Ant-Man, starring Paul Rudd as the titular superhero, is a comedy-heist film that follows recently-released-from-prison burglar Scott Lang as he is recruited by scientist Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) to become the Ant-Man. With a special shrinking suit, Lang, Pym, and Pym’s daughter Hope (Evangeline Lilly) must stop Pym’s reckless protégé Darren Cross (Corey Stoll) from developing and selling similar weaponized shrinking technology.
To be frank, I went to see Ant-Man with low expectations. Sure, I enjoy watching Marvel movies and I think Paul Rudd is a likeable guy but has anyone ever actually said, “I feel like seeing a Paul Rudd movie”? Adding to that, a lesser-known superhero with the powers of an ant has slightly less appeal than a guy with the powers of a spider who already has five movies and a musical to his name. However, I was pleasantly entertained by the funny and occasionally meta script and the creative visualizations of the microscopic world in Ant-Man. Plus, a minor comic-relief character played by Michael Peña totally stole the show.
Originally, Edgar Wright, of Cornetto Trilogy fame, was slated to direct this particular Marvel film but left the project after a long build-up due to “creative differences”. However, Wright’s particular brand of clever and layered visual comedy still manages to make its mark on the final product helmed by Peyton Reed. The film’s dialogue is rapid-fire, fresh, and hilarious, delivered with the near-perfect comedy timing of Rudd, Pena, and the rest of the cast. The storyline is pretty straightforward and the film moves at a fairly quick pace, zipping through break-in and heist scenes and peppering the requisite training montage into more plot-heavy sections instead of presenting it altogether in the standard fashion. The special effect ant armies and CGI’ed bug’s-eye views were colourful and well-done overall. In conclusion, Ant-Man is an irreverent and entertaining summer popcorn flick.
Rating: 3 out of 5 Thomas the Tank Engines