At release I judged Ant-Man as a decent enough palette cleanser to round out Phase 2. Not just smaller stakes immediately after Age of Ultron, but shrunken stakes. Years later, and taken on it’s own merits and not as just “the next Marvel film”…it’s still decent.
Ant-Man doesn’t scale the heights of the best MCU films. Because for every piece that I think is cool there’s something which I found half-assed.
Paul Rudd is as charming and amusing as you’d want him to be (how can you not like him?). He lends a less muscular but no less engaging and human performance as the titular character.
Corey Stoll’s Darren Cross is the classic “hero abilities but bad”. Michael Douglas makes for a fine exposition machine (sounds harsh but he’s good!) as he explains Pym particles and how the bad guy is bad. Stoll’s problem isn’t his performance – he gives us one of the grossest kills in a comic book film – it’s having so little to work with.
Visually there are some great sequences, with the “final battle” hilarious in what can become dangerous. The ants are interesting too; I completely understand how threatening they could be when they’re same size as an adult.
But I don’t think the story leans into the powers enough, and size wise Scott is either always full size or ant size, never in the middle. Seeing Scott run across a vinyl record or be towered over by a mouse is cool, but tinkering with size and perspective provides an immense amount of options. So it’s disappointing to see it feel very Honey I Shrunk the Kids at time. Then there’s how the film is two hours but still manages to feel rushed in places. This is an intro story! I want a good introduction! We only get that in part.
Ant-Man is a decent MCU entry. It ticks the boxes for fitting in with the larger universe whilst telling it’s own tale. The de-aging used is one of the best and sparing uses of the technology. Pena and his stories are hilarious, with the heroic side of things well cast. Just don’t expect too much, especially from the villain. In the end I find myself wondering what Edgar Wright could have made of it.
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