Ant-Man (2015) – Rewind Review
“Intense action, real heart, and genuinely-great characters and arcs, I can say that, without a shadow of sarcasm, I’m excited to see the sequel as it drops this coming weekend.”Marvel movies are hit-and-miss, with me. I sat through all the Iron Man trilogy because it was the first hero introduced into this shared universe. I fell in love with Captain America’s honor and duty, and own that trilogy. Only ever seen Thor: Ragnarok (thunder and lightning are more of a deterrent, really), and the Guardians films are eye-candy for their spectacle and great with building wholesome, but meaningful, soundtracks. Avengers, as it goes, needn’t any explanation: The largest superhero cross-over event in the medium’s history—I will never miss an occasion to see that!
But, with all of Marvel’s flare, there’s one thing I’ve noticed in recent installments that I haven’t in, say, DC’s run of movies, so far: Different tastes and styles of filmmaking. Like Ragnarok, Black Panther, or Infinity War with its right-hook of a roll-credits, Ant-Man is, stylistically, different than the rest.
Tone is that of every other—lots of colors and CGI, sure—but there’s more. To me, as I was watching it, it’s a heist film, first—in that classic Edgar Wright style, even though he wasn’t the one whom, ultimately, ended up in the director’s chair. Even seeing his name as involved, though, I nodded and was like, “Yep, I should’ve known.” Baby Driver…but with super-suits.
The cast is cool—the likes of Paul Rudd (who’s really grown on me, in recent years), Michael Douglas, Evangeline Lilly, and Michael Peña rounding out the primary-color characters is a great ensemble to work with. Rudd as Scott Lang is funny, but hiding a wicked intelligence and knack for heroism that rivals even the aging Hank Pym (Douglas). Though a background piece, more than a main protagonist, Pym and Lang’s ideals match up; the latter is the younger, purer version of the former. Pym’s second chance to vicariously right his wrongs. Lilly’s Hope—whom we’ll see a lot more of in-action this coming weekend—is not the stereotypical femme, but someone I’d definitely want on my side in a pinch. She lays Lang out more than once, during the training montage. That father-daughter dynamic between herself and Pym is touching, to say the least—the kind of love-hate, bourgeoning relationship I aspire to write. I have a new appreciation for Peña’s talent, too—have, for a while. He’s diverse and can wear any number of hats, and was particularly great, here. Can’t wait to see him back in the sequel, as well.
The humor, as I said, is something that’s in the forefront; for as astronomically-high as the stakes turn out to be, it’s odd, but not off-putting, that. Tropes of the medium—and the superhero genre, as it’s been presented—are used to highlight the ridiculousness of their over-use (and our seeming apathy to such in forming a “complete” narrative).
I’m going to go ahead and call this the most meta MCU film, to date.
Call-backs for the eagle-eyed fan, while building genuine tension as new threats are introduced, Ant-Man is also not without its faults. Exposition-dumping in the form of uncomfortable, clunky dialogue is ever-present in the beginning, and the film had a tough time getting up-to-speed. It’s a cool origin story, and I’m glad Marvel are trying to switch it up, sometimes, with their established formula, but there were “important” things that happened early-on that—whether because of the sheer visual spectacle, or because they were genuinely forgettable—I couldn’t recall back to when they came up again. I had to strain to remember some of the film while I was watching it. That’s a no-no…
Cool tech, neat science, and a new appreciation for the animal intelligence (though not much more than that) of ants, Ant-Man impressed me. Real research and brainstorming went down at this writers’ room meeting, though. A very involved film, for as simple as the premise is: Get weaponized macguffin before bad guy can sell it to other bad guys.
Intense action, real heart, and genuinely-great characters and arcs, I can say that, without a shadow of sarcasm, I’m excited to see the sequel as it drops this coming weekend.
I want to see if they can do it again.
Final ‘Risk Assessment: *****/
Next review: Ant-Man and the Wasp (Jul. 6th)
