Review of Ant-Man (2015) by Njlake — 06 Aug 2015

I enjoyed this more than expected, but that's only because my expectations were not very high.

Ant-Man is a relatively minor character in Marvel comics but there's no telling how much of a role he'll play in the MCU. That's kind of where the problems (minor character) and the good parts are (MCU involvement).

This movie, when it didn't revolve around the Avengers or anything involving the rest of the MCU was a pretty ordinary superhero movie. What set it apart was Paul Rudd and Michael Douglas. Both play their characters very well. I liked the idea of Scott Lang (Rudd) being a burglar that Hank Pym (Douglas) was watching for a while. Inevitably Pym teams of with Lang through Michael Peña's character (good choice) getting a tip to break into Pym's house.

I enjoyed a lot of the moments and the comedy wasn't too over the top. But where this movie falls short is where a lot of other superhero movies fall. The villain. Basically, just like almost every other superhero movie, the hero is fighting a different version of himself. It's a tired and overused character at this point.

I'm interested to see where Marvel takes this character within the rest of the MCU, but this film also has me a little worried for the upcoming Doctor Strange and Black Panther standalone movies. I have no doubt that Marvel can make them work within an ensemble but unfortunately their stand alone films may be a little weak.