After the good but not particularly great Avengers 2, Marvel knew they needed something special. Outside of the box. They needed another Guardians. So they fired the brilliant and unique Edgar Wright and replaced him with Peyton Reed, director of Yes Man. (Okay, maybe more on that later.) But is Ant-Man a good movie, despite its troubled production, or is it just another bug on the windshield that is the rapidly growing superhero movies industry? Read my review and find out.
Ant-Man tells the story of Scott Lang, an ex-con, who after breaking into the home of former Ant-Man Hank Pym, finds himself in the possession of the Ant-Man suit. Drawn into a battle between Pym, his daughter Hope, and Pym's former protege Darren Cross, who intends to weaponize Pym's creation of Pym particles (particles that allow the wearer to grow and shrink) and sell them, unsurprisingly, to HYDRA (I'll talk about them in my notes section.), Lang must prove his potential as a hero in time to prevent a catastrophe.
The plot of Ant-Man is a solid heist flick, with some genuinely funny lines. It's fairly standard, all things considered, and can more or less be considered an inversion of the 1st Iron Man. (Young Tony Stark tries to prevent his old protege Obidiah Stane from weaponizing the Arc Reactor.) Of course, the replacement of Edgar Wright probably prevented a more impressive and out-there of the film we eventually got, but Reed's script is still solid, with one of the best gags actually being written by him. Although, the final battle does drag a bit, and the finale
As for performances, they're also solid. Rudd's funny, with just enough seriousness to make him a likable character worth rooting for. As Hope, Evangline Lily sells a sense of bitterness and resentment that makes her an interesting foil to Lang. Fulfilling the Marvel tradition of casting a veteran actor in a crucial role, Micheal Douglas absolutely kills it, selling a world-weary former hero with a subtle sense of sadness that a lesser actor might have totally botched. And while his character may have unclear motives in the endgame, Corey Stoll is unsurprisingly terrific as Cross, a man driven mad by a seething resentment and hatred against the people he once considered friends.
Of course, the best performance is quite obviously Micheal Peña as Luis, Scott's best friend and leader of his own crew of thieves. Peña steals every scene he's in, and his raming Drunk History-esque stories are easily the film's best scenes. (And they were written by Peyton Reed, so suck it, Edgar Wright. ...Just kidding I love you bud.) Every Marvel film needs comic relief as side-splittingly funny as Luis.
All in all, Ant-Man, despite Edgar Wright's unfortunate departure, is a solid superhero flick with humor and heart. Go see it, or better yet, pirate it, so you don't have to give Marvel money and encourage them to fire interesting directors in favor of generic ones.
Overall Score: 4 out of 5
Notes:
>Why is the HYDRA rep in Ant-Man some new guy and not Grant Ward? I know most people don't watch Agents of Shield, but this is somewhat ridiculous seeing as how he's HYDRA's new de facto leader.
>Also, one of the buyers had a Ten Rings tattoo, even though we're never going to deal with the Mandarin again. The Mandarin is the City College of the MCU.
>"Baskin-Robbins always finds out." Ant-Man might be the funniest Marvel movie thus far.
>Yes, I have seen Fantastic Four, and no, it's neither good enough or bad enough to write an 4-paragraph review over.
>I know that burn at the end might be meanspirited, but Marvel has 1. replaced Edgar Wright with Peyton Reed because he's cheaper and handles executive meddling better. 2. chosen the Russo bros. over James Gunn to direct Avengers 3, with the reason inevitably being that they're cheaper.
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