Review of Ant-Man (2015) by Osasu E — 12 Jun 2016

ANT-MAN.

Even after ten movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), Marvel can still surprise us. At this point though, everyone in Hollywood (or almost everyone) has learnt not to bet against Marvel. They did it first with an unknown property called Guardians of the Galaxy and blew everyone (critics and audience alike) out of the water and delivered a stunning space opera that reminds me so much of Star Wars. While Ant-Man is an original member of the Avengers in the comics and the animations, Marvel didn't quite know how to bring this character to life on the big screen which led it to suffer in development hell for years while the focus was on other well known superheroes.

Enter Edgar Weight who had worked on this for years. Yes, by now almost a year later we all know the story of how he eventually left due to creative differences with the studio executives and we'll never really know what his own standalone movie would have been like (rumour has it that the difference in question was based on the fact that he didn't want his movie to tie into the bigger MCU and there was no way to compromise) but we are told that the soul of the movie we get remains his and it is a wonderful soul.

Peyton Reed was brought in to direct the movie after Edgar Wright left and Paul Rudd known mostly for his leading man roles in romantic comedies was brought on to play Scott Lang (the second man to don the Ant-Man suit) and this was a match made in heaven. I doubt that's what they thought at first but boy does it work!

Ant-Man is an original story through and through; A man has lost his way fighting for what he believes in and has been given another opportunity to make up for his past mistakes and try to make up it up to his family particularly his young daughter. It reminds me a lot of Iron-man and that's not a bad thing. It just means you know how it's going to end even if different characters are involved but the tonal structure is very very different. While one was a serious story about redemption, the latter is also a story about redemption but told in such an endearing way that it doesn't come across as cheesy and feels very fluid all the way.

The comedic timing is brilliant! Even Michael Douglas gets a few moments to shine and it's so much fun to watch him back in form playing a super cool character that has so much history behind him. Paul Rudd delivers at every moment! His boyish good looks have a bit of the rogue in them but you can tell he's just a good guy down on his luck and he is as always instantly likable. Michael Pena is brilliant and has some pretty sweet scenes that you can watch over and over again and I can almost say that he was the second best thing about this movie. The action sequences were innovative and when taken in context show what a brilliant director Reed is that he is able to take something that might have seemed silly on paper and turned into something that has you on the edge of your seat for most of the time even if you know the good guy will come out on top. Two particular scenes stand out for me. The first was a fight in a briefcase in the third act of the movie which plays out to Disintegration by The Cure and the second was the final showdown between the protagonist and antagonist in a little girls room on a toy train set. Imagine a full scale action train sequence and you get the picture save for the fact that this is a toy. It makes for an interesting watch and is one of the coolest and most innovative action set pieces ever to grace the big screen.

Ant-Man makes for a fun watch and is a movie that ages well with time. I saw it a couple days ago before doing this review and it's amazing how well it stands out from the other Marvel movies and sets out a place for itself. At the end of the day, the flat villain and his motivation do not in any way spoil the movie. It just tells you that since Loki, Marvel is yet to find another villain that stands out and is at the same time endearing and fearsome.

Watch Ant-Man because you love a good comedy, watch Ant-Man because you love a good action movie with a heart. Watch Ant-Man because after the almost fiasco that was Avengers: Age of Ultron, this is a coming of age story without mayhem and destruction and makes for very good counter programming to the usual action movies.

Marvel with this entry into their shared Universe have proven that they still have a lot to offer and that sometimes really good fun can still come in small packages.