Review of Ant-Man (2015) by Dave S — 12 Apr 2018

Entertaining movie that shows, despite it's well published production problems, ends up being one of Marvel's most fun films. Much of the credit goes to Paul Rudd, who is perfectly cast as the title character, playing a loving father & good man who just makes bad decisions.

He is especially credible in the action sequences, particularly at first as he reacts to his new Ant-Man powers. Michael Douglas is equally excellent as Hank Pym, giving the film much needed gravitas while showing excellent comic timing and Evangeline Lily is no shrinking violet as his daughter, Hope.

The scene-stealer, though, is Michael Pena as Lang's criminal cohort, Luis, whose monologues are hilarious. Behind the camera, Peyton Reed does a solid job taking over this troubled production, keeping the film moving smoothly with some superb action sequences.

The visual effects are superb as well, with inventive use of the shrinking powers while Yellow Jacket is one of the coolest villains conceived in the MCU. He also keeps things simple, as this movie is essentially a heist film, just with superheroes.

You do see Edgar Wright's influence in the story (particularly some richly edited flashback sequences) but Reed does make this his own. The only flaw is that the villain is underdeveloped (no fault to Corey Stall, who is does great work with what he has) and the final action sequence, while exciting, feels a bit rushed.

Overall, a bunch of fun from beginning to end & quite frankly, the best comic book movie of 2015.