Movie Review- Ant-Man

Originally written 1/16/16

Ant-Man is the weakest entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, except for perhaps Iron Man 2. Even Guardians of the Galaxy, which I hated, was at least memorably bad. Ant-Man is forgettable. To me, the worst impression a movie can leave is none at all. ­Ant-Man is a phoned-in effort at salvaging whatever Edgar Wright was working on before Disney gave him the boot.

            The positive reviews I have read for Ant-Man all cite Paul Rudd's performance as the part they liked. I guess likability is subjective. I thought he was an ass and not a sympathetic hero. His motive of wanting to see his daughter again felt manipulative and insincere due to Rudd's lack of charm. For a movie touting itself as Marvel's next "funny" movie after Guardians, there is a dearth of actual jokes. Just weak attempts at banter and mugging at the camera that felt like sitcom material. The "It's a Small World After All" and "Tales to Astonish" gags are stupid, club-footed references that don't gel well with the movie. It is irritatingly blatant fanservice.

            The product placement in the movie is incredibly painful. Seeing Ant-Man work at a Baskin-Robbins does not make me want to buy there ice cream any more than I already did. If they didn't constantly call attention to the fact that Ant-Man works at Baskin-Robbins it would have felt more naturally integrated and would not have bothered me so much. The Lifesavers product placement and Siri "Disintegration" joke were equally dumb and took me out of the film.

            The special effects in Ant-Man are heavily stylized and cartoony like Sin City, but the giant environments feel uninspired and are not as captivating as they should have been. The creative team really missed the opportunity to showcase some inventive and stunning environments. I should be feeling a sense of wonder getting to see the world from the scale of an ant, not a hollow feeling that I could be spending my time doing something more productive than watching Ant-Man. It doesn't help that ants are generally repulsive insects, and constantly seeing them in giants swarms made my skin crawl. I am pretty sure Marvel wanted the ants to be endearing, but I was experiencing flashbacks to Them!

            The Falcon cameo/fight scene is the closest the movie came to having any fun, and the only scene that felt like something from the comics. It's fun to see the Marvel characters crossing over into each other's movies now, just like it happens in the comics. All it took was eight straight years of superhero movies. Much like the rest of the MCU, Ant-Man is forced to fall in line with the tone and continuity of the franchise, much to the detriment of the film's potential. The movie feels mechanical and insincere when it should have been exhilarating and funny. If you want a good "people get shrunken" movie, go watch Honey, I Shrunk the Kids instead. At least the ant is endearing in that movie.