What Is This, A Review For Ants? – Ant-Man Review

While we’re tempted to make this the smallest review we’ve ever seen, in order to keep up with the theme of the Ant-Man movie, the truth is there is a lot to say about Marvel/Disney’s lastest outing. Starring Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, and Michael Douglas the story of one of comics smallest superheroes is finally hitting the big screen this month.

Ant-Man and an ant, man.

“Finally” is no exaggeration either. Stan Lee himself pitched an idea for an Ant-Man movie as early as the 1980s, but ironically Disney’s own “Honey I Shrunk the Kids” torpedoed the movie before it could get out of production. Later when the phase 1 of the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) was ending with The Avengers, speculation about Ant-Man making an appearance was widespread; he was a founding member of the group in the 1960s comic book after all!

However the wait was worth it, as now we’ve been treated to a movie that sits so well inside the MCU it feels like it’s been a tiny part of it all along, and a superhero origin story that is so fresh it barely feels like a superhero movie at all because it’s not. In the same way that last year’s Guardians of the Galaxy used humor and fun storytelling to gloss over the science (or magic?) and the abilities on screen, Ant-Man is an amusing and light romp through what should be serious and dark territory. This is the real magic of the MCU; the movie (and all related films) work best when they don’t take themselves too seriously and rely on the viewer’s ability to have fun as these characters learn who they are and inevitable kick some ass on screen.

Hide and Seek is a lot easier as an ant, but be careful of WHERE you hide.

In Ant-Man however, the origin formula used so often in Superhero movies is somehow more realistic, without having to sacrifice the comic book character’s powers as it translates to the screen. Typically in movies explaining the origin of a character they give us psuedo-science or other fantastical reasoning for the powers, but in Ant-Man we get a few words about atoms, and then we focus on a “passing of the torch” as the original Ant-Man Hank Pym (played by Michael Douglas, digitally enhanced early on to look younger) to Paul Rudd’s new Ant-Man Scott Lang.

That’s how you punch… in montages set to music.

There’s also a bit of a romance brewing here, between Paul Rudd and a woefully underused (and perhaps even unneeded by the script) Evangeline Lilly Her character, the daughter of Hank Pym who is somehow also the assistant of the badguy, is clearly here to set up her own future in the MCU, and given that there’s only ONE female Avenger so far, it’s a setup that’s welcome. It’s the chemistry between these two that keep the movie fun and fresh, with a heavy dose of Paul Rudd’s sarcasm and impecable comedic timing, despite the formulaic misunderstood-guy-becomes-hero storyline.

It’s NOT a movie about ants stealing from a bank, one penny at a time.

The formula is intact as it applies to most Superhero films, it even has the inevitable montage of learning new skills, on par with Big Hero 6’s version, but the bulk of the movie is actually set up as a traditional caper movie; with the reformed criminal that has to do “One Last Job” to fix everything cliché and all. It creates both an interesting first half scene regarding breaking into a house, and sets up a larger Ocean’s 11 approved set of capers that culminate in the epic battling you’d expect along the way. Oh, there are surprises along the way, including an Avenger cameo that is too good to be missed (and sets up Ant-Man becoming an ironically large part of Phase 3 for the MCU), and some more tender moments regarding Scott Lang’s daughter. In the end it’s a solid piece of entertainment, and viewers are going to wish that Paul Rudd was around to banter with Iron Man and company in the previous Avenger films.

Let’s hope that Ant-Man has a BIG future in future Marvel films!

I’ll throw myself in front of a train if you make one more pun…