Scott Lang (Paul Rudd, Clueless) is a thief who just got out of prison and wants to start doing right by his ex-wife and young daughter. His skill set proves to be too good though, as he's recruited by Dr. Hank Pym (Michael Douglas, Falling Down) to do another job. A few decades earlier Pym had created a formula that could shrink a man down to the size of an ant. He had been ousted from his own company when he refused to share that formula. Now his former protégé, Darren Cross (Corey Stoll, Midnight in Paris), is on the verge of figuring it out, and of course he's going to use it for nefarious reasons. Pym, with the help of his daughter Hope (Evangeline Lilly, The Hurt Locker), Lang (using Pym's Ant-Man technology), and some of Lang's criminal friends, hopes to break into his former company and stop Cross.
The story arc of Ant-Man is a little similar to the first Iron Man movie. It's about a guy who got his company swiped out from under him and had his own technology used against him. It's a little clichéd and predictable, but it does also have something else in common with Iron Man that is a pleasant change of pace from the last few Marvel movies. It is it's own contained story. Sure, there are heavy ties to the Marvel universe (there's a great scene with one of the Avenger sidekicks) because they have to give reason for him to eventually become an Avenger. The nice thing is that even with that, the over-arcing story of the movie is self-contained. You can actually watch this movie and enjoy it without ever having seen any other Marvel movie. It also gets back to basics with having the bad guy just be simply that, a bad guy. The threat is not end of the world or end of the universe even.....it's just a bad guy that needs to be stopped.
Now, being that this is a character that not as many people are familiar with, we are getting another origin story here. This brings it down only slightly. There is a small section in the middle where we are bogged down with the whole getting to know how to use the suit portion of the movie. Luckily, we have Paul Rudd to inject a little of his humor into it. That is one of the strong suits of the movie....the humor. If you've seen Paul Rudd in anything, you know what to expect of him. Paul Rudd is Paul Rudd in everything. You're either on board with that, or not. I don't necessarily think it's a bad thing. He's just so gosh-darned likeable. I'm a fan of his and enjoyed seeing him bring his brand of humor to the Marvel Universe. I'm looking forward to seeing how he plays off of the other heroes in the upcoming films. Everyone else did a great job as well. Rudd had great chemistry with both Lilly and Douglas. The one thing you are going to hear a lot though, and you should believe the hype, is that Michael Pena steals the show. Every time he was on screen he had me laughing out loud. He plays one of Lang's friends and has a good size role in the first third of the film. Then, when he disappears for the middle third, you really feel it. I think that added to why the middle dropped a little for me. If you're like me, you'll be a little sad that he disappears from the script. Don't worry, he's brought back in to the mix later for the climax and brings some more laughter with him.
This was a pretty straight-forward super-hero origin action film, but besides just the comedy bringing it up a little, it also had some fun effects. Being able to change sizes brings a whole new dynamic to the action and fighting scenes. The fight scenes were done really well with Rudd alternating between normal and ant size to throw off his opponents. With the small size the director was also able to have fun with the visuals and do plenty of size gags that really worked. There is a fight on a toy Thomas train track that is shown in the previews. I thought this was pretty clever in the preview, and there was even more to the scene in the film which was also just as good.
A lot of people have wondered if this movie could be better if Edgar Wright hadn't left the project. Maybe. We'll never know. To that I say, get over it. We got what we got and it's a pretty solid film in it's own right. If you like Paul Rudd and you're a fan of the Marvel movies, then I think you'll find something to like here. Ant-Man is going to be a fun new addition to the Avengers.
Rating: *******--- (7 out of 10) [second run theater]
Memorable Quote:
Scott Lang: Hi, I'm Scott.
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