Recently I had the opportunity to watch Marvel's newest cinematic installment, "Ant Man". As the title of this post suggests, it exceeded my expectations.
I'll be honest when I say that I wasn't expecting much from this. Marvel has been pretty good recently about taking weak ideas and turning them into a blockbuster. I think they did a pretty decent job with Ant Man.
Concerning the box office, however, Ant Man has been a very unsuccessful movie for Marvel; bringing in only $58 million on opening weekend. This is a pretty small number...for Marvel that is.
Despite what critics are saying regarding the unsuccessful box-office ratings and a half-baked story, Ant Man was a breath of fresh air after Marvel's recent universe changing installments.
Ant Man tells the story of Scott Lang, a cat burglar and a jailbird. After being released from prison, Scott tries to get back on his feet so he can pay child support for his daughter. After trying to stay on the good side of the law, Scott eventually turns to one last heist to earn the dough he needs.
After a convoluted series of events following the aforementioned heist, Scott meets Hank Pym and his bitter daughter, Hope. Hank, who used to wear the Ant Man suit, trains Scott to help him with a heist on the company Hank founded. I won't continue lest I spoil the plot.
Ant Man turned out to be a very delightful origins story with a fantastic performance from Paul Rudd. The film was chock full of wit without sacrificing a serious tone.
One of the things I liked most was how "local" the film felt. As said before, Marvel movies tend to deal a lot with fate of the world scenarios. Ant Man was great in my book because of how "insignificant" the situations felt. It sounds weird, but it's true.
In the end, Ant Man definitely gets a B+ from me. Not Marvel's greatest achievement, but certainly not a flop. My only regret is that we won't see Ant Man again until Civil War...
-Ryan
