Written by Edgar Wright And Joe Cornish And Adam McKay And Paul Rudd
Directed by Peyton Reed
Hank: "Scott, I need you to be the Ant-Man."
Scott: "One question ... Is it too late to change the name?"
Of all the Marvel characters who would've bagged himself a trilogy, I bet no one expected this little guy to be one of them, huh? Let's just say, it's a combination of the security of the MCU and the general appeal of Paul Rudd, because like Thor, Ant-Man's foray on to the big screen has been a mixed bag at the best of the times. However this movie mostly kicked things off to a decent start.
Former career criminal Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) gets himself out of prison but in order to actually support his daughter, Cassie (Abby Ryder-Forstan), the former criminal got in with his old crew, robbed the wrong place and acquired a certain suit that he really had no place in taking and as a result, thongs took something of an interesting turn with Scott Lang becoming the title character of the movie
In the comics, Scott Lang wasn't the first Ant-Man and his predecessor, Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) is a huge presence in this film. Mostly to help Scott but largely to test him as he orchestrated the events that lead to Scott getting the suit in the first place. This also included fun scenes involving Scott to train with and ultimately control actual ants while introducing Pym's daughter, Hope Van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly) into the mix.
As the only female character with more prominence than either Cassie or Scott's ex-wife, Maggie (Judy Greer), Hope many served as something of a foil for both Hank and Scott, though the movie doesn't waste a huge amount of time in setting up a romance between Hope and Scott. While the MCU has had stronger female leads, Hope's a good character with Evangeline Lilly more than holding her own with both Paul Rudd and Michael Douglas here.
As for the baddie of the piece, I found Corey Stoll to be something of a mixed bag as Darren Cross /Yellowjacket. To his credit, he does get some good fight scenes with Ant-Man during the third act of the movie and his costume was pretty striking as was the titular character's too bur he's more of a middle tier villain nonetheless. Fine for this movie but not as compelling as other villains have been in this franchise.
As for the rest of the characters of the movie, I didn't really care for Scott's gang friends, Luis (Michael Pena), Dave (Tip 'TI' Harris) or Kurt (David Dastmalchian). They're okay enough supporting characters but that's really it. Likewise, didn't greatly care for Maggie or her cop boyfriend, Jim Paxton (Bobby Cannavale) but I did like Scott's scenes with Cassie and anything involving the Quantum Realm was interesting to see play out in this movie.
- The credit scenes involved Hank giving Hope a prototype Wasp suit as well as Steve and Sam getting a hold of Bucky, setting up Captain America: Civil War.
- Edgar Wright originally was slated to direct the movie, but left due to creative differences. He does get a writers credit and he did cast Paul Rudd.
- The movie did a lot to lay the ground work of bring able to survive in the Quantum Realm and introduce original Wasp (and Hope's mother) Janet Van Dyne in the next movie.
- Chronology: I'm assuming 2015 and shortly after the events of Avengers: Age Of Ultron.
Ant-Man might not be a Top 10 MCU movie (and neither are it's sequels) but this movie does have enough charm to make it a pleasant enough experience. That's largely down to Paul Rudd in the title role, some family connections and a decent third act though.
Rating: 7 out of 10
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