michael Douglas is also having a lot of fun. When I think Michael Douglas, I mostly think serious Michael Douglas. The Game, Fatal Attraction, Traffic. But he fit right in to the Marvel style
- Michael Peña is a delight
- Oh good, another bald, evil, rival businessman. Jeff Bridges couldn't make an interesting villain out of it, and neither can this guy
- Judy Greer is a great actress. I've seen her in lots of things at this point, and she's versatile and talented. I will never see her without imagining her saying, "Say goodbye to these!"
- Let's talk heist movies. I like the idea of a Marvel heist movie. It's a nice variation on the way to deliver action. In a heist movie, the action isn't just about two dudes punching each other. It's about a plan coming together and being executed. In the best heist movies, you get to admire the planning and plotting pulled off by the protagonists, as we can see in movies like Ocean's Eleven, The Sting, and so on. The issue I had with this movie's main heist scene was how dependent it was on the magical ants. Those ants could basically do anything the heroes needed, and there was barely any human ingenuity involved. I know it's canon that Ant-Man can control ants or talk to ants or whatever, but the ant-heavy scenes had my interest flagging. I preferred the earlier mini-heist when it was just Scott stealing the suit, making a phony fingerprint, and freezing the safe. I still really enjoyed the movie as a whole, but I liked some parts better than others
- First time seeing it
- Liked it. I was prepared to be disappointed. I feel like when it came out, some people were underwhelmed. But I was pretty whelmed. It was entertaining all the way through, and I enjoyed my time with this movie
- Not as good as the first Avengers, and not as good as several of the stand-alones. The action was pretty good in this one, but the humour was lacking. The wisecracks missed more than they hit, and for that reason they felt forced. There is a lot of value in just watching these characters bounce off of each other, though
- Speaking of these characters bouncing off of each other: definitely didn't need the Banner/Romanoff romance. Is it conceivable that two of these characters could develop feelings for each other? Sure. Does it make sense that it might have started to happen in between movies? Yep. Did it feel shoehorned in and unnecessary for the overall appeal of this movie? You betcha. Perhaps they chose this plot line to make Hulk departing at the end of the movie more poignant, but I think it could have been just as effective without
- Let's talk Ultron. Once again, we have an entirely CGI character who, for me, was really sold by some solid voice acting. I really liked James Spader's performance. At first he seemed a little smarmy for a murderous AI entity, but when it clicked that he has some of Tony Stark's personality in him, that made more sense. The visual depiction of Ultron, though, was total uncanny valley. The way his mouth and eyes were animated unsettled both Ashley and me. It must be said, though, Ultron has a cute little robot butt.
- I like Elizabeth Olsen as an actress, but that accent got a little dodgy. I knew Quicksilver was in this one, but I had no idea he died in the span of just one movie. There was some cool stuff done with his speed super power, although I think it's hilarious that most of the time when he's fighting people he just goes really fast and bonks into them.
- I dug the climax. It had a similar feel to the climax of the first Avengers, with one charismatic big bad and a whole army of lesser cannon fodder bad guys, which works to serve up some sweet action scenes. And somehow Ultron's plan was even more batshit crazy than Loki's.
- Loved the Hulkbuster fight. And I was the first to acknowledge the incongruity here. This is another punch-up between two CGI characters, something I've railed against in the past, but here it totally worked. So let's analyze this a bit. What did this fight have that other similar scenes haven't?
- a) The fight evolves. It kicks off with a really cool evolution of Tony's Iron Man suit into something we haven't seen before, and it just continues evolving. Hulk rips the suit apart, Tony fixes it. Hulk can't be subdued by a bunch of punches, Tony uses the suit to cage his hand instead. The fight keeps throwing new wrinkles at the viewer
- b) The size and scale of these characters is used to great effect. They wreak havoc and use the setting creatively. Tony hits Hulk with a friggin' elevator car
- c) At this point we care equally about both characters involved, and their relationship to each other makes this a better fight.
