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Contact: Cheryl Minns, Art Editor
Marts@theotherpress.ca

» ‘Ant-Man’ offers bite-sized fun

Adam Tatelman
Staff Writer

OOOSS

Re since his debut in

the comic series Tales to
Astonish, Ant-Man’s been
riding on the shoulders of

the Avengers. He’s always

been there. You just never

saw him. Now it’s the intrepid
insectonaut’s turn to carry the
Marvel Studios torch in his own
film, Ant-Man.

Superhero films no longer
land in a genre of their own, but
filter other genres through their
stories. For example, Captain
America does spy fiction and
Thor does epic fantasy. This

: time around, Ant-Man takes on
: the grand heist storyline, fuelled

by a special effects budget
funded by previous Avengers

films.
Diverging from the

: romantic comedy genre, Paul

: Rudd brings his average-Joe

: charm to the role of Scott

: Lang, a down-on-his-luck

: ex-con who struggles to pay

: child support in order to visit

: his daughter. He ends up

: caught in a generational power
: struggle after he inadvertently
: steals long-hidden technology
: invented by Hank Pym (Michael
: Douglas), a reclusive former

: captain of industry whose

: successor, Darren Cross (Corey
: Stoll), is trying to copy and

: sell the technology to military
: contractors.

Lang and Pym set out to

: stop Cross, treating audiences

: to comedic spins on all the

: typical heist tropes of planning,
: training, and execution. The

: two misguided men who want

: to protect their daughters have
: some effective scenes together.

Pym’s daughter Hope

: (Evangeline Lilly) has some old

: wounds to sort out with her dad,
: which gets a little melodramatic. :
: There is some sins-of-the-

: father bitterness between Pym
: and Cross, but it doesn’t get

: enough screen time to emulate
: the palpable hostility that Tony
: Stark and Obadiah Stane had in :
: the original Iron Man.

Arts in August

This issue:

(¥ Comic Corner: Fan fiction gets emotional

(¥ Animesque: It’s about time

And more!

There are indirect

references to Pym’s shrinking

: technology causing brain

: damage to Cross, but they

: are clumsily made and reek

: of bad editing or rewrites.

: The final act moves way too

: fast to feel impactful and

: reaches its resolution through
: foreshadowing (“Don’t mess

: with the regulator! You'll go

: subatomic!” Pym warns) that’s
: only slightly more obvious than

Egon’s ominous “Don’t cross

: the streams” warning from

: Ghostbusters. Then again, Ant-
: Man has been going through

: rewrites since 2006, so none of
: these issues are surprising.

Following in the zany,

: tongue-in-cheek footsteps of

Image via Marvel Studios/Disney Enterprises

: Guardians of the Galaxy, the

: subtle comedic foreshadowing
: of Ant-Man far surpasses the

: plot it’s attached to. Cut-away
: sight gags make way for over-

: the-top slapstick humour as

: the pacing builds, blatantly

: poking fun at overproduced

: CGI carnage that’s typical in the
: Marvel Universe by wreaking

: similar havoc on a microscopic
: scale. The final battle takes

: place ona child’s model train

: set, so it’s pretty clear this was
: never intended to bea serious
: drama.

Ant-Man is burdened by a

: predictable facade, but you have
: to embrace its imperfections in

: order to enjoy a fun-sized world
: of laughs.

 

Chairman of the Board: The green wave

» ‘Castle Panic’ game review

: Witt and published by Fireside

: Games in 2009. Players work

: together to distribute the forces
: they have to try to prevent a

: horde of fantasy creatures from
: completely levelling their castle.
: The players win if they manage

: to get through all the monsters

: with part of their castle still

: standing.

Ed Appleby

we, iilustrator

& V illustrator
@theotherpress.ca

 

he push and pull of war-

themed strategy games such
as Axis and Allies or Risk have
been thrilling gamers for years
by allowing them to flex their
strategic muscles. But what if the
game is just about you hunkered
down, trying to survive wave
after wave of bloodthirsty
marauders, just hoping to see
the next sunrise?

Castle Panic is a cooperative
strategy game for one to six
players designed by Justin De

I love cooperative games—

: this one more than most.

: Although there is a winner at the
: end of the game, determined by
: which player personally takes

: out the most monsters, the

: drive of the game is focussed on
: survival. You end up planning

: strategically with your fellow

: players just so you can keep the

walls up. This makes it a great

: game for older kids and players
: who don’t react very well to
: competition.

The one downside I found

: is that the game is just too easy.

: Unlike other solo games such as
: Pandemic or Forbidden Island,

: Castle Panic leans more towards
: the players winning. Players can
: offset this by focussing more on
: the competition side and trying
: to kill more monsters. This ends
: up being a very personal choice

: by the players.

Castle Panic is a fun game

: that I would recommend to most
: casual groups. More hardcore

: and strategy-driven gamers may

: find the game’s challenge a little

: lacking.