Ant-Man movie review

A surprisingly pleasant fluffbuster (fluff blockbuster), Ant-Man is a somewhat awkward standalone movie in the Marvel pantheon (in the sense of "why?"), but has enough ties and references to the rest of the universe to make it a nice addition to the series.

While Ant-Man is a tired retread of Iron Man's arc in his first film, AM has a better final act, although it's villain, Darren Cross, is arguably as weak as Iron Man's first villain; the main reason being that he's evil for the sake of being evil - very surface-level character depth even though they try to play off a fatherly/successor angle with Michael Douglas' character. Speaking of which, Michael Douglas does a satisfying job as Hank Pym, the original Ant-Man; I can't wait to see more of his character in the sequel. Paul Rudd and Evangeline Lily do their job, but the real standout is Michael Pena's character, who, while starting out as a near-cringe-inducing stereotype, ends up being the breakout character of the film by the end (won't spoil too much). Some of his dialogue is a bit confusing, particularly his last joke (which doesn't really work), but he's fun and an excellent example of playing a character to the height of the actor's (or writer's) intelligence. 

In addition to the tired retread of the story, a lot of Marvel's weaknesses become more obvious in AM - particularly the ongoing story arcs/building from movie to movie (or lack thereof) and general lack of lead female characters. A majority of AM was about sidelining Lily's character, but there's a reasonable payoff for why. Still, 12 movies in (and seven years later) and it's largely white male superheros everywhere - granted, Black Panther and Captain Marvel are on the horizon, but they are both at least two years down the road. Come on Marvel. 

Here's hoping Phase 3 has more of an ongoing film-to-film story, playing out more like an episodic mini-series than the drawn-out standalone films we've been getting. Time to blow out the universe, highlighting new characters while still continuing an overarching story. If Marvel wants an example of how to do this right, they can look no further than rival DC's Justice League Unlimited. 

Despite the complaints, Ant-Man gets a RECOMMENDATION for having good enough pacing, acting, action and humor to make it an enjoyable experience.

Jessica Jones - a light review

Jessica Jones is a great feminist twist on standard male-lead action-crime shows, with some great characters (Trish and Jeri, to name two) and very interesting takes on both PTSD and the patriarchy (SPOILER: most straight white male characters are villains).

However, it loses steam a little after half-way through. The series could have dropped a storyline or two, reducing the episode count to 8-10 episodes and been better/tighter for it.

Thoughts on the two protagonist/antagonist:

Jessica Jones - Cool and badass, while also dealing with PTSD. She's an interesting character, but her arc over the show is a bit flat. Most of the time, she's in her dour, tired mood and for all she drinks, alcohol never seems to affect her. She emotes most when she's in a panic, which is great to see, but one would think the alcohol could be better used to play into her PTSD. Perhaps her "flatness" is commentary on someone with PTSD (or I'm missing something), which is definitely interesting and can hopefully be elaborated on in future seasons/series.

Kilgrave - Simultaneously very interesting and lame. His powers are incredibly strong, but his focus is so small - all he wants is Jessica. He lacks the flare of more grandiose villains (e.g. Wilson Fisk, Joker, Goldfinger, et al), but is also a very interesting character and case study. That his focus is only Jessica separates him, but makes him slightly underwhelming; however, he goes to some "cool" lengths to achieve his goals.

At the end of the day, Jessica Jones gets a fairly solid RECOMMENDATION, as the main plot between Jessica and Kilgrave is good. Just be wary of the many melodramatic sub-plots that detract from what could have been a tighter personal story.

Anime review: Knights of Sidonia (seasons 1 and 2 available on Netflix)

Knights of Sidonia is a show I want to like more, but don't. With elements borrowing from Battlestar Galactica, Neon Genesis Evangelion and Robotech, to name a few, it's on the solidly serviceable side, but falls just short of truly compelling.

Having watched it last year, I don't particularly remember the first season - I recall it seeming a bit slow and uneven, with an initially-odd-but-grows-on-you animation style. However, there was something interesting about it and it progressed nicely, building out the world, characters and general plot/story.

The second season is a more "complete" season. It didn't progress the story a whole lot, but was a very enjoyable character-building season; it felt very much like a Netflix-style show (although they apparently only commissioned the localization), where they took their time to tell the stories they want to tell and everything flowing together well; granted, that's typical for good anime and its serialized storytelling.

