Flush from the unprecedented
series of successful movies based on their comic book titles, Marvel Studios
has been emboldened to start making movies on their lesser known characters,
the first being Guardians of the Galaxy
(2014). Its surprise commercial and critical success paved the way for Ant-Man (2015), a character created by
Stan Lee, Larry Lieber and Jack Kirby, and who first appeared in Tales to Astonish #27 as the superhero
alter ego of a brilliant scientist. Anticipation was high for this movie when
it was announced that filmmaker Edgar Wright, responsible for beloved cult
movie hits Shaun of the Dead (2004)
and Hot Fuzz (2007) among others,
would be directing and co-writing it. However, a few months before principal photography
began, Wright abruptly left the project over the dreaded “creative differences”
excuse, which temporarily threw it into limbo. Peyton Reed, known for comedies
like Bring It On (2000) and Yes Man (2008), replaced Wright raising more
than a few eyebrows and leading to speculation as to what kind of movie he
would make. The casting of Paul Rudd, known mostly for appearing in comedies,
also seemed to suggest that there would be considerably more humor in Ant-Man than in previous Marvel movies.
Skilled cat burglar Scott
Lang (Paul Rudd) has just been released from prison after years for breaking
and entering and grand larceny. He tries to go legit for the sake of his
daughter (Abby Ryder Fortson), getting a job – albeit briefly – at Baskin
Robbins and quickly gets fired in an amusing scene. Meanwhile, reclusive
scientist Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) is trying to keep his invention of
technology that allows one to shrink to the size of an insect a secret because
S.H.I.E.L.D. tried to appropriate back in the day.
His protégé Darren Cross
(Corey Stoll) has spent years trying to figure out how Pym achieved it and is
very close to perfecting it himself with the plan of developing a potential
army of soldiers wearing suits with this technology and then selling it to the
highest bidder (i.e. Hydra). Believing Cross to be dangerous, Pym seeks out
someone to utilize his Ant-Man technology and stop Cross. As luck would have
it, Scott owes child support and is desperate to find work in order to prove
he’s responsible. He agrees to pull a burglary with ex-con pal Luis (Michael
Pena) and his fellow ex-con roommates in a nicely orchestrated set piece. Scott
uses his considerable skills to bypass various security systems in a house that
turns out to be Pym’s residence.
Scott finds the Ant-Man suit
and puts it on, accidentally discovering what it does when it shrinks him down
to the size of an insect in his bathtub. As a result, it now looks like a
massive reservoir and the simple act of turning on the water is like a massive
tidal wave to Scott. This sequence is a marvel of seamless special effects as
we see Scott bounce from landscape to landscape that includes the surface of a
vinyl record, a rug and a vacuum cleaner. It turns out that this has all been
an audition, of sorts, planned by Pym who has been watching Scott for some
time. He comes to Scott with a deal: go back to prison or work with him to stop
Cross.
Casting against type, Paul
Rudd is excellent as Scott Lang, balancing his character’s desire to be
reunited with this daughter and the fun action stuff, especially when Pym’s
daughter Hope van Dyne (Evangeline Lily) trains him to fight. Rudd is
believable as one of Marvel’s trademark flawed heroes in need of redemption. He
also brings his considerable good-natured charm to the role, which only
enhances how entertaining and enjoyable he is in this movie.
Michael Douglas is quite
good as a veteran scientist also looking for redemption to be a better father
to his daughter. He also provides the required pathos as Pym is wracked with
guilt and regret over losing his wife to the Ant-Man technology. Much like with
Robert Redford in Captain America: The
Winter Soldier (2014), it is nice to see a veteran actor of Douglas’
stature having fun and cutting loose in a big budget comic book superhero movie
like this one.
In the scenes where Pym
mentors Scott, Douglas and Rudd play well off each other as the former plays
straight man delivering the necessary exposition dialogue that explains who he
is and what his technology can do while the latter is the audience surrogate,
acting appropriately (and hilariously) incredulous when confronted with all
this incredible technology. Honed on countless comedies, his reaction to a few
of the amazing things he experiences is priceless.
Corey Stoll brings just the
right amount of gravitas and menace required for the stock bad guy role. The
actor tries hard to give Cross some depth and provide compelling motivation for
his character’s actions. There is an attempt in the screenplay, and with
Stoll’s performance, to show Cross’ descent into madness the more power hungry
he becomes.
There is something pretty
cool about seeing Scott running alongside a vast army of ants or running along
a barrel of a gun. The final showdown cleverly juxtaposes an epic battle on a
small scale – a children’s train set – but the stakes couldn’t be more
dramatic. Most interestingly, Ant-Man
introduces the existence of the Microverse, a dimension that exists on a
sub-atomic level thereby leaving the door open for the possible introduction of
The Micronauts much like Guardians of the
Galaxy ushered in the notion of the cosmic portion of the Marvel Universe.
Ant-Man is
a heist movie/superhero origin story combination that utilizes the same story
structure as Iron Man (2008): a
cocky, ne’er-do-well utilizes experimental technology to defeat a rival with
the same tech only with a decidedly lighter touch and more heart. The movie is
full of the kind of colorful visuals we’ve come to expect from Marvel with a
nice blend of humor, exciting action and characters that are easy to root for
and others to root against. The visual effects are incredibly rendered and
beautifully realized as you would expect. For the most part, a movie with so
many cooks in the kitchen is surprisingly coherent with only a few jokes
failing to hit the mark, but it is far from the disaster some feared. In the
end, Ant-Man manages to tread a fine
line between openly acknowledging the absurdity of its concept (the ability to
shrink down to the size of an insect) and telling a rousing story about
redemption. After the decidedly darker tone of Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Ant-Man,
with its bright colors and more freewheeling vibe, comes as a welcome palette
cleanser of sorts before we head back into more serious fare with Captain America: Civil War (2016).
I've been meaning to see this movie. I keep hearing good things about it.
ReplyDeleteIt is quite good. I don't know if it's up to the standards fo THE WINTER SOLDIER but I had fun.
DeleteI loved this one, gave it an extremely positive review. Surprised me with how trippy it got, didn't expect that. I love what Marvel has done, they've brought the fun back into comic book movies....to be honest, the dark and serious tone of the Bat flicks was starting to aggravate me, I love the fun element in comic book films and films like Ant Man and Guardians of the Galaxy have brought that back into the fold. Certainly one of the best of the year, extremely entertaining.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I really enjoyed it a lot. Paul Rudd brought a lot of charm and heart to the role, which I enjoyed.
DeleteI don't mind dark superhero films but I like to mix it up a bit.