I was never a fan of comics growing up, but there’s something about all of the comic book movies that I nerd out over. I remember reading about Ant-Man a few years back. It was on a list of screenplays that were sold, but we’re nowhere near production. Another one of them was the Tom Hanks film, Saving Mr. Banks. When I read the description of Ant-Man, I read a short scene where a full-sized superhero runs full speed at an enemy, jumps in the air, shrinks down to the size of an ant, runs through the gun of the bad guy, comes out full-sized and takes him down. I was hooked from there.
A few years later, the film started to make its way to the world. Ever since the first trailer, I was even more sold. I was a little thrown off at first with Paul Rudd as the star. But after seeing Chris Pratt pull off his role in Gardians of the Galaxy, I knew Rudd would do the same. Not only does the film star him, but he co-wrote it along with three other writers, one of them being Adam McKay. You’d recognize Adam McKay as the man behind films like Step Brothers and The Anchorman franchise, as well as the co-founder of Funny or Die. After seeing the movie, it seemed as if the other two writers put most of the film together and then the two comedians rewrote it and added a numerous amount of jokes. And they did a great job.
The film follows Rudd’s character, Scott, who plays a theif who’s trying to end his life of crime and make something of himself. Michael Douglas plays a scientist who has been watching Rudd’s character for the last few months since he was released girl prison. Douglas is finding out if he is the perfect candidate to make into Ant-Man so he can steal the technology to replicate the Ant-Man suit and use it for evil. Rudd pulls in his rag-tag team of thieves to help out. The team is played by Michael Pena, rapper T.I. and David Dastmalchian. Pena absolutely steals the show. Rudd is hilarious, Lilly plays her role quite well, even T.I. is great, but Pena steals the spotlight. He plays a fast-talking criminal who is always ready to tackle the next job. When he finds out about the job to steal the other suit, he’s instantly onboard. I’ve loved Pena for years now. He was the best actor in the star-studded film Crash. He kept up with Jake Gylenhall in End of Watch. I feel I’ve mostly seen him play serious roles, but he was beyond hilarious in the film. Although he doesn’t end up becoming a super hero, I hope like crazy that he shows up in more Ant-Man and Avengers films.
I saw the movie in 3D, obviously. If you’ve read any of these before, then you know how into 3D films I am. Ant-Man had even better 3D than The Avengers and the scenes where the character shrinks down in size were extremely pleasing to the eye.
There’s no doubt that the character of Ant-Man is a little out there. It’s about a man who can shrink down to the size of an ant and control his ant friends for good. It’s not as cool or interesting as Iron Man, Captain America, or any of the other characters in the Marvel Universe, but it works.
The film, of course, has ties with The Avengers, but that was obvious. When the film got closer to being theatrically released, the trailers and other advertising looped in Ant-Man with The Avengers. Make sure you stay for after the credits, which you should know to do by now, and stay even longer as their are two scenes after the film ends.
