FILM: Ant-Man 3D D-BOX (dir: Peyton Reed, 2015)

"Cool....yeah.  If it ain't broke....."

Rather than try to match the epic scale of Guardians and Ultron, Ant-Man serves as a very effective and hugely enjoyable origin tale, in which Marvel wisely scales it down (sorry) to a more domestic and intimate feel, with very careful and well-drawn setting-up which allows characters and (an admittedly slender) plot to develop effectively.  It cements its place in the MCU with a couple of pleasing cameos and some rather blunt references, and if the film does feel familiar in tone, look and sound, one suspects that Edgar Wright's long-gestating take on the material has had the more interesting edges smoothed off a little on order to achieve it.  Visually, Ant-Man is stunningly realised with some occasionally very creative ideas, and the use of 3D is absolutely exemplary.  Paul Rudd, like Chris Pratt before him, is an engaging and amiable lead as expected, and Michael Douglas does sterling work as Hank Pym (including some remarkably impressive CG-de-ageing at the start of the film).  For a lesser character, Marvel has taken the right approach here in this the potentially uneasy mix of sci-fi, superhero, comedy and melodrama that gives the audience a more grounded hero in the MCU that still delivers on big-screen entertainment.

FILM: Ted 2 (dir: Seth Macfarlane, 2015)

You could have been an inspiration to the world.  Instead you're just Justin Bieber."

Ted 2 is a fair sequel that relies on a lot of goodwill carried over from the original on the part of the audience.  The narrative structure is a loose re-tread of Ted, but here the film is less relationship-driven and more an exploration of issues, meaning it is a bit less fun and the gag-rate is sparser yet still enough of a crowd-pleaser to entertain.  When the humour is being pointedly outrageous the film delivers - the sperm donor clinic lab and the comedy improv theatre sequences are spectacularly and offensively hilarious - but at other times it meanders or fails to pay off, such as a Jurassic Park nod that delivers the joke but then falls flat as an attempt is made to extend it.  Ted himself is now so convincing that suspension of disbelief is barely required, Wahlberg is a little more muted this time round, and Seyfried is no Kunis but shows some good comic timing.  As ever, Walter Murphy's score delights, and Ted 2 is a significant improvement on the dismal A Million Ways To Die In The West, but like that film, the script and pace of Ted 2 lacks the snap that would make it really great. 

FILM: Terminator Genisys IMAX 3D (dir: Alan Taylor, 2015)

"What do we want?"
"Time travel!"
"When do we want it?"
"It's irrelevant!"

The critical vitriol for Terminator Genisys possibly stems from the fact that if you are not steeped in the Terminator mythos and do not have an tolerance for the inherent nonsense of time-travel and alternate timelines, then as a stand-alone this movie would make little sense.  Even within those parameters, apparent plot-holes and moments that seem to baffle even the characters in the movie do not help, unaided by an oddly-paced screenplay.  All is not lost, however.  Against the odds, a now-aged Arnie works reasonably well, Emilia Clarke is a surprisingly acceptable alt-Sarah Connor, Jai Courtney is appropriately cast, and Alan Taylor directs some great action set-pieces.  The fans can have fun as the film mashes up not only the four movies but also TV's underappreciated The Sarah Connor Chronicles, in spite of the pre-publicity insistence that it is a direct follow-on from Judgement Day.  This is also a bigger problem: Genisys might play a bit better than Salvation and some aspects of Rise Of The Machines, but it does not even come close to Cameron.  The biggest lesson not heeded from Salvation was making a crucial reveal in the trailer (and indeed the poster campaign), which here once again kills the impact of one significant twist.  Envisioned as a part of a trilogy, characters and ideas are introduced and dropped which will presumably play a bigger role in the ensuing films, in which - hopefully - plotting and pacing will also play a more effective part.

FILM: Magic Mike XXL (dir: Gregory Jacobs, 2015)

"This is not about being a dancer."

Whilst the first Magic Mike was an unexpected success, the sequel takes a different route and hits some roadbumps along the way.  The fairly standard and reasonably tight dramatic narrative course taken by the original is replaced here by a more free-form road movie, with the result that it lurches episodically from one scenario to the next and shoehorns in some of the 'male entertainer' action along the way in a less-than convincing manner.  Tatum is a solid centre for the movie as expected, Joe Manganiello is often hilarious, and Jada Pinkett Smith eats up the screen whenever she appears.  There is self-aware humour that occasionally comes across as crass, and whilst the first film considered male objectification and exploitation, here the focus is much more on the seemingly witless (female) punters, at times distasteful in its treatment of the gay community and larger-size women.  There are plenty of good, enjoyable 'buddy' moments, and Manganiello's garage-store scene and his reaction to a Twilight tribute are priceless, but XXL is not as strong as the original.

FILM: Minions 3D (dirs: Pierre Coffin and Kyle Balda, 2015)

"BOING!  BOING!  BOING!"

The Minions have proved to be irresistible as a supporting act in the Despicable Me movies and in small doses in the short films.  In a through line from the early silent greats to Mr Bean via Jacques Tati, the full-length feature plays to the Minions' strengths and just about gets away with it.  There is plenty of slapstick and a few nice visual jokes, allied with a relatively slight and simple tale that targets the young audience effectively.  The film really takes off in moments when it breaks loose and embraces the surreality of it all, but this is infrequent and not sustained.  This is no Toy Story or How To Train Your Dragon, but the film looks terrific, the ending is smilesome, and it is reasonably entertaining for over-8-year-olds.