Entertainment
‘Ant-Man’ exceeds your expectations (Rating – ****)
Film: “Ant-Man”; Cast: Paul Rudd, Michael Douglas, Corey Stoll, Evangeline Lilly, Judy Greer, Abby Ryder Fortson, Michael Pena, John Slattery, Bobby Cannavale, T.I; Director: Peyton Reed; Rating: ****
Slipping into another Marvel Cinematic Universe seemed a tad monotonous. Honestly, I did not expect much from “Ant-Man”, and the result was a sheer surprise.
With simple, natural characters and an uncomplicated, yet spirited plot line, “Ant-Man” is a visually engaging and entertaining film. An unlikely hero getting convinced and trained to become a super-hero is the premise of the film which woos the audience.
Here the decent, Scott Lang is an intelligent thief and an earnest father who after being released from jail is desperate to be united with his daughter Cassie. He wants to redeem himself and start life afresh.
But after a couple of unsuccessful attempts for a stable job, he opts out to work for a scientist, Hank Pym, who is the creator of the magical shrinking serum that creates the Ant-Man.
While, Hank Pym convinces Lang to perform a heist to prevent the technology from falling into wrong hands, especially that of his greedy megalomaniac former protege Darren Cross, his daughter Hope is not convinced of Lang’s abilities. She wishes to adorn the Ant-man costume to prove a point to her father.
The plot, with ample conflicts, shuttles between family drama that is created with a rather earnest atmosphere and “saving the world,” sci-fiction tropes, which include internal jokes and cameos from the Marvel Universe. The complications are laid out in steps, one-by-one, and provide a series of payoffs with the completion.
The film largely revolves around Scott Lang and what keeps you hooked is Paul Rudd’s performance as the super hero Ant-Man. With his diminutive frame and charismatic looks, Paul effortlessly slips into this simple and likeable character with ease.
He is ably supported by Michael Douglas as Hank Pym, Evangeline Lilly as Pym’s daughter the agile Hope, Judy Greer as his ex-wife, Bobby Cannavale as a police inspector and his ex-wife’s current beau and Abby Ryder Fortson as his daughter, Cassie.
Apart from Rudd, it is Michael Pena as Lang’s friend, Louis who shines in his limited screen time. He surprises us by embellishing his stereotypical character with subtle humour, thus making him stand apart.
On the action and technical front, the scenes where Lang masters the art of size-shifting are amusing. In fact, it is bound to remind the adult audience of the 1989 Disney released film, “Honey I Shrunk the Kids”.
Here, the action sequences have a real punch once Lang gets the hang of manipulating his way through. His exploits are thrilling and infectious.
On the visual front, the shrunken worlds use a lot of macro photography to maximise the effect of depth and the computer generated images mesh well with the motion capture frames. The 3D effects and background scores are add-ons that elevate the viewing experience, created by the razor sharp flawless edits.
On the flip side, one could argue on the weird logic of Ant-Man’s ability to communicate and control ants and no other creatures. Also, being a super-hero film, the antagonist is too generic and inconsequential to register.
Nevertheless, whatever the pitfalls, director Peyton Reed’s “Ant-Man” is a breath of fresh air by Marvel’s standards that will appeal to children and adults alike.
International online casino Casino Days has published a report sharing their internal data on what types and brands of devices are used to play on the platform by users from the South Asian region.
Such aggregate data analyses allow the operator to optimise their website for the brands and models of devices people are actually using.
The insights gained through the research also help Casino Days tailor their services based on the better understanding of their clients and their needs.
Desktops and Tablets Lose the Battle vs Mobile
The primary data samples analysed by Casino Days reveal that mobile connections dominate the market in South Asia and are responsible for a whopping 96.6% of gaming sessions, while computers and tablets have negligible shares of 2.9% and 0.5% respectively.
The authors of the study point out that historically, playing online casino was exclusively done on computers, and attribute thе major shift to mobile that has unfolded over time to the wide spread of cheaper smartphones and mobile data plans in South Asia.
“Some of the reasons behind this massive difference in device type are affordability, technical advantages, as well as cheaper and more obtainable internet plans for mobiles than those for computers,” the researchers comment.
Xiaomi and Vivo Outperform Samsung, Apple Way Down in Rankings
Chinese brands Xiaomi and Vivo were used by 21.9% and 20.79% of Casino Days players from South Asia respectively, and together with the positioned in third place with a 18.1% share South Korean brand Samsung dominate the market among real money gamers in the region.
Cupertino, California-based Apple is way down in seventh with a user share of just 2.29%, overshadowed by Chinese brands Realme (11.43%), OPPO (11.23%), and OnePlus (4.07%).
Huawei is at the very bottom of the chart with a tiny share just below the single percent mark, trailing behind mobile devices by Motorola, Google, and Infinix.
The data on actual phone usage provided by Casino Days, even though limited to the gaming parts of the population of South Asia, paints a different picture from global statistics on smartphone shipments by vendors.
Apple and Samsung have been sharing the worldwide lead for over a decade, while current regional leader Xiaomi secured their third position globally just a couple of years ago.
Striking Android Dominance among South Asian Real Money Gaming Communities
The shifted market share patterns of the world’s top smartphone brands in South Asia observed by the Casino Days research paper reveal a striking dominance of Android devices at the expense of iOS-powered phones.
On the global level, Android enjoys a comfortable lead with a sizable 68.79% share which grows to nearly 79% when we look at the whole continent of Asia. The data on South Asian real money gaming communities suggests that Android’s dominance grows even higher and is north of the 90% mark.
Among the major factors behind these figures, the authors of the study point to the relative affordability of and greater availability of Android devices in the region, especially when manufactured locally in countries like India and Vietnam.
“And, with influencers and tech reviews putting emphasis on Android devices, the choice of mobile phone brand and OS becomes easy; Android has a much wider range of products and caters to the Asian online casino market in ways that Apple can’t due to technical limitations,” the researchers add.
The far better integration achieved by Google Pay compared to its counterpart Apple Pay has also played a crucial role in shaping the existing smartphone market trends.
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