Cast: Paul Rudd is the titular Ant-Man. Michael Douglas was the titular Ant-Man. Evangeline Lilly wants to be the titular Ant-Man. Corey Stoll wants to stop the titular Ant-Man. Michael Peña, David Dastmalchian, and T.I. are friends of the titul-you get the idea. Bobby Canavale is married to Rudd's ex-wife. Judy Greer is the ex-wife. Abby Ryder Fortson is the daughter that kind of motivates this all to happen.
Plot: Scott Lang (Rudd) gets out of prison for a very illegal but completely nonviolent crime (he wants you to know that). He can't get a job and falls back to his old burglaring ways. This leads him to discovering the Ant-Man suit, which can shrink him down to the size of an ant. He ends up working with the creator of the suit, Dr. Hank Pym (Douglas) and his daughter Hope (Lilly) to stop Darren Cross (Stoll), the CEO of Hank's former company, from giving the Ant-Man technology to the highest bidder (aka bad guys).
Thoughts:
Ant-Man is a tough sell. Unless you read comics, there's very low awareness of the character. Visually, this is as hard as Marvel's ever had to work to make a hero look cool and not ridiculous. He is a fringe character in the cinematic universe. I, for one, going into this was dreading how I would find a way to spin this movie as a success.
It turns out, it wasn't very hard at all to come out of this liking it. Paul Rudd is the best. I can't think of the last movie I didn't like him in. He has leading man looks and can certainly get in shape to play a superhero. He's so funny though and it works really well for the character. Evangeline Lilly nailed this too. Considering how much of a drag Kate was at times in LOST and the intrusiveness of Tauriel in the Hobbit movies, it's surprising how much goodwill I have toward her. I think it's because I realize that the problems with those characters weren't her fault. Hope, on the other hand, is served nicely by the script. She's ready and willing to do the dirty work. She's every bit as capable as Scott and the main reason she isn't Ant-Man is an understandable one. Stoll is comfortably the heel and Douglas thrives in a supporting role that I worried his presence would overdo. Even Judy Greer comes off looking pretty good, which isn't normally the case for the "ex-wife refusing visitation" role. Oh, and how did I forget to mention Michael Peña? I love Michael Peña. He is good in everything he does (Look it up. It's true). His character doesn't get much to do but he makes him into someone interesting. I'm going to go ahead and award Peña the Phillip Seymour Hoffman Best Complimentary Player and Chronically Underused Award.
This story exists on the fringe of the larger universe very well. There's some small ties to S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Avengers (including one amusing scene), but this is largely independent. It's a heist movie at heart, only with super powers. The Ant-Man shrinking powers play really nicely into the size of the story this is trying to tell. The world isn't in [direct] jeopardy. It's almost just a family squabble. As the previews show, there's a big fight at the end that happens on a child's train-track set, which nicely calibrates the stakes. This could've worked entirely as a stand-alone movie, and that's really nice in this increasingly complex Marvel landscape.
Elephant in the Room: It's a shame Edgar Wright didn't direct it. 1) Shut up already. Get over it. 2) I'm not sure I would've preferred the final product with Wright. For those of you who don't know, Edgar Wright (director of Shaun of the Dead and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World) was originally set to write and direct this. He left due to creative differences (which makes sense because he is a very distinctive and Marvel's larger concern is maintaining the universe, not an individual product) but not before writing a script for the movie. Adam McKay (writing/directing/producing partner for most of Will Ferrell's movies) and Paul Rudd then took a pass at the script. Finally, relative journeyman director Peyton Reed (Bring It On, Yes Man, The Break Up) took over in that capacity. Now, I don't know exactly how everything would've turned out otherwise, but this is a good formula:
Super talented guy to form the backbone of the script + Star of the movie and prolific script writer (along with other input from people already signed on to the movie) + director who isn't going to get in the way.
Maybe I'm too much in Marvel's camp at this point, but I didn't mind the final product.
To Sum Things Up (in 57 Words or Less)
With Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, and Michael Douglas at the core of this movie, it works as well as anything in Marvel's Phase 2. It is funnier than most superhero movies without undercutting the stakes. Not remarkable in any way. It’s just fun.
Verdict (?): Weakly Recommend
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