"Ant-Man" a small movie, HUGE FUN

Ant-Man is Marvel Studios latest superhero film, that is just another exciting installment in their Marvel Cinematic Universe. The film stars Paul Rudd as Scott Lang, a burglar who has just finished brief years in prison and wanting to change his life around. But after stealing a mysterious suit when he finds himself in a jam and desperately wanting to spend time with his daughter again, he gets in trouble and finds out that the suit actually belongs to billionaire Hank Pym (Michael Douglas). Scott also finds out that the suit has the incredible power to shrink anyone who wears it to the size of a small insect, or specifically an ant. It turns out Pym needs Scott for a mission, impressed by his thieving skills and motivations, to put on the suit and become the "Ant-Man" to steal a similar suit from Pym's old protege Darren Cross (Corey Stoll) before he hands it to the wrong hands. With the help of Pym and his daughter Hope (Evangeline Lily), Scott must be the next great hero. Though it is probably one of the most smaller and personal of the Marvel films, Ant-Man succeeds in being an intact and tightly written movie with plenty of action, laughs, and most importantly fun!



Paul Rudd plays Scott Lang/Ant-Man, and thanks to Rudd, Scott turns out to be a highly likable and entertaining character. From the beginning, I began to care for this guy and his motives. Whenever he had a funny scene or line I laughed, and whenever he had a personal scene I felt for him. Though Rudd is an actor mostly known for starring in comedies, he proves that he can fit in this dynamic Marvel Universe! Evangeline Lily as Hope, Hank Pym's daughter, is good, and I mean the character herself. Lily gave a decent performance out of what was written for her. I say this because she first did not do anything for me as she just came across as the pissed off estranged daughter who hates her dad we have seen a million times before. But the more you learn about her story, the more she becomes acceptable as a character. One of the problems I have with the MCU overall is their villains, aside from Loki, Red Skull, Ultron, and maybe Robert Redford from Captain America: The Winter Soldier. But for the most part the MCU's villains have been pretty weak or forgettable. Corey Stoll as Darren Cross/Yellowjacket is neither the weakest or strongest villain in the MCU. He is okay at some parts, but a lot of the times he seems like a cartoon villain. He does not seem all that threatening. Like the rest of the cast, Stoll does good for what he is given, it is just the character did not leave that much of an impact on me. We also have good side characters played by Michael Pena, Bobby Cannavale, and T.I., especially Pena whose character is really funny and entertaining. And then there is Michael Douglas as Hank Pym, who asides from Scott might be my favorite character in the film. Douglas plays Pym as a tired but contempt and wise elderly man. In the comics Pym was the original Ant-Man and a founding member of The Avengers. It seems that in this movie he was Ant-Man at a point in his life and had worked for S.H.I.E.L.D., but quit after a falling out. There is more backstory that I do not want to spoil, but we see how some of the pasts haunts him and how it affects his decisions. You can see he has a close relationship with people he has a past with or with people he wants to mentor, like Scott. Michael Douglas is a highly respected actor, and though he is in a comic book superhero film, he does not phone it in, he treats it like a serious role. It is nice to see these movies getting quite the legitimate respect they deserve by getting actors like Douglas who gives it their all in these movies.




When you hear the concept of a man who can use a suit to shrink in size and control ants to do his will by communicating through a helmet, it sounds overly ridiculous. But somehow director Peyton Reed as found a way to make this concept look cool and interesting. The shrinking effect is well done, and the "micro-vision", as I think how they call it is done wonderfully. The action scenes in which Scott is small or regular size are very entertaining to watch. And with the concept of controlling the ants really works to as all the ants we see either Hank or Scott control are like all one character. The situations in which they use these ants are very creative, and there are even moments where I kid you not, you do feel an emotional connection to a bunch of insect you squash with your feet whether intentional or not. It's really incredible! Another thing the film has going for it is its small story but its ability to have the audience leave after having such a huge fun time. Though the stakes are not as grand as an Avengers movie, there still a lot of care and character in the story of this film. I found myself being interested in and caring for most of these characters. It is more of a personal film, but yet I felt like I had just watched a movie that was just as entertaining as any good summer blockbuster!



Ant-Man is overall a fun supehero action film, and if you like watching those, you love watching this. I was very pleasantly surprised by the amount of entertainment that I got out of the movie and how well it fits in the overall Marvel Cinematic Universe. It left with a good feeling and it does its job in making me continue to more of Marvel movies and to see where there overall story is going! A huge gift that definitely came in a small package!


GRADE: P+