One of my big gripes with the second season (besides the lack of major storyline progression) is that while watching the fleshing out of the characters and growing relationships, I noticed a strange dichotomy on how the show is strangely both misogynist and feminist. The show has a LOT of fleshed out female characters, but a strong portion of them fall into the trope of falling for the male lead. In this case, the male lead is an amazing mech fighter, but awkward human. Granted, there's lots of awkwardness abound, which does help play with the ideas of the characters being slightly a-human due to their situation, but it lessens the show to a degree (must EVERY lead female develop feelings for the sensitive lead male?). It feels quintessentially Japanese, in both good ways and less so.

That said, it does a very interesting job of showing people falling for someone who clearly is not paying attention/still not over their ex. I found that take on the story to be more interesting than the repeated awkward romance attempts and lesser plotlines.

Recommended as a casual viewing for people looking for an interesting space-faring mech action romance sci-fi show that could only come from Japan and is easy to consume. Just brace yourself if you're expecting greatness (or closure, as at least a third season is necessary, which I welcome).

Inside Out review - Pixar is Growing Up

The very quick review is that, as of right now, it didn’t work for me.

Inside Out has a lot of great ideas and is a very interesting interpretation on the inner workings of the mind, but as a movie, it fell flat due to its choices of characters and stories. To start, here’s what I liked (minor spoilers ahead):

1. The overall idea that sadness is OK and something we should accept and embrace

2.The general representation of depression being a lack of emotions and mentally shutting down

3. Bing Bong’s arc and emotional climax (favorite character, by far)

4. Riley’s emotional climax

5. One-off gags (e.g. facts vs opinions, catchy songs, most of the end credits), though I do have issues with these explained below

6. A lot of the psychological research that went into the movie


What didn’t work for me was the following:

1. The story of the Emotions taking away from the actual depth of characterization - Riley has less agency as she’s controlled more by her emotions than being an actual “being” (elaborated in #3 below)

2. The Emotions themselves being fairly one-dimensional as characters, though they have a small degree of emotional range; sure, they may gain a wider spectrum as they age, as evidenced by the parents, but what is their actual growth and development journey? Joy seemed to be the same from her day of conception to when Riley’s 11/12 and borderline annoying. Shouldn’t the emotions be more simple with younger age?

3. Similarly, the rules of the world are very, very strange. Pixar made an inventive take on the inner mind, but their consistency for the world at large appears lacking, particularly as other characters’ minds are reduced to stereotypical gags - the dad daydreaming about hockey, the mom daydreaming about the man who got away, teen boys freaking out about girls (which admittedly was VERY funny), the truck driver, the dog, the cat (particularly with the animals, why don’t they have sophisticated emotions like the humans had in their heads? Pixar went for obvious jokes). While they did show an interesting take on the mind expanding with age, it still leaves much to the imagination of how people grow and develop; not to mention why some people have different genders in their head or a different balance of emotions. Also, Bing Bong clearly had emotions - what’s going on inside his head?

4. On a minor note, if the story was about growing up and leaving childhood behind, the Toy Story films did a better job of this, particularly Toy Story 3.


Possibly my biggest irk is that, while this is a semi-autobiographical tale from Pete Docter based largely on his daughter, the story did not feel like his to tell. What should have been a really poignant coming of age story for Riley was reduced to this really adult take on what’s going on in her mind - the emotions were too smart, the humor was geared more for adults (reference and intelligence-wise) and the overall concept may have been too highbrow. As well, it felt rather disingenuous for Docter to tell this really personal story about someone else, when it would have made more sense for his daughter to tell THIS story.

On the other hand, had Docter made the story more about his own journey, that of the Dad’s, as he moves his whole family and ventures into a new land and new creative endeavor, while still figuring out how to balance his family life, particularly his inability to connect to his developing daughter, that would have been much more fascinating. A story of people coming of age together and learning to emotionally connect, especially when they have no idea what’s going on in the other person’s mind feels much more befitting of this than what actually happened.

Or a movie about a person learning to CONTROL their emotions, rather than letting their emotions get the best of them would have had a better message. I’ll easily admit my thoughts are judged by my own experiences and perspective, where I consider the world to currently be too emotional (particularly the US) and emotions getting the best of us causes us to disconnect from others. While the movie’s message of it being OK to accept emotions is a commendable one, a better message for society would be to also learn how to control them as we learn to relate to and communicate with others.

Because the movie only touched on one dimension of emotions in a disconnected-from-character-depth way, it fell flat for me. It was a great first stage of what could have been a more fleshed-out story as mentioned above. As it was, this felt like a gimmick that was best displayed by the dinner scene (which was a trailer).

