Road to Endgame… or past Endgame?: Ant-Man

Directed by Peyton Reed
Release date: July 17, 2015
Starring: Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Michael Douglas, Corey Stoll
Box office worldwide: $519,311,965

Ya just had the epic film Avengers: Age of Ultron, so where do you go from there? What movie could possibly follow all of the Avengers teaming up to stop a superbot from dropping a country on Earth?

Screw it, let’s get that Paul Rudd guy ripped and make him a superhero that shrinks… because we’re Marvel, and you will watch anything we make (I assume that’s how Kevin Feige said it).

Ant-Man has grown on me the more I watch the movie. I always liked it (as I do with all 22 movies), but it’s been towards the bottom of my list for a while. The last 2-3 times I’ve watched it my approval of the movie has gone way up!

Outside of Guardians of the Galaxy, and maybe the 2nd GOTG, Ant-Man is the funniest film in the MCU. There are very few jokes that don’t land with me. Scott Lang’s criminal crew has some great rapport and always has me laughing with their dumb antics.

Also, isn’t it crazy the MCU has gotten actors like Michael Douglas, Anthony Hopkins, Robert Redford and Michelle Pfeiffer? Those are top of the line, award-winning actors and the MCU picks ’em up!

Anyways, let’s review Ant-Man because I’m aiming to get an Endgame review out sometime this week… I know I’m way behind but I have to skip forward to review Endgame because it’s killing me not to write about it right now.

Positives

• I already alluded to it, but this movie is frickin’ hilarious. Paul Rudd is phenomenal as he always is. He’s a hilarious, lovable character that everyone roots for. Plus, you add Luis (Michael Peña), Dave (T.I- they even got T.I. in the movie!), and Kurt (David Dastmalchian) and those four combined are terrific.
  • Probably the funniest scene is when Luis goes on a long-ass rant about how he discovered a job… brilliant.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_PmY8prw7M
• Though the movie is funny (and I think the movie even laughs at itself for being a silly movie about a man shrinking down to ant size), the movie is dramatic enough with a handful of emotional moments that makes it feel like a serious film. It’s not an easy task to make a goofy movie with goofball characters actually have sentimental backgrounds that work. “Perfectly balanced as all things should be.”
• A lot of MCU movies have a redemption theme, but it works the best here. Lang redeeming himself for his previous crimes to do right by his daughter and Hank Pym redeeming himself by finally telling Hope about her mother’s death are both great storytelling pieces and emotional moments revolving around redemption. There’s a beauty in both Ant-Mans having parallel stories with their daughters.
• The action scenes are fun! The final battle between Yellowjacket & Ant-Man on the Thomas The Engine play set is great, but my favorite action scene is Ant-Man battling Falcon at Avengers Compound. Lang doesn’t know how to handle meeting an Avenger and acts like a melvin telling Falcon he’s a big fan of his work and that he’s sorry, etc. Funny and intense!

• Darren Cross/Yellowjacket (played by Corey Stoll) is decent. He’s got a villain-like motive… nothing crazy great about him, but he’s good!
• Lastly, the de-aging CGI of Michael Douglas is really, really good. He looks like Gordon Gekko in the first scene of the movie!

Negatives

• My biggest issue with the film is that when Darren Cross puts the Yellowjacket suit on for the first time, he’s already familiar with it and knows how to work it. That seems unlikely since they just finalized it AND it took Scott Lang an entire montage to learn how to use it! It’s just a nerdy nitpick I have… not a big deal
• Hearing Yellowjacket say “I want your daddy too” towards the end of the movie is… grossly weird. I don’t want my villain saying weird sexual innuendos.

• Come to think of it, Yellowjacket might be the “worst” part of the movie… and I still like him!
• There are maybe a couple duds for jokes… but I can’t think of an example a couple days after watching the movie. Sooo… not too strong of a negative

Overall Grade: B+

Ant-Man is as “solid” as a movie in the MCU can be. Everything is pretty good about, no glaring weaknesses, but it’s also not flashy nor the best movie out there. Ant-Man is like Philip Rivers… it’s really good but overshadowed by other quarterbacks (movies). Plus, Philip Rivers has like a billion kids, and Scott Lang has control of a billion ants, so they’re basically the same person.

MCU Ranking

1. Guardians of the Galaxy
2. The Avengers
3. Captain America: The Winter Soldier
4. Iron Man
5. Captain America: The First Avenger
6. Ant-Man (In the middle of everything!)
7. Avengers: Age of Ultron
8. Thor
9. Iron Man 3
10. Iron Man 2
11. The Incredible Hulk
12. Thor: The Dark World

Next up: AVENGERS ENDGAME… I have to skip forward, guys. I NEED to write Endgame’s review right now… and then I’ll review the others that I skipped.