Ant-Man – Movie Review by Frances Winston

Directed by: Peyton Reed

Starring: Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Corey Stoll, Bobby Cannavale, Michael Peña, Tip “T.I.” Harris, Wood Harris, Judy Greer, David Dastmalchian, Michael Douglas

In cinemas July 17th

Even by the often outrageous standards of the Marvelverse Ant Man shouldn’t work. Although I am a big comic book fan even I find the idea of a minature superhero a bit hard to comprehend. I mean he’s teenchy! Ant size in fact. It just seems like he wouldn’t be much use in a fight. Apparently I am wrong though as this tiny titan really packs a punch!

The titular character is played by Paul Rudd, an actor who, until now, was best known for being a supporting goofball in various comedy flicks and Phoebe Buffay’s husband in 90s sitcom Friends. A likeable enough actor but not one that immediately springs to mind when you think hero. However he plays a character called Scott Lang, a petty thief and everyman and his likeability and “ordinariness” really suits the role.

Lang is just out of prison and despite wanting to go straight he is persuaded to perform one last heist in order to raise enough money to pay his child support and see his daughter. However, this is no ordinary heist as he has been set up by aging scientist Dr Hank Pym (Douglas) who sees him as the natural successor to wear the Ant Man suit he had invented decades beforehand. Stealing the iconic suit Scott finds himself thrown into a tiny, tiny world when he inadvertently shrinks and once he gets over the initial shock he becomes Hank’s protégé as they work together to stop the power mad Darren Cross (Stoll), who now runs Hanks company, developing similar technology which could fall into the wrong hands and possibly destroy to the world.

When you consider the standard super hero movie plot this instantly seems less of a silly premise. Rudd is supremely engaging as Scott the reluctant hero and Douglas avoids the temptation to ham it up as Pym instead giving a grounded and deep performance. Stoll is somewhat OTT as Cross but it acts as a nice contrast to the other more subtle performances. A lot of time is spent on developing the characters so by the time the big set piece arrives you really care about the outcome and are rooting for Scott and his army of ants. Yes you heard right, he really does have an army of ants and, something I never thought I would say especially in a movie review, they are incredibly cute (I know, I know but trust me on this!) There are also the usual assortment of cameos we have come to expect from Marvel films which help to link all the movies together (Hayley Atwell must have shares in the studio at this stage as her Agent Carter turns up AGAIN!)

Much like last year’s excellent Guardians of the Galaxy this is a movie that shouldn’t work but does. Excellent casting, a script that is just the right side of twee and ridiculous (just) ensure that the viewer never gets bored. The pacing is perfect and despite a couple of cheesy moments on the whole it is incredibly engaging. There are also plenty of laughs along the way as as you would expect when you have a leading man with such a comic pedigree.