Review of Ant-Man (2015) by Yorkman — 10 Feb 2016

Ant-Man is one of the Marvel comic universe's more obscure characters.... And there's a very good reason for that.

One of the biggest problems with Ant-Man, not just as a film, but as a character as a whole.... Is that his backstory, motives and development are things we've seen before. The annoying thing is that this is mainly down to the necessities of fitting the character into the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU).

Unlike Captain America, where they took the comic's origin story and brought Cap' into the modern age via the 'frozen in ice for 70 years' idea, in Ant-Man they try to dispense with the original story altogether.

In this film, the 'Ant-Man' is effectively the second incarnation, the original being the 'old guy' scientist whose origin story would have been far more interesting. Instead we get a convoluted narrative that suggests a new 'Ant-Man' is needed to combat the machinations of the 'old guy' scientist's former assistant who is attempting to duplicate his miniaturisation processes.

What follows is a 30 minute training montage, involving more technology whose invention is never explained (i.e. the ability to control various species of ant), and then the 'surprise' discovery the young scientist is looking to sell miniaturisation tech to the army for profit, now he's worked out how to make things smaller....

Cue Ant-Man's heroic infiltration of the bad scientist's research facility, you know, the one bearing the name of the 'old guy' scientist who was ousted from the board etc. And the finale between Ant-Man and young scientist who has shrunk himself in his own combat suit.....

It's sooooooo predictable as to be patronising!

However, it's not all bad. Paul Rudd displays his usual comedic sensibilities as the 'hero', and Michael Douglas is also good as the 'old guy' scientist. Their interplay is very funny. Rudd's three criminal sidekicks are also good value, except that Michael Pena's Mexican Stereotype characterisations which do grate immensely very quickly!

Overall, it's a paint-by-numbers Superhero flick, but one that does benefit from a superior comic-interplay between the main characters.