Heist movies used to be a dime a dozen, but they just don’t come along much anymore. I especially love the build-up of most heist movies – the meeting of the characters, the planning of the elaborate impossible heist, and then the glorious payoff. Ant-Man follows this formula and adds a Marvel spin to it, resulting in a wholly satisfying single story that isn’t hampered by the weight of the universe it is set in.
One of Ant-Man’s greatest strengths is in “stark” contrast to the rest of the MCU (see what I did there?), and that is its plot and characters. Unlike our other MCU movie this summer, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Ant-Man focuses on a simpler story and fewer characters. If you’ve seen the trailers for Ant-Man, you already know the story – Scott Lang, as Ant-Man, needs to break into a place and steal some shit. And that’s it. That’s the whole story. There are no random subplots involving Thor in a cave or The Hulk coming to terms with himself. The plot does not feel like window-dressing to navigate the audience from one setpiece to another (a major flaw in both Age of Ultron and Guardians of the Galaxy). As far as characters, we get four main characters, three comedic sidekicks, and four plot device characters, and that’s it. Yep, a Marvel movie where you only need to learn a few names. How refreshing!
The other thing Ant-Man deftly avoids is bogging itself down in the origin minutiae. Several superhero movies have been tanked by their origin obsession – I’m looking in your direction, Fantastic Four. We get a solid amount of origin setup, maybe 20-30 minutes. The bulk of it is worked into the heist planning, so it at least feels like we’re doing this for a reason. Too many superhero movies show the characters gaining powers and learning to harness them with no pressing motivation (Spider-Man, Fantastic Four again come to mind), but Lang has a reason to become Ant-Man and a pressing motivation is present.
Onto the characters themselves, where the three protagonists, Scott Lang, Hank Pym, and Hope Van Dyne, are well-casted and well realized. Rudd isn’t necessarily asked to do much outside of his wheelhouse, but I at least bought his growth as a character and he is certainly well-cast for the role. Rudd is certainly playing a version of himself that you’ve seen before, so if you like his schtick, you’ll be pleased here. Douglas gets a bit more to work with as Pym, and I enjoyed his performance. Douglas gets several great lines where he gets to pull out his snarky side that he executes to perfection. Evangeline Lilly as Hope Van Dyne plays the “Ice Queen” role well, but that’s a prototypical role you can either take or leave. The three of them play off each other well, especially Rudd, who is always good for a quick goofy line when all are involved. There’s a particular powerful growth scene that Rudd pretty much steals with a goofy one-liner that I enjoyed. I enjoyed all three characters, and all three are given growth arcs that are ultimately paid off in satisfying ways. My only major character gripe is the villain, Darren Cross, who is played by Corey Stoll. Stoll is fine in the role, but Cross is essentially a repurposed Obidiah Stane, who was the villain in the original Iron Man played by Jeff Bridges. For a series of movies that have had solid and crazy villains, Cross feels lazily developed.
Ant-Man manages to blow away many of the issues weighing down other MCU movies and creates a fun heist story without getting bogged down in the minutiae. Paul Rudd deserved a better opening weekend than freaking Thor, but I think the early reviews hurt the movie rather than helped. My only gripes are the lazy villain and [SPOILERS BELOW], so Ant-Man gets an A- from me.
OK SPOILER TIME. DO NOT READ UNTIL YOU’VE SEEN THE MOVIE.
I don’t know why Edgar Wright left the movie, but I wonder if it has to do with the ending. The movie does do a solid enough job setting up that Scott could solve Hank’s ultimate problem of going subatomic, but Scott solving it, then forgetting how, felt like a huge cheat. There was enough setup to make Scott expendable with the Wasp reveal in the mid-credits scene, and it would have been ballsy for Marvel to actually kill off one of its superheroes rather than cheat its way out of the situation. I know that it’s a superhero movie, so the character winning and surviving is the genre and all, but Scott recognizing he is expendable and sacrificing himself to save his daughter would have been refreshing and cool twist. He better do something bad-ass in Civil War to justify his existence now.
Review by Phil.
One of Ant-Man’s greatest strengths is in “stark” contrast to the rest of the MCU (see what I did there?), and that is its plot and characters. Unlike our other MCU movie this summer, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Ant-Man focuses on a simpler story and fewer characters. If you’ve seen the trailers for Ant-Man, you already know the story – Scott Lang, as Ant-Man, needs to break into a place and steal some shit. And that’s it. That’s the whole story. There are no random subplots involving Thor in a cave or The Hulk coming to terms with himself. The plot does not feel like window-dressing to navigate the audience from one setpiece to another (a major flaw in both Age of Ultron and Guardians of the Galaxy). As far as characters, we get four main characters, three comedic sidekicks, and four plot device characters, and that’s it. Yep, a Marvel movie where you only need to learn a few names. How refreshing!
The other thing Ant-Man deftly avoids is bogging itself down in the origin minutiae. Several superhero movies have been tanked by their origin obsession – I’m looking in your direction, Fantastic Four. We get a solid amount of origin setup, maybe 20-30 minutes. The bulk of it is worked into the heist planning, so it at least feels like we’re doing this for a reason. Too many superhero movies show the characters gaining powers and learning to harness them with no pressing motivation (Spider-Man, Fantastic Four again come to mind), but Lang has a reason to become Ant-Man and a pressing motivation is present.
Onto the characters themselves, where the three protagonists, Scott Lang, Hank Pym, and Hope Van Dyne, are well-casted and well realized. Rudd isn’t necessarily asked to do much outside of his wheelhouse, but I at least bought his growth as a character and he is certainly well-cast for the role. Rudd is certainly playing a version of himself that you’ve seen before, so if you like his schtick, you’ll be pleased here. Douglas gets a bit more to work with as Pym, and I enjoyed his performance. Douglas gets several great lines where he gets to pull out his snarky side that he executes to perfection. Evangeline Lilly as Hope Van Dyne plays the “Ice Queen” role well, but that’s a prototypical role you can either take or leave. The three of them play off each other well, especially Rudd, who is always good for a quick goofy line when all are involved. There’s a particular powerful growth scene that Rudd pretty much steals with a goofy one-liner that I enjoyed. I enjoyed all three characters, and all three are given growth arcs that are ultimately paid off in satisfying ways. My only major character gripe is the villain, Darren Cross, who is played by Corey Stoll. Stoll is fine in the role, but Cross is essentially a repurposed Obidiah Stane, who was the villain in the original Iron Man played by Jeff Bridges. For a series of movies that have had solid and crazy villains, Cross feels lazily developed.
Ant-Man manages to blow away many of the issues weighing down other MCU movies and creates a fun heist story without getting bogged down in the minutiae. Paul Rudd deserved a better opening weekend than freaking Thor, but I think the early reviews hurt the movie rather than helped. My only gripes are the lazy villain and [SPOILERS BELOW], so Ant-Man gets an A- from me.
OK SPOILER TIME. DO NOT READ UNTIL YOU’VE SEEN THE MOVIE.
I don’t know why Edgar Wright left the movie, but I wonder if it has to do with the ending. The movie does do a solid enough job setting up that Scott could solve Hank’s ultimate problem of going subatomic, but Scott solving it, then forgetting how, felt like a huge cheat. There was enough setup to make Scott expendable with the Wasp reveal in the mid-credits scene, and it would have been ballsy for Marvel to actually kill off one of its superheroes rather than cheat its way out of the situation. I know that it’s a superhero movie, so the character winning and surviving is the genre and all, but Scott recognizing he is expendable and sacrificing himself to save his daughter would have been refreshing and cool twist. He better do something bad-ass in Civil War to justify his existence now.
Review by Phil.
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