*originally written August 1st, 2015*
Compared to Marvel's last film, an overblown and dull display of special effects in a genre that is reaching serious levels of fatigue, Ant-Man is a pretty refreshing change of pace.
Giving us the origin story of a lesser known superhero was a pretty risky move for Marvel, especially with a character that is so easy to mock, but thankfully Ant-Man works far better than it should.
Paul Rudd as Scott Lang was extremely likeable and carried a lot of charisma, more so than most of Marvel's characters. Kate from Lost was fine, even if her character isn't given much to do for most of the film. Michael Douglas was a nice surprise, having a role that is a lot more fun than the usual stuff he does.
Ant-Man had a long, troubled production, which is even more commendable that the end product turned out so well. There are clearly flashes of Edgar Wright's touch here and there, I just wish Marvel would have let him do the film how he wanted, I'm sure that would have made Ant-Man one of Marvel's best and unique films.
It's becoming a joke the blandness of Marvel villains. Yellow Jacket is yet another forgettable villain to throw on the pile. It's not that the guy from House of Cards did a bad job, it's just that the motivation is poor and you really don't care about him or what he does. I'm honestly struggling to remember a moment he stood out and did anything interesting.
The action scenes were easily Ant-Man's highest point. Although all the action doesn't happen till the last half hour, what they do give us more than makes up for the lack of set-pieces in the first 2 acts. The use of mundane household objects being used as the centrepieces of the action was a stroke of genius. A scene that takes place on a railway set with Thomas the Tank Engine, gold.
There is a heart in the middle of Ant-Man too. With Scott Lang's motivation being to see his estranged daughter and the relationship with the actual ants themselves, which are also used pretty creatively in set pieces.
Ant-Man is a refreshing and smaller film which doesn't hinge on being part of this wider universe, telling its own story with some creative set-pieces that nearly outweigh its been there, done that plot.
7/10 Dans
Ant-Man is out now on Blu-ray and DVD in the UK
Watch the trailer below:
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