Nevertheless, I can't shake the feeling that Ant-Man is the superhero you invent after you've already used up all the really good powers.

That's a fair point. If someone offered me the superpower of my choice, I wouldn't pick getting tiny.

Legion of Super-Heroes excelled on this score. I offer you, Bouncing Boy and Matter-Eater Lad.

I think getting super tiny is one of those superpowers that COULD be awesome, given creative uses. Depends how tiny, to some extent. I mean, it's essentially a form of invisibility, right? Nobody really thinks invisibility sucks.

I have never read any ant-man, so I dunno.

I just watched the teaser and thought is was fine. At least there's a hint of humor, which has been the real clincher for me in most of the Marvel movies I've loved (though CA2 could have dropped all humor and still been good).

Certainly didn't have the brilliance (to me) of the first GotG teaser-trailer, but I realized eventually that my overwhelming love for that was not universal; my wife, who is substantially less immersed in geek culture than I, though it was weird and somewhat of a WTF turnoff. This teaser is less groundbreaking (for, I assume, more generic appeal), but that also means it doesn't actually tell me very much, which means there is still plenty of room for the movie to be awesome. I love me some Paul Rudd and Marvel and actually have no bones to pick with Michael Douglas, so I'm basically still completely in.

Different franchise, but who's over-fevered brain would cast Johansson in Evangelion when Rinko Kikuchi exists in the world? I like Scarlett, but it seems to me Rinko would bring in at least as much box office in the role.

I seriously doubt that -- Pacific Rim didn't do that well! And ScarJo is a Name, in addition to being a white woman with big boobs.

Calvary was also not a good thing for me to watch. I need to avoid death for awhile. And actually, I'm really pissed off that the loophole in the beginning wasn't followed through on. Or that the fact that the killer was known to the main character wasn't really shown in the interactions during the film. But I love me some Brendan Gleeson. And now I'm back to being weepy.

Have we really not discussed The Hobbit* here yet? I finally saw it today and was underwhelmed, but pleased with myself for recognizing Billy Boyd as the singer of the closing credits song.

I guess I don't actually have a whole lot to say about it, except that "everyone fights everyone else for an hour or more" doesn't really do much for me as a plot. Oh well, eventually someone will do a 2-hour fan edit of all three movies that I will probably quite enjoy.

*This year's Hobbit, that is.

I'm seeing it Tuesday night. I have loooow expectations, but two people I love to talk movies with liked it, so I need to catch up.

I really disliked it. I mean...I was engaged enough while it was happening but have zero desire to watch it again, nor the others. Quite the opposite experience from LotR.