Ant-Man (2015)

I found a complimentary movie pass.  Hadn't been to a movie in the theater for a long time, so I decided to use it to see Ant-Man.  I wasn't expecting much, and good thing I wasn't.  I would have been a little ticked if I had paid to see this movie.

In my opinion, there's just too many superhero movies being made these days.  Most of the recent movies in that genre don't live up to the hype.  Ant-Man is not a bad movie, but it doesn't rank high.  The main hero, Scott Lang (Paul Rudd), is one of many who throw out a lot of wise cracks and funny lines.  We meet Scott just as he's released from prison.  A friend of his, Luis (Michael Pena), who takes him in, has just as many jokes, as does Luis' friends Kurt (Dave Dalmachian) and Dave (Tip "T.I." Harris).  But I wasn't chuckling along with the audience.

Maybe I'm just tired of the superhero genre.  Maybe I'm too old to get excited about movies geared towards 12-year-old boys and grown up sci-fi/fantasy/comic book fan boys and girls.  Oh sure, there were some good points. I liked Michael Douglas in this movie, and there were times when he sounded just like his dad, movie legend Kirk Douglas.  Corey Stoll played a good villain, and Abby Ryder Fortson was adorable as the hero's daughter.  It was a nice touch having Garrett Morris do a cameo.  Morris played Ant-Man in a sketch about superheroes on "Saturday Night Live" decades ago.  And as usual, Stan "The Man" Lee, who created many Marvel superheroes, had his cameo.  The film ended with not one, but two scenes that were shown after the end credits that teased about another Ant-Man movie, as well as how he will fit in with The Avengers.

Otherwise, I was underwhelmed.  A lot of the movie was what I had seen in previous movies of this type, and it was done better.  Now it's just done to death.

The Amazing Spiderman

In the beginning of this reboot of the super hero franchise, we see a young Peter Parker discovering that his house has been broken into.  Specifically, someone has ransacked his father's (Campbell Scott) office.  Peter is left to stay with his Uncle Ben (Martin Sheen) and Aunt May (Sally Field), while his parents leave town under mysterious circumstances.  Years go by, and we learn that Peter (Andrew Garfield) has been living with his aunt and uncle permanently.  His parents died in a plane crash.

While cleaning out the flooded basement in the house, Peter finds a briefcase that belonged to his dad.  The information inside -- a formula his dad was working on -- leads him to a former colleague of his father named Dr. Curt Connors (Rhys Ifans).  Peter is unaware that Dr. Connors is doing some under-the-table work involving genetics.  While at the scientific corporation where Dr. Connors works, Peter snoops around in an off-limits area.  Peter is bitten by a spider being used in an experiment, and soon afterwards, the teenager finds he has some pretty amazing powers. 

Those powers are seriously put to work after Uncle Ben is killed on the street by a store robber.  Peter turns vigilante in an attempt to find the culprit, but the police don't appreciate the interference.  Dr. Connors dangerous experimentations, and the fact that Peter's love interest, Gwen (Emma Stone) is the daughter of a cop (Dennis Leary), add to the super hero's problems. 

I didn't go in with high expectations, having been spoiled by the first couple modern Spiderman movies starring Tobey MacGuire (as well as the old 1967 Saturday morning cartoon show).  But this wasn't bad because it focused more on the characters and their motivations as opposed to derring-do and special effects.  The early scenes where it's clear that Gwen and Peter like each other but are awkward around each other felt real.  I liked that Uncle Ben and Aunt May were portrayed as regular folks, which is very close to how those characters were done in the comic books. 

What I had a little problem with was that Peter Parker's status was raised a little bit among his peers.  In the comic books, what makes Spiderman appealing is that Peter Parker is a geeky, somewhat socially challenged guy underneath the costume.  Most can relate to Peter being out-of-step and picked on by everybody.  Making him one of the cool kids as the storyline went along didn't feel right. 

There's a funny cameo involving Stan "The Man" Lee, the former president and chairman of Marvel Comics, as well as the co-creator of the Spideman character.  C. Thomas Howell, who starred in The Outsiders (1983), was unrecognizable in a small role.

The Incredible Hulk (2008)

The opening credit flash through how Bruce Banner (Edward Norton) underwent an experiment dealing with gamma rays. The experiment went wrong, changing Banner into a huge, green creature who caused a hell of a lot of destruction. In the melee, Betty Ross (Liv Tyler), Banner's girlfriend, was hurt. Her dad, General Ross (William Hurt) and the U.S. goverment conducted a manhunt for Banner, which is where the plot begins.

Banner is hiding out in Brazil, taking martial arts lessons, working in a bottling factory, and learning to keep his temper under control. It's his temper that causes the green Hulk to appear. The U.S. government finds where he's hiding after a minor accident ends up with some of his blood dropping into the juice the bottling factory distributes. An unlucky consumer (Stan Lee) ends up drinking it. Banner turns into the Hulk and escapes capture.

He ends up hiding out at Betty's place, but trouble follows him there. General Ross has enlisted the help of a top-level military guy named Emil Blonsky (Tim Roth) to help nab Banner. Blonsky agrees to be injected with the same gamma rays that now infect Banner. Unlike Banner, Blonsky likes having destructive power.

I didn't see the earlier Hulk movie that was directed by Ang Lee, so I can't compare the two. There were some nice touches. Stan Lee, who created The Incredible Hulk (as well as Spiderman and the Fantastic Four) for Marvel comics, has a cameo. Lou Ferrigno, who played the Hulk on the TV series which ran from 1978-1982, shows up as a security guard. Even the late Bill Bixby, who was Bruce Banner on the same TV show, is seen in a clip from an earlier series he was in, "The Courtship of Eddie's Father" (1969-1972). Robert Downey Jr. also has a cameo, tying in Iron Man with this movie. Tim Blake Nelson (Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?) appears as a scientist.

However, the film is not as good as Iron Man, which is based on yet another Marvel Comics superhero. The chemistry between Norton and Tyler is not there, and after awhile, the fights between the Hulk and others seem to run into each other.