Boy were they wrong!
*Possible spoilers ahead*
Ant-Man is one of the most sincere Marvel movies yet because of its emotional core of Scott Lang, played to perfection by Paul Rudd (Role Models, The 40-Year-Old Virgin), longing to be able to spend time with his Daughter Cassie, played by Abby Ryder Forston (Playing it Cool), after just being released from prison.
As mentioned, Paul Rudd does an excellent job portraying Scott Lang. His comedic timing is spot on and there is always something funny happening or going to happen when he is on screen. He also manages the more emotional/serious moments well but never plays them off too straight faced.
This has got to be the funniest Marvel movie yet, with the funniest lines coming from Luis, knocked out the park by Michael Pena (Fury, Shooter). Pretty much everything he says is hilarious and works so well in the movie and mixing so well with Rudd's more sarcastic and blunt style of humor.
The other characters of Hank Pym and Hope van Dyne, played by Michael Douglas (The Game, Basic Instinct) and Evangeline Lilly (Real Steel, Hobbit 2&3) respectively, also work well in the film and they have a great tension between them over the real cause of their mothers death which plays out intriguingly and both gives depth to Pym and sets something up that is used later in the movie really well.
The action, as you would expect, involves lots of shrinking an growing between lots of punches and Peyton Reed handles this very well with some unusual camera work and inspiring fight choreography and settings, the final fight being the highlight of the movie.
At its core however this is not really an action movie, its a heist movie with action in. This creates an interesting structure we haven't really seen in these movies since the first Iron Man, where the majority of the movie is light on action with a big all out finale. This is good for the movie because it give plenty of time to explore the characters in depth and to get the audience liking them. It also means we can have a lot of really cool sequences where Scott is learning to use the suit with varying degrees of success for hilarious results, once again, much like the first Iron Man.
Its not all good however. The villain Darren Cross/Yellowjacket is very forgettable and his motivations are not really ever that clear. His portrayal by Corey Stoll (House of Cards, Non-Stop) is quite average as all he is really doing is playing the average evil guy that we see in so many movies. Another thing that is kind of under par is the out of action cinematography as some of the shots used seem quite flat and most are very standard shots we see in every other sort of movie, I feel this is something we would have avoided if Edgar Wright had stayed on as director.
There is also a small gripe I have with this movie about the physics of shrinking in the Ant-Man suit, it is never explained fully and they seem to change form scene to scene. This will by no means ruin the enjoyment of the movie but on reflection it bugs me slightly (no pun intended).
This is probably the third best Marvel Cinematic Universe movie after Guardians of the Galaxy and Captain America: The Winter Soldier and is well worth a watch in theaters as it is such a visually interesting movie, the likes of which have rarely been seen due to the way the shrinking is filmed. I would also recommend seeing it in 3D as it really lends great depth to the shrinking parts and does enhance them a lot. And do please give this movie the money it deserves as its doing worse than all the other Marvel movies have except The Incredible Hulk which is a real shame.
Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed, sorry this isn't as long as my Terminator: Genysis review its just I don't want to spoil any of it as it really is a spectacle to watch knowing nothing about it. Oh and there are mid and post credit scenes so be sure to stick around, they are pretty great ones.
-Joe
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