So, I saw Ant-Man the other day. I had recently acquired the Regal Unlimited Movie Pass and decided “hey, why not?” While I highly recommend the Regal Unlimited Movie Pass, I can not say the same for the new Ant-Man movie. It’s received so much hate, and I honestly can see why. It’s odd because I typically choose not to hate on movies; however, this one just felt so… lifeless. Johnathon Majors puts in a great performance, yet at the same time, I feel as if every actor/actress in the whole movie was given so little to work with. Superhero movies are made in many different styles. Some of my favorites are Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse, as well as the Christopher Nolan and Robert Battinson Batmans. But, what makes those different? The idea to me of what a great superhero film can be is not a single fact. It’s the ability to make a fake world seem seamless and real, packed with emotions and beauty. It’s how franchises like Star Wars have survived. Sure, the galaxy is made up, but it feels and looks real. Yet, even the “real” stuff in Marvel movies has recently felt fake, and this movie feels almost the worst about that. It was so jarring after recently watching arguably the most beautiful film I’ve ever seen with the new Avatar movie, and following that up with this film. Rumors of overworking and underpaying VFX artists by Marvel are guaranteed to be true, and it shows here. Even if we look past the dialogue and certain parts of the story that just feel not really cared about, it just doesn’t feel like a real movie. Every single scene, it is painfully obvious how CGI’d everything is, and it’s not in a fun way. It is painful to the eyes. When everything is color graded to look the same and there is clearly nothing real that the actors were given to work with, it loses any whimsical nature that can come with new worlds (which this movie had a HUGE chance to showcase). To me, it just shows how much Marvel needs to slow down and stop micromanaging. Almost every one of my favorite superhero movies gave room for the writers and directors to work on their own, gave time for them to carefully craft the world and story they wanted to create, and understood that it is possible to make a superhero film that doesn’t feel like every other Marvel film in the last three years. There isn’t even much more to say for me. I’m just deeply disappointed in the potential that is squandered here.
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