Watched Ant-Man on Friday. Went in with very low expectations since Ultron was shit. Worried because Ant-Man was supposed to have been directed and written by Edgar Wright, one of my favourite directors out there. He got annoyed with Marvel-Disney's meddling with his script ("so that it better fit their universe") and left the project, leaving it to current director Peyton Reed, famous for cretin like 'Yes Man' and 'Thje Break Up' (movies which should be avoided like ebola).
The positives:
1) Michael Douglas as Hank Pym was not a secondary character. At all. In the comics, he is a misogynistic asshole who also happens to form the Avengers with his wife, The Wasp. He also happens to create Ultron in the comics, and this is an important dynamic in Ultron's storyline. None of this got utilized in the piece of shit that is Age Of Ultron. Anyway, Edgar Wright's decision to introduce Scott Lang as the Ant-Man instead of Hank Pym was a cause of concern, but Hank Pym's character is well-fleshed out with back story and great lines. It's surprising that Disney allowed an old, sarcastic male character in one of their movies, but hey, not complaining.
2) Michael Peña; this man stole the show. Yes, I've put him under Michael Douglas because Hank Pym's character is much more integral to the Marvel narrative. Peña's Luis isn't. but his wise cracking throughout the entire movie was genuine, well-timed and charming. Most of the movie's laughs are elicited from this guy. He handles the racial overtones of his Hispanic background and his criminal activities pretty well (most people don't even realise this as the movie pans out)..
3) Edgar Wright -isms: It's hard to pin down which parts of the script are his, but some of the scenes are obvious trademarks of Edgar Wright. The intelligent product placements for Baskin Robbins, iPhone, etc are an example. Even more so are Peña's flashbacks, one of the most memorable scenes in the movie has Luis recounts how he gets his intel with rapidly shifting edits. These scenes do make you wonder how much better the movie could have been with Wright in the director's chair.
The negatives:
1) Cory Stroll as Yellowjacket. He probably only has about 15 minutes of screen time, and his motivations are treated like shit as per the Marvel villain regime. One scene to show his mistreatment by Hank Pym, couple of scenes of animal torture that's implied offscreen. Yeah, as compelling as an elephant taking a shit.
2) Evangeline Lilly - don't mean to sound misogynistic but this woman is clearly in here for the money
3) Interstellar Cameo: There's a part where Ant-Man traverses the sub-atomic world in almost the same fashion as Matthew McConaughey's character (with some added trippy visuals). Not that the scene was visually bad, but it served no purpose other than to house the obvious deus ex machina that brings Ant-Man back to the real world. Why not go further? Why not try to stimulate our imaginations for once?
The meh:
1) Paul Rudd... He's not bad, he's not good either. You could swap him out for Chris Pratt and nobody would tell the difference. His sarcasm and body language could have been better fleshed out in the writing or delivery.
2) Avengers tie-in: It's fun, but infuriatingly unimportant.
3) Visuals and sound were not something that really hammered in on Ant-Man's power. What do I mean? Remember the scene in X-Men Days Of Future Past where Quicksilver shows off his speed? That was an excellent scene that integrated the hero's superpower accordingly. Everything here's mostly a bunch of insects and stolen footage from Interstellar. Soundstage was pretty weak on Dolby Atmos.
Verdict: Well, there were some enjoyable scenes. I was happy with the fact that the movie was light-hearted and relatively self-contained, avoiding the grandiose bullshit of floating cities and meaningless robots in the last Marvel film. It's somewhat of a shit, with some great scenes. Wait for Bluray if you can.
