What I know about Ant-Man is pretty much 2nd hand osmosis, reading about comics instead of actually reading comics. I do own the issues of Iron-Man where Scott Lang as Ant-Man plays a prominent role. I also own the digest reprints of the Irredeemable Ant-Man featuring Eric O'Grady by Robert Kirkman & Phil Hester. And I've read various Avengers books with Henry (Hank) Pym as Ant-Man/Giant-Man/Goliath/Ant-Man again/Yellowjacket/Dr. Pym/Ant-Man once more/Wasp/Giant Man again.
As I understand it, Dr. Pym is now known as the Deceased Dr. Pym. This being comics, I wish him a speedy recovery from this case of death he's experiencing.
What makes a Marvel movie work is a strong foundation built on comic books AND the appeal they have to people who know nothing of the comics. To the latter, it helps if you have a lead actor that movie goers have some familiarity with. The whole Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) got a strong kick off with the casting of Robert Downey Jr as Tony Stark/Iron Man. Even if you knew nothing of Iron Man (and back in 2008, nobody outside of the most hardcore comic book fan knew anything about Iron Man), you had some idea of who RDJ was and what he could bring to a role. RDJ put people in movie theater seats; the rich history of Marvel Comics kept them there.
And that formula is at work once more in Ant-Man who is even more off the radar than Iron Man was. With Paul Rudd, we have a likable and talented actor who brings a sense of comfort to some rather bizarre proceedings. Rudd is Scott Lang, an extremely smart individual who is also an ex-con looking for redemption and a reunion with his daughter, Cassie. Life is hard for an ex-con, however, and Scott finds himself caught up a plan to rob the home of wealthy old guy.
The "old guy" turns out to be one Dr. Hank Pym and the thing of value that Scott Lang finds is a strange suit, a suit that gives the wearer the power to shrink down to the size of an ant. Lang is being manipulated by Pym who has problems of his own: his former protege, Darren Cross, has stumbled across Pym's long hidden shrinking technology. Converting it to a high tech weapons suit called Yellowjacket, Cross plans to unleash it on an unsuspecting world to the highest bidder. So Hank Pym sets up Scott Lang to steal the Ant-Man suit to see if Scott is the right guy for Pym to send in against Cross.
Pym's daughter Hope isn't happy with this plan. Rather, she's OK with the plan. But she already knows how to work the Ant-Man suit and doesn't see why they're wasting time with this idiot Scott Lang. But it seems Pym and Lang have something in common: both are searching for redemption for the sake of their respective daughters.
While Ant-Man follows the MCU formula as we watch Lang advance by fits and starts into the hero we know he'll become and being a better person for it, there are enough tweaks to that formula to give this movie a slightly different feel. For Ant-Man, that means a stronger reliance on humor. A prime example of that is the battle between Ant-Man and Yellowjacket in Cassie's bedroom. In close up, we see power and rage explode between the two combatants. Hiding from her closet, Cassie sees tiny pieces of her Thomas the Tank Engine train set get knocked around. It is a moment of urgency and absurdity happening simultaneously.
There's no shying away from the silliness inherent in the concept of communicating with ants and shrinking down to their size. But as the movie progresses, we see how cool and fantastic such powers can be. The fight scenes where Ant-Man fights Cross' men by shrinking and enlarging in rapid succession are awesome.
But in the heart of all of this silliness and spectacle, Paul Rudd keeps things rooted in a reality that we can relate to. And speaking of acting, kudos to Michael Douglas who turns in a fine performance as Dr. Pym. It's still a bit disconcerting to me to see how old Douglas is now; even more so when the opening sequence set in 1989 show us a Michael Douglas who looks like he just stepped off the set of Wall Street or any of his other hit movies from the 1980's and '90's. (In case you're wondering how the filmmakers pulled that off, it was the same team that made Chris Evans' Steve Rogers scrawny at the beginning of Captain America: The First Avenger.) Still, Douglas can still own a scene as he portrays Dr. Pym with a strong intelligence but an emotional fragility brought on by the loss of his wife, his estrangement from this daughter and the corruption of his life's work by a protege he once trusted.
Ant-Man sets the stage for more to come in the MCU. A new concept known as the Quantum Realm gets introduced which I'm sure will play in a future role in other Marvel movies. And the post credit sequence sets up Ant-Man's involvement in the next big MCU picture, Captain America: Civil War.
All told, Marvel has done it again. Maybe not on the scale of Avengers or Guardians of the Galaxy but Ant-Man is a solid success, enough so to make the case that Marvel Studios can do almost anything.
Squirrel Girl: The Movie? Why not.
Be good to one another.
Dave-El
I'm So Glad My Suffering Amuses You
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