Ant-Man may not have had the best trailers but its a great Marvel movie. Better Than Age Of Ultron as a whole.
Ant-Man is Marvel's 12th entry into their cinematic universe. That's right, 12. Hard to believe that this all started w/ Marvel taking a gamble on Robert Downey Jr for Iron Man in 2008. Believe it or not, this movie was supposed to originally kick off the MCU as this has been in development since the 80s. No, really.
After losing director Edgar Wright departed due to creative differences, Peyton Reed filled in and brought along Adam McKay for to rewrite the script. You quite a wide variety ensemble for Phase 3 of the MCU. We got Paul Rudd, Michael Douglas, Corey Stall, Evangeline Lilly, Michael Pena, Bobby Cannavale, Wood Harris, Tip 'T.I.' Harris, Judy Greer, and David Dastmalchian. Our spoiler-free review lies below as we'll let you know if you need to see this or not.
I won't lie to you all. Before about a week ago, I wasn't crazy excited to see this movie. I am familiar w/ the source material but the trailers & TV spots weren't actually pulling me in to see it. Or even piquing my interest. We know it's supposed to be funny as if Paul Rudd was cast as the lead. After reading a few early reviews that were released about a few days before I was able to see it, changed the interest a bit.
Part Heist, Part Family-Orientated, Part Comedy, All Marvel.
I hope you're not afraid of ants. You see them throughout the film and some parts they're rather large. Certain parts remind me of Honey, I Shrunk The Kids film form back in the days. So now that the disclaimer of sorts is out there, let's proceed. Scott Lang in this film isn't like you're everyday burglar as he has a higher education and a sense of nobility to him if you will. Rudd's Scott Lang is super-relatable as he is more of an everyday joe rather than a Tony Stark.
Stall's Yellowjacket makes for a great disillusioned bad guy, not quite a villain but misled w/ greed & ambition. I was extremely curious to see how Marvel would bring Hank Pym to the big screen let alone an older one played by Douglas. Lilly's role as Pym's kind of estranged daughter was on point as she was a strong character who could fight but showed emotion as her character wasn't cold.
At 1st glance you might think the heist crew are a bunch of bumbling idiots but as the film plays on, you'll see that they kind of still are but good at what they do. Micheal Pena's Luis is pretty much a field guy who can go undercover and can throw a punch. T.I.'s Dave plays the wheelman/getaway driver. David Dastmalchain's Kurt is a hacker from another country. This is Lang's heist crew as well as the comedy relief for the movie.
Ant-Man may not have had the best trailers but its a great Marvel movie. Better Than Age Of Ultron as a whole.
TG 2 Cents
Ant-Man along w/ Guardians Of The Galaxy were a departures from the usual Avengers/S.H.I.E.L.D.-based characters that we were used to. Many fans had no previous knowledge or connection to either before the films - unless you're familiar w/ the source material. And just like GOTG, Ant-Man was a great success. It's funny, characters are well developed, pacing is good, and no useless parts (meaning no wasted film on terrible plot devices or characters not pulling their own weight.).
Paul Rudd is an awesome Scott Lang, Michael Douglas nails it as the older Hank Pym, and Michael Pena is hilarious as the scene-stealing Luis. The other supporting cast offers a solid performance as well. All of these ingredients make for another great Marvel film. Which is welcomed after Age Of Ultron, which wasn't bad but it fall off halfway through the film in my opinion. BTW: In case you thought something else, the Falcon scene in the more recent trailers is not part of the post-credit scenes as he's in the movie. Make sure you see in theaters on July 17th and make sure you stick around for 2 after-credit scenes (one halfway & one at the absolute end).
Huge thanks to Dolby for the advanced screening.
