Movie Review: Ant-Man
Rating: 4 Stars
Ant-Man is not just a good movie, it’s a great movie. I was wrestling with my rating because I read the review on this film and how surprisingly good it was. I read the Chicago Sun-Times review which gave the movie 3 and 1/2 stars and I had to ask myself at several points, is Ant-Man a 4 star film?
I like to talk about ratings because there is a reason behind every rating. 4 stars is the highest honor a film can receive because it is indeed, a truly great film. Great storytelling, great camerawork, editing, writing, character development, the whole sha-bang. I’ll go into more depth in another article about rating systems in the near future.
So back to Ant-Man. It’s a great film, and it’s a 4 star film that I think the only reason people aren’t sold on, is because
- It’s a superhero film
- It’s about a man who has the power to turn to the size of an ant whilst controlling a legion of ants.
It’s a hard sell. But what makes Ant-Man so great is that it never gets overbearing no matter how self-conscious it is about its source material. Ant-Man knows that when we were talking about the movie a year ago, we expected it to be a flub, and it laughed at us. There were stories of turmoil within the writing and directing of the film. So how did they get this right?
Ant-Man is a redemption story. Redeeming himself is humble cat burgling criminal Scott Lang (Paul Rudd). He has a Robin Hood mentality, steal from the rich. Sadly for Lang, stealing is stealing in America and his Robin Hood escapades land him in jail where he is apparently well liked. It’s hard not to like Paul Rudd in this movie because he has a goofy child-like innocence. He lacks concrete maturity but understands that he needs to grow up in order to become a father. Seeing his daughter again who is in the custody of his ex-wife, becomes Scott’s driving force throughout the film.
Ant-Man is masterful in its development. Development of the plot, development of the character, and keeping a light-hearted comedic aspect that never tries too hard, ever. Scott’s trio of crook friends, led by the hilarious Michael Pena, provide the comedic relief when the opportunity rises.
Ant-Man’s focus revolves around the relationship between Scott Lang and Hank Pym (Michael Douglas). Pym created the Ant-Man suit, and needs Lang’s help to stop an evil plot from his protege. Darren Cross (Corey Stoll) wants to recreate and repurpose Pym’s technology into his own suit, aptly named, the Yellowjacket. Pym’s daughter Hope Van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly) works closely with Cross as the mole to help her dad destroy Cross’s Yellowjacket.
Lang is forced to learn quickly in a series of tests, and then the obligatory montage scene to become a serviceable Ant-Man. Even the montage though doesn’t seem dry because it takes its time in developing its major characters and their respective character arcs. There’s three different personalities between Scott, Hope, and Pym, and yet they act and react accordingly. I have a feeling what critics and moviegoers will underrate most about Ant-Man are the characters and how much we really believe in them.
Ant-Man knows it’s not shooting for Dark Knight type characters, it would upset the balance of the film.
Scott’s final test accounts for the best superhero action fights I’ve ever seen (that’s right, I didn’t just say Marvel). If anything shows the ingenuity of making a seemingly obscure and lame superhero look awesome, check out this scene. What makes this scene so much better is the build it took to get us here. Ant-Man’s first real action doesn’t take place until we are prepared to reach the film’s peak.
It was at the peak of the film I asked myself if Ant-Man could hold itself together, and it did. Obviously Yellowjacket and Ant-Man must converge in an epic duel which throws everything the movie has been building at us. I always find it important that a film doesn’t waste any of its build while not dragging it out on us.
Pym’s estranged relationship with his daughter sets the stage perfectly for Lang. Ant-Man is able to pull on our heartstrings, even if we must suffer the poetic cliche, I couldn’t see this movie going any other way. We may see what’s coming in a story, but it doesn’t make the story any less great (for those who have the seen the film, I’m referring to ‘going subatomic’).
One final relationship I found very important to why I enjoyed this movie so much was the bond between Rudd as a father and his daughter Cassie (Abby Ryder Fortson is excellent). They don’t get to spend much time together in the film, but when they do get together, they make you smile and laugh.
I try and keep my reviews on the shorter side, but here towards the end I must add in credit to the filmmakers who shot and edited this piece. The visual apsect of travelling through Ant-Man’s world to ours and back again is important to how successful the film would be, and it was nothing short of.. you guessed it, masterful. I could see the editors and digital artists having a lot of fun creating a miniature digital world, while seamlessly transitioning back into full size. I couldn’t imagine it was an easy film to direct or produce at stages. But the hard work was worth the effort.
Iron Man was my favorite all time Marvel movie (damn there’s been a lot of Marvel films lately, still need to catch up on a few, list subject to change), and after a night to sleep on it, Ant-Man is easily my second favorite Marvel flick. The Avengers was a spectacle and I liked Captain America a lot more than my peers did (need to see the 2nd one), but Ant-Man is definitely a superior film, and I have no trouble saying that.
After this film, I owe it to Paul Rudd to stop confusing him with Ryan Reynolds. I’ll get it one day.