I’m happy to give the film a rewatch and re-evaluation, but as of right now it gets only an AMBIVALENT RECOMMENDATION, as the artistry and technical prowess behind it is commendable. Also, Richard Kind’s Bing-Bong is just freaking amazing.

Last, it was known there were issues with the film for awhile, so if they were able to create this in a limited time and with limited sources, then that definitely deserves much applause.

Metalocalypse: The Doomstar Requiem review - Animated Metal Opera Done Right

I didn't regularly watch the show, but Metalocalypse: The Doomstar Requiem is a highly enjoyable metal/rock opera. It has an excellent blend of both musical genres and art directions. While it's best to have someone familiar with the show provide some context (or perhaps find a video online), it's pretty easy to respect what they've done. It's probably the top-notch entry in its genre (animated metal opera). Great narrative themes, great visuals and great music.

Highly recommended.

Jurassic World Review - A Successful Modernization, But Nothing New

Jurassic World was probably the biggest and best example of a "been there, done that" movie, but it was surprisingly enjoyable after going in with low expectations.

There was good humor and interesting characters, but there wasn't so much a story as things "just happened" and character arcs were ho-hum. Bryce Dallas Howard had the most interesting story (a mix of Alan Grant and Richard Hammond from the first one - genius scientist playing god/obsessed with control and not understanding kids/family, learning the value of the opposite over the course of the movie), but the film was neither built around her nor gave her the right focus or beats. As well, Chris Pratt didn't entirely work as the action expert due to his comedy getting in the way, despite some good banter/delivery of his lines with BDH (although BDH lacked chemistry with him).

Speaking of which, the meta humor was cheeky, but somewhat distracting. While it was fun seeing and hearing the references to the original Jurassic Park, some early humor about the situation took away from a later point in the movie, as well as raising overall questions on the logic and world building of Jurassic World.

Most disappointing, Michael Giacchino continued his streak of uninspired scores by creating another fairly generic big orchestra score, which may have been a commentary on the movie itself - reusing old cues and trying to be bigger, but the end result being rather generic. I hope studios take note to try and find someone else to follow in John Williams' footsteps (suggest either Thomas Newman or David Arnold).

All that said, the film earns a  RECOMMENDED for those wanting to revisit the world, but don't expect the intelligence, intrigue, excitement or awe of either of the Spielberg versions.

Mad Max: Fury Road - aka George Miller slapping every CGI-heavy action director in the face, ever

I'm jumping on the bandwagon and giving Mad Max: Fury Road a HIGH RECOMMENDATION for an action movie. Awesome choreography, excellent cinematography (some seriously gorgeous visuals), an exciting and dangerous universe. Yes, the movie has a serviceable story and isn't the best for character development, but there are some rich characters and lots of great themes to make up for it.

We seriously missed out by WB/DC not letting George Miller direct a Justice League movie. I'm guessing I'd rather rewatch Fury Road than any of the DCU movies.

This is the best event movie so far of the year. See it in theaters with big crowds. Go in only with the expectation of great action and you should be pleasantly surprised.

Scott McCloud's The Sculptor review

I'm a bit conflicted on Scott McCloud's long-awaited graphic novel "The Sculptor," although it's probably actually disappointed. I respect the craftsmanship, artwork, vulnerability and love that went into the graphic novel, but the characters... Though they felt very real and human, they came across as selfish, immature and egotistical (as expected for people in early-mid 20s). I often wanted to slap some sense into them.

On the whole, while I like its overall message - that art is important and can change the world - to a certain extent, it's rather self-indulgent, but not necessarily enough to detract from the overall book. There are some cool ideas and very sweet moments in the book, I just didn't enjoy all of the choices, particularly with regards to the characters themselves.

Rating: Recommended. I enjoyed it more than Bryan Lee O'Malley's Seconds, which is similar in concept, but different in execution. Funny how both are about very talented selfish flawed people (borderline assholes).

Musings on Life, Success, Happiness

Life is an RPG, structured with progression and the lessons of the WWE. One will be more successful with a good party, as this is a team-based experience.

There are plenty of cheat codes to life, which makes it feel like one big joke (in a good way), so find the humor in everything.

The challenge is to become an Influencer and happiness is decided based on which level of influence you are willing to work towards and either achieve or are complacent with.

Your industry of interest doesn't matter. The challenge is all the same.

Rashomon quick thoughts

Rashomon is an interesting movie. A bit dated now for it's narrative structure, with the first half or so kinda meh, but definitely picks up steam in the second half. There are a lot of great themes and elements that are contextually important, but my modern day entertainment lens just gives this an "interesting" rating.