Jun 18, 2016
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Ant Man, for me, was a breath of fresh air. Marvel Studios has demonstrated, especially in their most recent films, that they have taken on a new style; incorporating humour into superhero films. This film is primarily humour-driven, spearheaded by the protagonist played by Paul Rudd and brilliantly accompanied by Lang's sidekick Luis (Michael Pena). The humour dominated the film; from the one-liners and Marvel movie references ('Why don't we just call in the Avengers?') to the goofy remarks and comedic shrinking and enlarging of various items, I couldn't stop laughing. It was great to see a good quality superhero film being considered a comedy without spoofing. This is yet another example of Marvel taking huge risks and pulling them off with great success. They truly have found a formula to success.
This film wasn't trying to be a massive blockbuster where the fate of the universe is in the balance. The best element of the film is that it's aware of its small scale and works with that. Lang is the classic unwilling hero, who is trained by the sarcastic father-daughter duo Hank and Hope; both of which demonstrate major character development within themselves and their rocky relationship which is beautiful to watch unfold. After rigorous training, Ant-Man becomes a heist movie which sees Lang's street friends collaborate with the highly professional Pym's to get Scott into a high security facility- with both humorous and interesting results. This movie, once again, surprised me with its storyline centred around family, evident in some highly emotional moments.
The cast was fairly small for a Marvel film, but among them were Paul Rudd, Michael Douglas, Evangeline Lilly, and Michael Pena with cameo appearances from Anthony Mackie (who plays Falcon in Marvel films) and Hayley Atwell (who plays a World War II Veteran Peggy Carter). The cast was well-chosen by Director Peyton Reed for a film of this type. All of them bring something unique and funny to the overall result.
The genres included by Reed were action, adventure, and comedy, with hints of drama and romance. It, like many Marvel films, is age-appropriate.
Sadly, this film was not flawless. My biggest issue was the villain. Darren Cross (Corey Stoll) managed to recreate Pym's Ant-Man suit with some enhancements by the name of 'Yellowjacket'. After staying in his business attire for 3 quarters of the film, he changes into the yellowjacket, and hence is born as yet another generic villain. They both have exactly the same powers and it becomes a battle of brain over brawn in the climax. To many movie fans, this will sound very familiar. The next thing was something that Reed obviously didn't care about when he made this and it's also ironically one of the things I like about this film; the lack of large-scale action. Ant-Man, while he has many advantages, isn't exactly the most epic hero of all. But this cannot be helped.
Overall, I had a lot of fun with Ant Man, and it certainly strayed from a cliche superhero film. It was original and that was one of its best traits. We might see more of this going on after Ant Man's success; the nearest one being the much less family friendly Marvel Fox film; Deadpool. It didn't bring in as much money as The Avengers, it wasn't as large a scale, but it did this new character justice and was executed in the best form possible. And obviously it worked, as Ant Man is scheduled to appear in both 2016's Captain America: Civil War, and 2018's sequel Ant Man and the Wasp.
Verified