Starring: Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Corey Stoll, Bobby Cannavale, Michael Pena, Michael Douglas
Production Company: Marvel Studios
Writers: Edgar Wright, Joe Cornish, Adam McKay, Paul Rudd
Director: Peyton Reed
Release date: Out Now

 

One of the key things, which made Silver Age Marvel Comics great, was a sense to fun. Ant-Man was born into this era. And now, more than fifty years later this unlikeliest of heroes gets his own movie and a movie, thankfully, keen to stay true to the Marvel Comics spirit of the early 1960s and is therefore about as much fun as you are going to have at the cinema this year.

Warning: mild spoilers below.

Ant-Man is part superhero adventure, part heist story, and part comedy. Director Peyton Reed manages to take a potentially Earth-shattering threat—the proliferation of devastating technology—and reduces it to insect size. Unlike the Avengers movies where big and bigger were the watchword, Ant-Man shrewdly uses relativity to make a mammoth story small and personal.

During a deadly fight scene on a Thomas the Train table top layout the camera zooms out to make the battle look tiny and insignificant (toy-like, if you will), then moves back into scene where the struggle between Ant-Man (Paul Rudd) and Yellowjacket (Corey Stoll) is in reality dangerous and menacing and, for audience participation, totally immersive and thrilling.

The tight script is well-timed and never lets things get too heavy. When original Ant-Man Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) and daughter Hope (Evangeline Lilly) finally begin to reconcile after almost 30 years of animosity, new hero Lang interrupts them and ruins their moment. “Sometimes Daddy gets confused,” Lang’s estranged wife earlier tells their daughter Cassie (Abby Rider Forston).

The only real complaint is that the villain Darren Cross/Yellowjacket is a bit flat. His apparent motivation is that he feels his mentor Hank Pym betrayed him by not sharing all his secrets. But Cross just comes off as another megalomaniacal jackass whose own ambition and greed is all the motivation he needs. Some scenes giving him a real character would have been welcome and may be there is room for a future DVD release Ant-Man: Yellowjacket Cut, because that would certainly be welcome.

And on top of all that Ant-Man manages to seamlessly integrate itself into the ever-growing Marvel Movie Universe. Ant-Man will be back in next year’s Captain America: Civil War, and, frankly, to be honest with you, this reviewer and the reviews editor can hardly wait for that.

Ant-Man may occasionally seem a bit long, except, when the credits roll you’ll find yourself wanting more. And that, my friends, is movie magic.

Reviewer: Joe Lovece
Reviews Editor: Steve Hooker