Ant-Man Review

At this point, the Marvel Cinematic Universe owns the world. Or at least the movie world. Not only do they pump out big billion dollar blockbusters on a regular basis, they can even shake things up with an unconventional movie like this about an obscure comic book character and an inherently silly premise. They did it last year with Guardians of the Galaxy, which was a smash success and decidedly one of their best movies. And now they've done it again, with a slightly lesser amount of success. Ant-Man is thoroughly enjoyable, but not quite on the level of Marvel's finest efforts.

Ant-Man is about a man named Scott Lang who has a history of crime, more specifically larceny. He gets out of prison at the beginning of the film and is determined to provide for his young daughter, who his ex-wife and her new husband don't allow him to see. He sets out to live a better life free of theft. Eventually, he gets caught up in the plans of Hank Pym, a brilliant scientist seeking to stop his former protege from obtaining technology that could, as usual, threaten humanity.

One of Ant-Man's greatest strengths is its wonderful cast. Paul Rudd leads the way as Scott Lang, who eventually turns into the titular hero. I was skeptical about Rudd holding the weight of a comic book movie, but thankfully, he doesn't have to. His fellow cast members carry their share of the weight, and Rudd is allowed to do what he is most comfortable with: comedy. And he is very funny in this movie. I like that Marvel shook things up a little with casting Rudd. I'm eager to see what he brings to the team dynamic in future movies.

The supporting cast is equally great. The legendary Michael Douglas plays Hank Pym. Marvel has cast illustrious older actors in supporting roles before; Jeff Bridges appeared in Iron Man, Anthony Hopkins was in the Thor films, Tommy Lee Jones in Captain America: The First Avenger, and most recently Robert Redford in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. This was a little different from all of those because Douglas seemed fully invested in the whole thing. It never felt like he was just there for the paycheck. He wanted to be there, which made his performance all the better.

Evangeline Lily plays Hank Pym's daughter, Hope. I like Lily. I think she's a very likable and talented actress. She was pretty good here, but I thought her character could have been given a little more room to grow. Some of the ways she changes her mind about certain things seemed a little too rushed, as if the writers just brushed over it to get to the next part. I got that sense a number of times from a number of things in Ant-Man, and Evangeline Lily's character was one of them.

Some of the other cast members include Corey Stoll as Darren Cross, Pym's former protege and the antagonist of the film. He was pretty one-dimensional, but once he becomes a full-on villain, his character was cool. Michael Peña appears as one of Scott's partners in crime. He was absolutely hilarious in this movie. I loved every second he was on screen. Bobby Cannavale is also in this movie. I didn't particularly care for his character. He seemed pretty expendable.

Ant-Man is entirely different from anything Marvel has ever done in that it takes place on a much smaller scale than their other films. There's no earth-shattering destruction or villain seeking to rule the world. At its heart, it's a heist movie. And I absolutely love heist movies. So I really enjoyed those aspects of the film. And I love that Marvel tried something different for a change with such an oddball character and such a grounded scale. Quite honestly, it was refreshing after the massive spectacle that was Avengers: Age of Ultron, which I thought was great, but I also felt we could use a break from that type of comic book movie, and Ant-Man gives that to us.

The action is no less exciting even though it takes place without any big set pieces. As I said in my review of the film's second trailer, I was anticipating some really innovative and different action scenes, and we definitely got them. The way Ant-Man is utilized when fighting normal-sized human beings was ingenious, and once he starts fighting a villain of the same size as him, it gets even more entertaining.

And this movie is funny. I mean really funny. I'd honestly classify it as a comedy with action rather than a funny action movie. I said that exact same thing about last year's Guardians of the Galaxy. That seems to be the way Marvel introduces these zany, fairly obscure characters to audiences: with humor. And it's working. There were a great deal of scenes that caused me to laugh out loud, particularly the ones involving Michael Peña, who as previously mentioned was perfect in this movie. Comedy gold.


This movie does have its flaws, though. During its production, it experienced a number of script rewrites and creative changes. Edgar Wright was originally supposed to direct the film, but left because Marvel wanted to tie it into their universe more than Wright would agree to. So Peyton Reed was chosen to replace him, which caused many to start to question the whole project. It also had a handful of writers all working on it together, some of whom came from different comedic backgrounds. As a result of all this, there are parts of Ant-Man that simply feel choppy. Additionally, I felt the tone kind of jumped around a little too much.

It's a shame that Wright chose to leave the movie because I would have loved to have seen his interpretation of the script. There are sections of the film that have his fingerprints on it, but the vast majority of it was clearly not directed by him. And that's what disappointed me the most about Ant-Man. There were moments when it felt like a kooky, over-the-top B-movie of sorts, the type that Wright would make. And I loved those parts. But, there were also a lot of times when it simply feels like a generic comic book movie hitting the same beats that we've seen before and checking the "necessary" things off its list. This tonal inconsistency bothered me.

The script felt a little incomplete at times. I'm not sure if the large amount of writers had anything to do with that or if the change in directors carried over into the writing or even if it simply wasn't written the best it could be. Whatever the case may be, I felt it left out some necessary plot elements just so it could get to the "good" stuff, and some characters felt one-dimensional and flat as a result. One example of this came with the relationship between Hank Pym and his daughter. There was potential for some genuinely affecting interactions between them, but it ultimately felt like a missed opportunity.

It probably sounds like I didn't like the movie after that rant, but I did enjoy it. Quite a bit. It's a very fun Marvel entry with some really terrific humor and inventive action sequences. Paul Rudd is effortlessly likable in the titular role and I'm very much looking forward to seeing his place in the Avengers unit. Michael Douglas did a great job, as did Michael Peña. The special effects are top-notch, despite the film being of such small scale. It could have been better, I will say that, and I think people looking for a big summer movie will be disappointed. Temper your expectations. Go in to the theater expecting to laugh a lot and to get invested in these characters. If you do that, you'll have a blast.

B