I admit I gave the first Ant-Man a lot of shit, most of it warranted, but the other half because of the whole Edgar Wright debacle. But with three years to work with and a bigger budget and more resources surely Mr. Peyton Reed can direct his true Ant-Man movie.
If this is it then my god, I have underestimated mediocrity
Obviously, all of this falls to two things, the writing and directing. The writing, shared by 5 screenwriters is so generic and forced that I’m ashamed for all five of those writers. The entire plot of this film feels so inconsequential. They try to add elements and characters to spice things up, but all it does is muddy the waters even more. It doesn’t help that every character has different goals, all of which are meaningless. You got villains, literally two major ones, that are so boring that I don't understand how this was green lit. The one hope was a villain called ‘Ghost being a badass villain but nope it’s ruined quickly with a terrible thread that wraps up in seriously seconds towards the end.
Well, what about Hope? She's more interesting than the one-note Paul Rudd we get in this film but nope. Instead we get so many weak story threads flapping around. You got Hank Pym and. look I don't even care to explain more because at the end of this film nothing changes. The story sucks, every element is so elementary. These 'writers' define the problem of shitty Hollywood fare. Truly they do.
Now to the other major problem, Peyton Reed. His shot designs are pulled straight from early 00's comedy flicks, seriously if you were to replace his name with Judd Apatow, I wouldn't bat an eye. All the scenes of improv or comedy are shot so lazily to maximize the number of jokes to get in, you know the mid shot singles that plague shitty American comedies? Talking about comedy, this film is not funny, even the audience I was with was awkwardly silent. What a contrast to Infinity War, which literally had more comedy than this film. Even the action feels off. There was never a moment of any tension for me. The choreography was so lackluster considering the abilities you can play with; I mean they seriously give one of the most creative superheroes, Ant-Man, to a creatively bankrupt jober? Why??
None of the shrinking or growing had any charm. The train fight from the first was more enjoyable than this entire film. I watched this film yesterday and I'm having trouble remembering the action sequences to even mention them. The editing was also at fault. The way it cut from sequence to sequence dropping any carryover suspense or weight. It was just a bore.
I'm already tired of writing about this movie, I'll just say the rest of the bad, the score was annoying, especially during the Rudd shrinking to a kid size, which looked awful. The entire cast gave a terrible performance, but I blame Reed for his direction on that. The cinematography was flat as hell, the cinematography in the first flick was better. The ending is also uneventful.
So, in ending,
--- 4/10 - Bad -
This film is a mash of generic, forced & lazy attempts to create a bigger, better, funnier film. Apparently hiring 5 writers, giving them a gigantic budget with nearly unlimited resources doesn't make a film good. Especially when the man in charge is as creative and original as a slice of white bread.