Summary
Ex-Con, Scott Lang (Paul Rudd, Captain America: Civil War) can't find work, pay his child support, or get his own apartment. When a rich inventor (Michael Douglas, “Falling Down”)approaches him with the opportunity to restore his life and family, Scott dons the inventor's advanced battle suit to become Ant-Man and safeguard the world from another guy, bad guy, in another battle suit, bad battle suit.
My Thoughts?
Fine. It's fine.
No really. "Ant Man" is a sort of blah film. If this came out in the nineties it would have blown people away. In 2018, however, this film just doesn't have anything that stands out from the pack of superhero movies we get each year.
For word count sake, I'm going to list it's deficiencies rather than expounding on them.
Paul Rudd is good, but he's not really stretching his Paul Rudd wings.
Evangeline Lilly (The Hobbit) is plain terrible. Her acting, her hair. It's all silly.
The Heist is a small portion of the film when it should be the main course.
It feels like 50% of this movie occurs in three rooms of a large house.
The villain is a copy of Jeff Bridges in "Iron Man."
Ants. There are so many ants in this movie and they aren't played for humor as much as they are meant to be taken seriously.
Uneven sense of humor.
At times, terrible Visual FX.
Strange character motivations.
Weak action sequences.
Boring
What is Good?
The only thing I really found fun about this film was its sense of humor. At times. Edgar Wright was a writer on the film and it shows because the humor at times really works, but at other times, probably once Edgar Wright was of the film, the humor is very hacky and cliche'.
So even the parts that I enjoyed are frequently undercut by its failings. For every joke where a toy train is played for a life sized train instead (funny), we get a scene of Scott learning Martial Arts from... wait for it... A Girl?
Do those sorts of jokes entertain anyone anymore? Was anyone watching this movie thinking, well she won't have anything to add because she is a woman?
Verdict
The film just seems so tone deaf. Losing Edgar Wright off the film was a huge blow and a great example of why cinephiles follow directors and writers more than actors. Paul Rudd is a funny guy and a decent lead but when he isn't being written for and directed by a person with as much talent as him, he's just stuck in a middle-ing movie, delivering middle-ing lines.
In the end, "Ant Man" seems more like the sort of film Edgar Wright would normally make fun of, not write.
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