SummaryArmed with the astonishing ability to shrink in scale but increase in strength, con-man Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) must embrace his inner-hero and help his mentor, Dr. Hank Pym (Michael Douglas), protect the secret behind his spectacular Ant-Man suit from a new generation of towering threats. Against seemingly insurmountable obstacles, Pym a...
SummaryArmed with the astonishing ability to shrink in scale but increase in strength, con-man Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) must embrace his inner-hero and help his mentor, Dr. Hank Pym (Michael Douglas), protect the secret behind his spectacular Ant-Man suit from a new generation of towering threats. Against seemingly insurmountable obstacles, Pym a...
It’s delightful and almost miraculous the way this movie manages to work as a comic heist picture on a huge scale, and with a comic science-fiction picture blended into it…while managing to cohere to the whole, you know, Marvel thing.
Reed’s movie succeeds well enough as a genial diversion and sometimes a delightful one, predicated on the rarely heeded Hollywood wisdom that less really can be more.
When I had heard of Ant-Man for the first time, I couldn't stop laughing. I was imagining Plankton from Spongebob Squarepants in a supervillain costume saying something like "I am the Ant-Man and I will crush you all!". So of course you can assume that I didn't know anything about Ant-Man. Rather I was more leaned towards being critical of the movie and the character himself. Later the movie came, I saw he wasn't what I was expecting him to be, and then I was like, "Okay fine, whatever.". I hadn't watched MCU movies until Infinity War was announced, after which I started bingewatching all the movies. And when it was the turn to watch Ant-Man, I was a bit skeptical. I watched it with a "Fine, I'll just skim through it like Thor movies.", but it was genuinely so good that I couldn't help but praise it.
Ant-Man is a movie, in my opinion, that has taken the Marvel Cinematic Universe into the comedy genre that we know today. It doesn't have those cheap jokes like Age of Ultron, nor the subtle humour like Iron Man movies, but rather it was a complete slapstick comedy that was actually done right. And unlike most superhero comedy movies where the protagonist alone carries the entire sense of humour on his/her own shoulders, in this one it is distributed among all the otehr characters - Scott, Hank, all of Scott's friends, Hope and even Falcon (Ant-Man visits the Avengers HQ in one scene when everyone was out and Falcon happens to catch him).
After this movie I learnt about what Ant-Man is about. Apparently both Scott and Hank were Ant-Men in two different eras of the comics. And there are many revelations of Hank being Ant-Man, which is why he has had PTSD about taking the suit again. He is also able to teach Scott how to become Ant-Man on that very basis. Ant-Man's entire training procedure is a bit boring, but occasionally turned interesting because of the exposition. I never thought I'd ever say this, but the exposition scenes of this movie are actually very interesting.
The final fight scene of this movie was also very nice. Every time they would show a very intense action scene going on but then cut to real life where it'd be a very small thing. Though I don't understand why were they fighting with the toys, since they are stronger when they are small so the toys shouldn't have affected them much. The scene from the helicopter where Ant-Man would turn small to attack them was also interesting in spite of having a plot hole - why weren't they shooting Ant-Man every time he became bigger? And in the end they manage to make an ant giant, something the movie never tells what happened to it.
Speaking of ants, this movie made me see ants very differently. Earlier I just thought them to be miniscule, organised insects who kills bigger and more good looking insects. But now I realised ants actually look pretty cool. We just can't see it because of how small they are, but if we were to tame an ant (for that matter a swarm of them), we could probably use them as a wonderful ally. This movie could be great to tell children how important and interesting ants are. They would probably like them more.
Ant-Man is one of the more forgettable movies from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It serves as a character origin story and is very fun to watch, but now as I write the review 2.5 years later, I have literally no memory of the movie except the scenes I mentioned (and Scott's wife seeing some other man and Ant-Man falling on Stan Lee's car). So I'd definitely give it another watch some day.
Ant-Man is one of my favorite movies in the MCU. It's fun, light-hearted, and it has a lot of creative and interesting action scenes thanks to Ant-Man's ability to shrink. It's a refreshing movie. Ant-Man is a fun character with a lot of potential.
It still makes for an enjoyable, intermittently inspired effects-driven comedy and a welcome antidote to the over-burdened world-saving that seems to define big-screen superhero stories.
It is a perfect instance of meta self-awareness that thankfully lets a little air out of this grand narrative pomposity. Ant-Man is infectious, silly entertainment, a popcorn flick that knows what it is and does what it does to an intoxicating degree.
Although the story dynamics are fundamentally silly and the family stuff, with its parallel father-daughter melodrama, is elemental button-pushing, a good cast led by a winning Paul Rudd puts the nonsense over in reasonably disarming fashion.
Ant-Man may not be the most
memorable superhero film in the
Marvel universe, but it's definitely
worth a watch. Paul Rudd delivers a solid performance as Scott Lang, the charming and witty ex-con turned superhero. The action scenes are cleverly designed and offer a unique perspective on the world, as we see them from the ant-sized viewpoint. However, the film does fall short in terms of character development and emotional depth, which leaves the audience feeling somewhat disconnected from the story. Overall,
Ant-Man is an enjoyable and
lighthearted film that is perfect for a
casual movie night.
The last 20 minutes or so are good in this movie, and if the rest of the movie had similar qualities, I would have liked it. Unfortunately the first hour and a half of the movie is just the same old boring talking heads and men in suits that we see in so many MCU movies. The humor was an odd style for Marvel and I felt like I was being ping-ponged between an overlong Key and Peele sketch and a Ben Stiller comedy movie. In fact, Ant's actor reminds me of Ben Stiller so much that I think this is the sole reason for the effect, and that's unfortunate. If this movie had been made with a little more heart and soul as to Ant-Man's motivations and his relationship with his family I think it could've been something really special, but alas, it was just another 2 hour CGI and joke fest like most of the MCU. The formula is running dry and needs something to spice it up. This film tried to go from the heist comedy angle and just felt like something old that I've seen plenty of times in other movies that did it better. I'm trying to watch all of the MCU in preparation for Endgame and I don't know how I'm gonna watch Ant-man and The Wasp after this. Hopefully it is less boring than this one. One other thing, I know these movies are based on more fleshed-out stories in the comics, but that's no excuse to just have characters suddenly and spontaneously make out and have a stupid predictable romance that has zero foreshadowing in the film and is only expected because it's what Marvel does. It happens to nearly every single MCU hero at some point and I'm totally sick of it.