Ant-Man – Tiny Fists, Big Punches

Everything about Marvel’s latest adventure has been shrunk for this gem, and not only does the movie benefit from it, but so does the overall Marvel Cinematic Universe. Fresh off the heels of Age of Ultron, the gigantic cluster-bomb of a movie that was ripping itself apart at the seams trying to squeeze everything in, to make the movie kind-of make sense, Ant-Man brings a focused, small, quaint breath of fresh air.

The approach this time around is humor and quirkiness. Marvel is very self-aware at how silly the concept of Ant-Man is and this is leaned into throughout the film. Everything from shrinking to the controlling of ants, it’s easy to see the fine line they walked between serious summer action movie and tongue and cheek superhero goofiness. My theory is, that where this line landed was the catalyst for Edgar Wright leaving the project, but don’t like to speculate.

By choosing to go with Scott Lang as the primary Ant-man instead of inventor Hank Pym, Marvel successfully sidesteps a lot of origin story boredom, while still supplying the audience with a context they already understand in the MCU. Also, there’s already enough scientists in the universe already, Lang being a criminal electrical engineer adds diversity to the greater Avenger’s line up. Leaning into the humor of the script created specific casting goals, and with Paul Rudd, Marvel continues to knock it out of the park.

To be fair, Rudd doesn’t stray too far from his generic handsome and funny “Paul Rudd” impression, but that’s what the script needed. He plays well opposite Michael Douglas, who has more screen time than I initially thought he would. This makes the movie more of an ensemble than your traditional superhero origin movie. Nearly as much attention was given to both Lang and Pym, which really fleshed out the entire Ant-Man history. Most of the rest of the cast and characters were well realized, save for Evangeline Lilly’s Hope Van Dyne. Like most women in Marvel movies, she comes off as the necessary but nearly useless female secondary character. Not that Lilly’s acting was bad, I just think that character development for women is a nut the MCU has yet to crack.

Where Age of Ultron, was world spanning with more characters than time, Ant-Man kept everything close to home. Even the Avengers hooks that were dropped in, were measured and deliberate. There’s quite a memorable scene with Falcon at a un-named Avengers facility. Even the rarely mentioned elephant in the room “Why don’t they just call the Avengers?” question is dealt with directly, and immediately in the most Ant-Man style of humor it could’ve been.

In what seemed like a modern Honey I Shrunk the Kids the visual look of the film is striking. All of Ant-Man’s adventures with the ants were unique and clever and added to the charm of the film. While the movie has a hard PG-13, I can see kids really digging the miniature ant-sized scenes. What was a nice surprise was seeing that for a good portion of the film it was a heist movie. Sure, that’s something that could be easily assumed with Lang being a burglar, but it adds Heist movie to the ever growing list of genres in which the MCU has dabbled.

Technically the last origin movie Marvel had was Guardians of the Galaxy, but with it being a galaxy spanning epic it still felt huge. The self contained nature of the of the story left the movie feeling like older super-hero movies like Ironman, or Thor. If the MCU wants to remain relevant its got to stop stretching itself bigger and bigger with every film, even if it means smaller box-office returns for smaller movies.

If the movie has a weak point I would say it’s Lang’s longing for his daughter. Maybe it’s Rudd not being able to pull off serious emotions, or maybe the premise is cliche’d and flimsy, but that relationship was a bit too convenient for the plot, and some of it even seemed forced. However that can be seen as a footnote on an otherwise solid plot that isn’t full of holes or obvious plot devices (I’m looking at you Terminator Genisys).

Most of this movie had me smiling, which is a feat these days and as unlikely a situation as this might be, only a passing understanding of the Avengers lore is needed to really enjoy the film. Fans of Rudd will enjoy seeing him in a legitimate role that doesn’t revolve around him ad-libbing one-liners, and only the blackest of souls won’t find something to like in this crowd-pleaser.

Verdict: Outside of Jurassic World, Ant-Man might be the best movie of the summer.