Movie Rewiew: Ant-Man

Action/Adventure/Superhero

Rated – M

Duration – 117mins

Release – July 2015

Director – Peyton REED

Cast – Paul Rudd, Michael Douglas, Evangeline Lilly, Corey Stoll, Michael Pena


Mr Knight

Marvel films seem to be a dime a dozen now days and each new title becomes a bigger risk to fall short of Marvel’s high standards and disappoint. When Ant-Man came onto the scene many including myself thought this would be the one to forget. I’m a big superhero movie fan so when I came into the cinema I wasn’t sure what to expect.

Paul Rudd leads a pretty impressive cast including well renowned Michael Douglas, Lost’s and the Hobbit’s Evangeline Lilly and Fury and End of Watch’s Michael Pena. Evangeline Lilly’s hair was intense and at first I actually thought she was Jurassic World’s Bryce Dallas Howard!

Rudd plays Scott Lang, a down on his luck ex-con trying to make it in the world and play it straight without much success. With the law abiding life letting him down Lang takes on one last job and unknowingly follows carefully laid out breadcrumbs placed by Dr. Hank Pym (Douglas) to recruit him. Dr. Pym needs Lang to stop his successor from taking his state of the art technology and using it for evil.

To aid him in this adventure Lang is given Pym’s high tech suit giving him the ability to shrink to the size of a bug and give him super strength, making him the Ant-Man. Rudd is great to watch and has a funny charm, not too dissimilar from Guardians of the Galaxy’s Chris Pratt. Rudd has a criminal entourage to keep the laughs going but with his humour, Rudd could carry the story without them.

Marvel manage to keep the audience engaged with a clever story and bring you another hero to top the favourites list. The battle scene on the Thomas the Tank Engine set brings something never seen on the big screen. The special effects are impressive and with the use of Avenger’s member Falcon, Ant-Man ties in as a new addition to the Avengers franchise leaving a window of possibilities open for future movies.

Better than the Captain America films, and Iron Man 3 and definitely on par with the better titles such as Iron Man 1 and 2 and the Avengers. Get there and see it.



 

Mrs Knight

I was told Marvel’s Ant-Man felt more like a Disney flick than Marvel. At first I thought this was a bad thing, but for me it was an enjoyable ‘little’ film. I agree that this is one of the best ways to describe it and I think this would be a great transition for someone who may not be a huge Marvel fan.

The hilarious Paul Rudd, who never seems to disappoint, leads his jailbird pals to pull off a heist which leads him to Dr Hank Pym (Michael Douglas). Pym seeks out the ex-con and gives him a super-suit with the powers to shrink in scale and increase in strength.

His small size makes for a number of comical fights and were my favourite scenes in the movie. We see him navigate through scale model buildings, Thomas the Tank Engine train sets and so much more. It was clever, with great use of special effects and overall very well done.

Paul Rudd played the part perfectly and is a great addition to the Marvel family. I especially enjoyed the interaction with his side kick ‘Ant-ony’. Hard-core Marvel fans shouldn’t be disappointed as there were plenty of references, intertwining the story with past and upcoming films, including an appearance from Avengers Falcon.

I’m not one to re-watch movies too soon, unless they’re comedies or rom-coms but I would re-watch Ant-Man. Ironically led by Paul Rudd it did have a decent amount of comedy!