Ant-Man (2015) Review

"Baskin-Robbins always finds out."
-Dale



Former electrical engineer turned thief, Scott Lang (Paul Rudd), is released from prison, determined to get his life together so he will be allowed to see his daughter, Cassie (Abby Ryder Fortson).  Unfortunately, Scott is unable to get a job with his criminal record and joins his friend, Luis (Michael Peña), on a job.  Scott breaks into the house of Dr. Hank Pym (Michael Douglas), but only finds a strange looking suit that has shrinking powers.  Scott learns that Hank manipulated Luis and Scott into breaking into the house and stealing the suit in order to recruit Scott to stop Darren Cross (Corey Stoll), Hank's former assistant, who is close to creating his own version of the Ant-Man suit with the intent of selling it to the highest bidder.  It's up to Scott, Hank, and Hank's estranged daughter, Hope (Evangeline Lilly) to stop Cross before he can finish his weapon: the Yellowjacket.


What Works:

The Marvel movie released before Ant-Man was Avengers: Age of Ultron, which was a huge and bloated film.  Ant-Man was and is a breath of fresh air.  This movie is small scale on multiple levels.  The story is very small and focused.  Not counting the post-credit scene, the only other superhero to appear is Falcon (Anthony Mackie) and it's a small role.  It's a nice change of pace.  Plus it's a superhero/heist movie.  That's a new one.  It's an interesting and different story.  It's nice to see the MCU do something different.

Paul Rudd is a solid lead in the film.  He's funny, likable, charismatic.  He's no Tony Stark, but Scott Lang is a excellent new hero to add to this universe.  

Michael Peña is hysterical, giving an utterly bizarre performance that is wholly engrossing.  His story-telling methods are absurd and hilarious and his positive attitude is very memorable.  He's easily my favorite character in Ant-Man.

The action scenes are awesome.  Director Peyton Reed really seized the opportunity with the shrunken fight scenes.  The helicopter/suitcase fight was great, but best of all is the Thomas the Tank Engine fight.  It's one of my favorite sequences in the entire MCU and the best part of the movie.  It's so creative and fun that you can help but smile as Thomas gets thrown at Yellowjacket and later enlarged.


What Sucks:

Darren Cross/Yellowjacket is a pretty weak-sauce villain, I must admit.  He's not very memorable or interesting and we don't even get to see the suit in action until the very end of the movie.  It's not Corey Stoll's fault, he did the best he could do with what he was given.  It's just that the writing didn't give any room for Cross to be a compelling villain.  He's definitely near the bottom of the Marvel villains.

The sub-plot about Hank and Hope's fraught relationship is a little annoying, but not a big deal until it wraps up before the halfway point of the the movie.  Suddenly we have this big revelation and ham-fisted wrap up of this sub-plot.  It comes way to early in the movie and is very sloppily handled.


Verdict:

Ant-Man is a fun, little superhero movie that does something different by making it a heist film.  That, and the small scale after the bloated Age of Ultron, make this a refreshing movie.  Add in a likable lead, a hilarious side character, and some fantastic fight scenes and it's easy enough to ignore the ham-fisted subplot and the lame villain.  It's got some problems, but Ant-Man still has got it going on.

 8/10: Really Good 

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