Review of Ant-Man (2015) by Odjento — 21 Jul 2015

Ant Man tries to do something different to break from the mould like 2014’s GOTG, but doesn’t end up accomplishing it as successfully.

Ant Man is a reasonably fun and self-aware action film that will entertain, but it doesn’t bring anything too unique or astounding to the table here. This feature being a heist film instead of a standard superhero film is a nice nuance that works well and Paul Rudd as the lead was a good casting choice; but most of the rest of the characters are pretty plain. The most entertaining characters are Rudd and his fellow thieves, and this probably goes down well due to the chemistry between them. Personally I think they didn’t get enough screen time.

Michael Douglas’ Dr Pym is quite a boring and typical character, nothing being wrong with Douglas’ acting here but his character is just too plain. His daughter is pretty average too, playing a daughter who hates her dad but will help him with this heist; oh and she also knows kung-Fu just for some plot development. The chemistry between these two doesn’t seem entirely there and so their scenes fall flat, but this isn’t just in part to the actors, the script is faulty for that (will explain after character section). Finally Corey Stoll’s character is so one dimensionally evil that he ends up becoming a pretty forgettable villain. It seems like when you’re watching it you are witnessing Frank Underwood inside Peter Russo’s body that is obsessed with science instead of politics. He does have a sweet-ass suit though.

Now onto the script, for the most part the heist mechanic worked well with Rudd and his crew but once it gets him into the Ant Man suit and he starts hanging around Douglas and Lilly’s characters it seems that the pages for these scenes got coffee spilt on them and they had to improvise half of it. The back story and clunky exposition behind Douglas and Lilly’s characters are so force fed to you it’s cringey, and to watch the sudden admiration/attraction that grows between Lilly and Rudd’s character is just clichéd and monotonously delivered. The scenes slow down majorly until a certain encounter involving an Avenger; which was an absolute blast. After that nothing too interesting until Rudd’s team arrive back on the job allowing some comic moments and then the finale- this finale also fully embraces its silliness and goes all out delivering probably the best sequence of the film. There was a small gap that seemed so forcefully put in the finale though that it detracted from the excitement for a second but then went straight back into it. One thing I must say though is the ending (NO SPOILERS) on how a certain character figures out how to come back from somewhere seemed like complete **** with how easy there character manages it.

Lastly, the visual effects of this film were pretty nice, although at times they could look a bit plain and out of proportion but overall the effects looked great and made for some really hectic action sequences.

The film is a fun comical ride but it hasn’t done anything new, and the main reason I’m guessing reviews are so high is probably because everyone is loving to get on the Marvel band wagon nowadays. I wouldn’t say avoid this film as it is enjoyable but don’t expect anything special. A worthwhile watch.

6.