A bit of an also-ran in the Marvel Cinematic Universe,
Ant-Man may not
have the ready-made name recognition of the rest of the Avengers, but
it does tie in with the overall story arc of the MCU, which should be
enough for most of the fans to be reasonably interested in seeing
where it goes, even if they aren't yet ecstatic about the property to
think it might have done well as a complete standalone adventure,
though, non-Marvel zombies may be interested to know, with the
exception of a few obligatory
Avengers tie-ins, Ant-Man mostly plays as one.
There's actually more than one Ant-Man in the film, as we start with
the original, Dr. Hank Pym (Douglas, And
So It Goes), a leading scientist, and inventor of the "Pym
Particle", which allows things, including people, to shrink own to
ant-size, or more, but with enhanced strength. Through a series of
ingenious plays, Pym manages to get his Ant Suit into the hands of
resourceful (but jobless) cat burglar Scott Lang (Rudd,
They Came Together), recently released from
prison for theft on a corporate scale, though he did it to return
money the company reportedly bilked form its customers. The reason
for the ruse: Pym wants
Lang to thwart the plans of his power-hungry former protégé Darren Cross
(Stoll, This Where I Leave You)
in
using his designs to create his own method shrink people down to
miniature size in the form of the flying, weaponized Yellowjacket suits, which he
aims to do for nefarious purposes. Pym's shrewd and scrappy daughter
Hope (Lilly, The Hobbit: The Battle of the
Five Armies) still works in the company under Cross, which gives them the
inside knowledge they need for Lang to breach Cross's tight security
and stop the Yellowjacket project before it disrupts global warfare as
we know it.
Whereas the other untested Marvel property,
Guardians of the
Galaxy, won over audiences with irreverent charm, funny and
likeable characters, and a toe-tapping soundtrack, Ant-Man is
more content to deliver a broadly goofy and blatantly corny
sensibility that makes it feel like it is aiming for a younger set
than the other MCU releases, even though it does still garner a PG-13
rating for its violence. It's not a film that seeks to deliver
any modicum of high-stakes seriousness, and unlike the
Captain America
films, this one isn't trying to comment on the political climate of
the world. If it makes you smile and keeps your attention, the
makers of Ant-Man probably feel like they've done their job
properly in what amounts to a genial heist comedy with superhero
ambitions.
The screenplay had originally been scripted by Edgar Wright (The
World's End, Scott Pilgrim) and Joe
Cornish (The Adventures of Tintin, Attack the Block), with Wright,
who had cultivated the vision of Ant-Man for years, intending to direct, but creative differences saw
a divorce from the project (Marvel became more controlling as they
grew to massive popularity -- a queen ant that expects its workers to
keep the colony running smoothly), leading to rewrites by Adam McKay (Anchorman
2, Talladega Nights), and
eventually Rudd himself during filming, while fluff-comedy veteran Peyton Reed had been
brought in to mold it more in the shape that Marvel Studios had been
seeking. While Reed does enough to hold the fort down, Wright is a
comedic visionary proven to be able to tackle wild science fiction and
action concepts, often finding brilliant new wrinkles while paying a
great deal of homage to his inspiration. Though Ant-Man
is still an entertaining enough watch, and has some eye-popping visual
zip, it's hard not to be disappointed that we won't see what might
have been with Wright at the helm. As a comedy, it might make
you smirk or lightly chuckle on a couple of occasions, mostly due to a
few low-scale, size-related sight gags, but it's doubtful you'll be
quoting the film for any hilarious one-liners once you leave the
theater.
Rudd, despite a co-screenwriting credit, subdues his smart-ass rascal
persona a bit here to be a more approachable and likeable hero, if a
tad vanilla, who is more motivated by affairs of the heart (the
potential to restore his relationship with the daughter he couldn't
see while spending years in prison) than in living a life of crime
just for the sake of it.
Douglas delivers his most appealing and commercial performance in many
years, in a role that parallels the one given to Rudd in that he's
trying to re-establish a connection with his own estranged daughter,
though his was a case of being too controlling rather than in being
absent. Stoll gives a solid performance, even if his villain role
is a bit generic, feeling more like Obadiah Stane from the original
Iron Man film, complete with a prolonged climax in which
supercharged hero and supercharged villain fight it out in their
respective techno suits. Though the Yellowjacket suit is clearly more
powerful, Pym shows Lang a particularly key piece of tech that makes
him infinitely more resourceful in a device that allows its wearer to
use his mind to control various kinds ants from all over the world.
Lilly has a fetching presence, and does a pretty
good job with a performance that entertains a more physical approach,
but she isn't given a great deal to do but be manipulated by the men
around her, though she does retain an independent spirit that allows
her a modicum of breathing room. The "Three Stooge"-like
partners in crime of Pena (Fury), T.I.
(Get Hard) and Dastmalchian (Prisoners) are there mostly for comic relief, but their
dumb-as-rocks characters
are so cartoonish (something the supporting players in the
Thor
series share), one couldn't see them existing beyond that limited
role. Cannavale (Danny Collins) is wasted in a role that doubles both as the hapless
husband to Lang's ex father to the daughter Lang is trying to
reconnect more with, and the face of the cops who get involved in the
mix of things (and, conveniently, seems to be the first cop on the
scene no matter where the action takes place).
Ant-Man feels like the slightest film in the MCU, no pun
intended, a bit of a throwback to comic-based films of the 1990s, such
as The Rocketeer and The Phantom, full of silly
characterizations and goofball charm. However, after the
bloated, big-scale release that was Avengers: Age of Ultron
just a few months prior, it's nice to see that Marvel can still make a
smaller-scale superhero flick, rather than continuously try to one-up
the last one with more and more spectacle. Viewers expecting
another surprise in the mold of Guardians of the Galaxy won't
get it here, but Ant-Man isn't a movie that seeks to do more
than introduce a new hero into the Avengers universe (specifically,
one that will add comedy to the the team), and try to be likeable
enough for all demographics to not sour them on Marvel properties in
the meantime. Even if it ultimately is a second-tier Marvel
film, it is successful on both of its goals, which makes Ant-Man
a success even without garnering a billion dollars in the
worldwide box office.
-- There is a short mid-credits scene and an end-credits stinger
that teases what is to come after this film.
Qwipster's rating
