Marvel’s latest entree “Ant Man” is a curious bobble of a
film that dares a non-comic-initiated audience to hold on to the general appeal
of charismatic actors bouncing around in CGI environments without the comfort
or ease of John Wayne approved heroic posturing to get them through. What I’m
trying to say is this movie is unabashedly geeky, in way that Marvel Studios
might have underestimated a regular movie going audience to roll with without
noticing. And good for it! “Guardians of the Galaxy” was definitely weird—what
with talking trees and smart-alecky raccoons and what-not—but it was also
nestled in a space-opera/fantasy trope that the average beer-drinking,
football-throwing American’s can recognize from their childhoods as far back as
“Star Wars.” “Ant Man,” on the other
hand, is a little more niche.
Michael Douglas plays Hank Pym, a scientist who learned how
to shrink himself down while still having the ability to fight with the
strength of ten men. He was forced to leave his secret government agency, where
he fought as a spy, after he learned that the wrong developers wanted to use
his tech for dangerous, military purposes. Fast-forward thirty years into the
future and a younger protégée of Pym named Darren Cross (“Corey Stoll) has
seemed to develop a similar enough technology that Pym feels the need to
interject. Enter a white-caller
cat-burgler and hacker named Scott Lange (“Paul Rudd”), who’s trying to get his
life and family together after finally being released from prison. He’s tricked
by Pym into breaking his parole to steal the Ant Man shrinking suit, and after
some light blackmail he agrees to help
the older inventor break into Cross’s facility to destroy the progress of the
dangerous Yellowjacket.
Despite scenes of Paul Rudd learning how to telepathically
control ants into sugaring his coffee or flying on the back of harnessed
insects, this is basically a heist movie at its core, with a mark, a plan of
action, and the booty that needs to be retrieved. What director Peyton Reed
does well with this material is he brings us into this idiosyncratic world
through the eyes of the affable Rudd as he bumbles his way into becoming a
passive hero. Though maybe he’s a bit too passive at times - to the point of
almost having no agency within the plot. Nevertheless, he’s charming to watch
and he knows how to hit the comedic beats that’s laced throughout the
narrative. Moments between him and his
street-wise, criminal friends—Michael Pena almost steals the entire movie away
with only a handful of scenes—keep you smiling in good spirits, even when you
get the feeling that the movie isn’t entirely invested in its own brand.
Things don’t work quite as well when the story shifts into
more character driven territories, particularly anything involving the vague
sub-plot dealing with Pym and his estranged daughter Hope (Evangeline Lilly)
who is working within the offices of her father’s enemy, while secretly
bringing back useful intelligence. When it came to their emotional arc, the revelation
of how Pym lost his wife, or even Lang’s difficult relationship with his
ex-wife and the daughter he’s barely allowed to visit, I never cared quite as
much as the movie wanted me to. It’s clear that the writers wanted to ground
the superhero pulp and the comedy with a thematic parallel between Lang and Pym
about what it means to be a responsible and present father, but these
underwritten moments register more as plot motivators than they do real
character builders.
Still, “Ant Man” is a fun and unassuming summer blockbuster
that’s refreshingly low-stakes and casual for Marvel action movie. The set
pieces are creative and occasionally there’s stylistic flashes of a better
movie that might have been possible had the studio let things bake a little longer.
As it stands the heist plot could have paid off more satisfyingly and
characters could have been more clearly defined, but overall this was a totally
inoffensive offering, if not somewhat banal.
Grade: B -
Originally Published in the Idaho State Journal/Jul-2015
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