Antboy (2013)

Antboy is a superhero movie that succeeded in visual design, music, and some acting. Everything else though falls flat, or is sub par at best. The pacing is off, skipping past random parts that feel like they could be more fleshed out, Or holding on scenes that serve next to no point in the story. Speaking of story, this movie's isn't great. Nothing feels important, as scenes come ago with little impact. Characters make decisions that make no sense, and the movie picks up ideas, metaphors, and morale's that are abandoned as soon as they are picked up.The biggest problem with Antboy is the characters. The main lead constantly acts bored and uninterested on whats going on around him, until around half way through the movie. The hero's sidekick also has a few problems, he's wants the lead to become a superhero, even though there is no reason at that point, besides that he has powers. No crime, no mystery, he just wants the hero to become a super hero because he likes super heroes. The rest of the cast isn't note worthy, there all bland and only serve the propose of furthering the plot. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but they don't help improve the movie in anyway.The last problem with Antboy is there is next to no action in the entire movie. The only "action" in the movie is 1 fight with the villain at the very end, at that scene was just one punch! Yes he defeated the bad guy in one punch! All other action is off screen so they don't have to show it or is so brief that it barley counts. It made the movie feel even more empty. That's a good word to describe this movie, Empty. With no reason to care for the characters, little action and bad pacing at the end of the movie you just feel, Empty.

This is an excellent movie more attuned for children but cute/watchable for adults as well.. Critics forget what children like. They compare this to Spiderman because they want to see a Spiderman type of superhero movie that entertains adults. When they don't get that, they decide to tear into the movie saying it's a Spiderman ripoff. Sorry, critics, superhero movies, like they use to make them, can be built for children without implied sexuality, bad language, and soaked in darkness. This movie was beautifully shot and didn't need high tech gadgetry to entertain well. It was funny too (e.g. the kid's oblivious loser parents). It's also original (or at least unusual) in having a child portray a superhero.

And the result is Antboy in this danish superhero movie aimed at younger audiences. Of course, it does not have the financial possibilities of the real huge superhero blockbusters (despite winning the prestigious Visual Effects award at the Danish Film Prize, hear hear), but it makes up for these with lots of charm and humor. The kids all give good performances and the main character is pretty likable. My favorite part was how his interest changes from the Barbie-like girl that everybody adores to her adventurous sister. The little Barbie wants Ant Boy to kiss her, but he suddenly has no interest in her anymore and asks for the other girl, after which the Barbie girl, just reacts in a bit of a bitchy way that she calls her sister and that somebody wants to visit her.The main villain (Nicolas Bro, one of Denmarks most famous actors right now worked with Spielberg and von Trier recently) to Antboy is huge mixture between human and flea, kinda perfect, a bit scary, but not too much and also mostly in a funny weird way. Quite a character this flea. The final message on friendship is a nice one, although it appears a bit random and only included for the sake of it without really much convincing story dependence, especially as the other boy was much more of a friend to Antboy than to the main character.In Denmark this film must have been quite a success as for Christmas 2014, there will be a sequel coming out. Hopefully they manage to make this work too. Nicolas Bro will be back, so maybe the ant and the flea will clash again. Antboy 1 is the first feature film, after some short film work, for director Ask Hasselbach. The writing staff is prominent too and has been featured before on the original "Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" for example. If you like superhero movies, this one deserves definitely a look. It's very different and at the same time refreshing. In Germany there is quite a few decent children's movies based on books coming out and here finally is one from north the border. The runtime is clearly under 90 minutes, so it's even a good choice for those who struggle with movies that drag a lot. This one does not and I would not want to cut out a single scene. Recommended.

A children's superhero movie that offers nothing great moment for adults. Specially made movie for tween kids, definitely they gonna enjoy. For adults, it is like a spoof and kids' version of the Spiderman movie. Yeah, it was kinda inspired by the Spiderman movie so they gave right credit by mentioning it in the story.Most of the modern Danish movies I saw were very impressive. They take challenging subjects and carve into a great piece. It is a lookout film industry like South Korea. So I laid my on this movie when I saw the first teaser as I am a children movie fan. This was a good movie, but as a middle aged man this did not work for me.The kids gave their best, many were debuted with this so it's their first experience to perform in front of the camera. It's clearly visible their amateur acting skills. Only experience can teach and improve them on this field. For a maiden movie they have done a decent job except lack in facial expression in different situation of the story.The first Danish superhero movie based on the children's book. This movie was very short, runs for less than 80 minutes, so it was the reason it did not bore me. As a superhero movie, there's not enough stunts in it. Looks like they kept it low to target little kid's audience. Even the story was also familiar, only characters were derived. Overall, it can be acceptable, but not by the large margin.