Review of Ant-Man

Initial Thought: I was a little skeptical about this when I first heard it would be made. I wondered how they could make a good feature length film about a man who can shrink. When the trailer came out it had me more interested. It looked like fun. Yesterday I was invited to an early showing at midnight so I went and watched it.

Characters/Acting: This has a pretty interesting cast. I never would have thought Paul Rudd could pull off a superhero let alone Ant-Man. To my surprise he fit right in. His comedic timing fit perfectly in the role of Scott Lang. He even showed he can pull off the action lead persona. Michael Douglas never disappoints in my opinion. The same applies for him here as well. He plays a great Hank Pym. Corey Stoll as Yellowjacket was awesome. For a first movie villain I think he is one of the better ones. The three thief buddies of Scott Lang were the perfect mixed bag. We have Michael Pena who is absolutely hysterical here especially whenever he explains how he comes up with jobs. There is also T.I. who is pretty damn funny here too. I have seen him in some comedies, but this is by far his funniest role. The hacker guy also has some funny lines. Now I'm not really on the Evangeline Lilly train. I usually find her a bit average to be honest. I did think she played here quite well though. Scott's daughter is so adorable and funny. She is a young one and still fits right in here. The cameos here were pretty great and some were even unexpected. In full there just aren't any characters here that were bad.

Story: Armed with a super-suit with the astonishing ability to shrink in scale but increase in strength, con-man Scott Lang must embrace his inner hero and help his mentor, Dr. Hank Pym, plan and pull off a heist that will save the world. This concept is interesting for a superhero movie. When you think of heists you usually think of spy films or movies about criminals. This takes that to a new level. It's all three meshed together. The action is both pretty awesome and quite humorous at the same time. I loved the fight scenes where they are ant-sized because they would show from both perspectives. Seeing them large scale always made it humorously less intense than how the characters felt about their battles. The ending was pretty funny and just awesome. Obviously when you watch a Marvel there are credits scenes. This one has two. One is midway and that made me geek out a little inside. The final one is also really cool to see. They are both definitely worth seeing.

Directing/Writing: When I heard Edgar Wright was directing I was ecstatic. He was going to be an awesome and funny watch. It was a bit disappointing when he ended up dropping off as director. The writing though you can tell has a bit of his style in there. So I was glad he was still credited as one of the screenwriters. Three other people worked on the script as well even including Paul Rudd. He has only written Role Models besides this which was a really funny movie. Joe Cornish also wrote and directed the popular British alien invasion movie Attack on the Block. That was a wicked awesome movie in my opinion. Wow Adam McKay was part of the writing group here! That's a surprise seeing as I usually despise everything he works on since they almost always include Will Ferrell. Good on him for attributing to something I actually enjoyed. I see to always enjoy the directing capabilities of Peyton Reed. His movies are always quite funny and fun to watch. I mean I really liked Yes Man and Bring It On. Anyways all this talent working together really paid off. I don't know how much of it everyone had contributed to it, but for so many writers it went rather nicely.

Final Thought: That was freaking fantastic. The acting was on point. The characters were fun to watch and had good chemistry. The action was an unexpected blast to watch. There is never a dull moment even when there is no action going on. If you are a Marvel fan and felt skeptical about this don't be. It's quite refreshing and really proves itself to belong in the cinematic universe. I highly recommend going to see this one ASAP.