If Guardians of the Galaxy didn’t prove to you that Marvel can take any of their comic book characters, no matter how weird, strange, silly, or unknown, and turn it into a hit that most people love and enjoy, then I believe that their latest feature, Ant-Man, will.
This is the 12th installment of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and to be completely honest, I have not grown tired of these films at all. Marvel still manages to impress with each movie. And I think Ant-Man might be one of my favorites on their list.
Ant-Man stars Paul Rudd, who plays Scott Lang, a master burglar. Scott is recently out of jail, and wants to be done with his life as a thief and support his young daughter. He’s not a bad person by any means, he just stole a lot of money from what was thought to be an impenetrable corporation. Scott gets a chance at redemption when Hank Pym, played by Michael Douglas, recruits him to become his successor as the Ant-Man so he can break into an impenetrable corporation and steal something.
Ultimately, Ant-Man is a heist movie. It’s sort of how Captain America: The Winter Soldier branched out to be a spy/espionage film, instead of simply being restricted in the superhero genre. Heist movies aren’t my favorite type, but I did enjoy Ant-Man a bit more than I expected to. It’s a whole lot of fun, but it is on a far smaller scale than Avengers earlier this year (no pun intended). Not only does Marvel prove that they can take an idea like Ant-Man and make it into a great film, but they prove that they know not every movie has to be some grand, fate-of-the-world extravaganza. They can make a movie that’s not as big as Avengers and still have it be fun. I hope they keep this in mind in the future. There is such a thing where movies get too large scale.
One of the strong points of Ant-Man is the cast. Paul Rudd owns the part of Scott Lang. He’s charismatic, funny, and has become one of my new favorite characters that Marvel has put on the big screen. The best actor in the movie, though, is Michael Douglas. If you look at any other review, you’ll see the same thing said about his part in the film. It’s been a while since anyone’s seen him in anything, but they’re glad he’s back, and they loved him in the movie.
Michael Douglas plays Hank Pym, the original Ant-Man. That’s one part that about a year ago, when they announced that this film would be about the Scott Lang character, I was very skeptical about. I had been accustomed to the Hank Pym character being the Ant-Man, mostly from the animated series that I saw him in. I expected the movie to be centered around him, not Scott. But seeing the final product, I can’t complain. I thought it was executed about as well as it ever could be.
Besides the good casting choices, the best part for me was when Ant-Man shrank down, and you get to see the world from his perspective. It looks amazing. It is simply fantastic to see the action on such a tiny scale, and it’s really impressive to see it done so dynamically, like when he constantly switches sizes during the fights to pull off a cool move. I’m also glad I saw it in 3D. Unlike other movies where 3D is either a dumb and useless gimmick or it’s post-converted, Ant-Man’s 3D is extremely effective. They shoot the shrunken down sequences in such a way to make it genuinely work. It’s better than many 3D movies I’ve seen in a long time.
In the end, I’d say that Ant-Man is one of my new favorite Marvel movies. It’s extremely funny, very enjoyable, and has some impressive action sequences. The only thing that I felt was weak was the villain. The Yellowjacket is definitely not one of the best villains that Marvel has had. He looks cool, and his fight with Ant-Man is cool, and he is most assuredly more memorable than Whiplash or Malekith (remember them? That’s what I thought), but I would have preferred the character to be a little more… impactful. Other than that, there wasn’t much to complain about. Also, be sure to stay for BOTH the mid credits scene and the end credits scene.
FINAL RATING: 45 / 50
STORY: 4 / 5
ACTING: 5 / 5
CHARACTERS: 4 / 5
CGI/EFFECTS: 4 / 5
ACTION: 5 / 5
SOUNDTRACK: 3 / 5
TONE: 5 / 5
ENJOYABILITY: 5 / 5
REWATCH VALUE: 5 / 5
OWNING VALUE: 5 / 5
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