I can now add another Marvel superhero movie to the list of ones I’ve seen! It’s a rather short list right now but I keep adding to it, and Ant-Man definitely delivers. Suffice it to say, I now have a second favorite superhero (sorry Ant-Man, but Captain America will always have my heart).
This is your typical superhero movie/origin story, but with a comedic twist. A lot of people are comparing it to Guardians of the Galaxy. I will say that I liked Ant-Man better – Guardians was good, but I found Ant-Man to be funnier and a little less confusing for those like me who get easily distracted and confused about some of the plot devices used in these sorts of movies.
All of the typical elements of a superhero film that you expect to see are here. Ant-Man trains to be a superhero, fails, tries again, falls in love with the girl, has an elderly mentor hiding a secret, faces off with the bad guy at the end. The thing that doesn’t make it feel totally tired and cliche is the fact that the movie is very self aware and tongue-in-cheek. For instance, in a scene where the father is telling his daughter the true story of how her mother died, Paul Rudd’s character pipes up with something along the lines of, “Well that was very touching. Oh, I just ruined the moment, didn’t I?”
There were so many laugh out loud moments, and I don’t want to spoil them if you haven’t seen the movie yet. But I will say there was a scene where Ant-Man travels to Avengers headquarters and runs into Falcon, whom he then has a face-off with. That scene was hilarious.
Despite being funny and self aware there were still some emotionally touching moments. Scott (Ant-Man) has a 6 year old daughter that he is doing everything for. There are a couple of almost heart wrenching scenes with his daughter and the fact that he can’t see her because of visitation rights. Also, there are a couple of violent or grotesque scenes in the movie that might be a bit too much for kids.
Paul Rudd does a very good job as Scott/Ant-Man, and he is able to make you laugh and feel sad. Plus, I’d say he’s looking better than ever. Evangeline Lilly plays the main female in the film, and I was impressed with her and her character. She plays the badass female quite well and I think could be a great, powerful role model for girls. I would love to see her get her own film.
The fact that Ant-Man is more lighthearted and funny than the other Marvel films makes it a refreshing breath of fresh air for me. The heaviness of some of the films like Avengers: Age of Ultron and Captain America: Winter Soldier get tiring after awhile, and I was very glad to see a more feel-good movie that still had plenty of action and a fun superhero in it.
My husband and I loved this movie (although Captain America is also my husband’s favorite and I’m in love with Iron Man and Thor). It was much funnier than I had anticipated. The commercials made it look a bit dumb haha I was pleasantly surprised with how much I enjoyed it.
Yes I was worried it would be trying too hard to be funny, but I found it genuinely humorous! While I’ve seen the Avengers I haven’t seen the Iron Man or Thor movies yet, so those are on my list.
I do love Captain America (he is my fiance’s favorite) but Paul Rudd has my heart!
Mmm yes, Paul Rudd 😉
I love Paul Rudd, so I’ve been wanting to see this. Thanks for the great review. I haven’t seen to many super hero type movies, but this sounds like a good one.
It’s definitely a good “starter” film if you haven’t seen many super hero movies. The plot is more straight forward than many of the others.