After 7 years and two phases of the Marvel cinematic universe, one thing is clear: the world can only be under threat of annihilation so many times before impending doom becomes dull. The first entry in this summer’s movie season, Avengers: Age of Ultron, suffered primarily because its villain and his apocalypse-summoning plans felt awfully familiar. Ultron was a self-involved robot, but its idea to, a la Bender Bending Rodriguez, kill all humans was exceedingly overdone. And the notion that such a force could conquer a group of unstoppable heroes held no weight. So it’s a good thing that Ant-Man has arrived, as it suggests the potential for worldwide chaos but remains so small-scale and wry that its climax takes place in a little girl’s bedroom. Although Ant-Man is superficially shackled to the necessities of the MCU, it’s snappier, lighter, and sharper than Marvel’s more overblown films of late.
We meet the human alter ego of the protagonist, Scott Lang (Paul Rudd, who co-wrote the film with Adam McKay, as well as original stewards Edgar Wright and Joe Cornish), as he exits San Quentin Prison and struggles to integrate into normal life in San Francisco. While assimilating back into civilized society, Scott balances his desire to reconnect with his ex-wife and daughter with his predilection for burgling from the rich and giving to the poor (at least that’s a best-guess scenario for his Robin Hood-esque modus operandi, which is so vaguely alluded to that it almost doesn’t exist). After being arrested for returning something he stole (the Ant-Man suit, in fact), Scott is lured into an incredibly dangerous proposition by elderly scientist Dr. Hank Pym (Michael Douglas), who tempts Scott by offering him a way to reconnect with his daughter. All Scott has to do is break into Pym’s corporation and steal a powerful technology that enables its user to shrink to the size of an ant, lest it get in the hands of Pym’s former protégé Darren Cross (Corey Stoll), who plans to utilize it for himself.
Yes, Ant-Man is a heist movie as much as an origin story of how Scott Lang became Ant-Man. On the one hand, the script isn’t remotely groundbreaking in either of these halves. The tete-a-tete between Pym and Cross has a not-so-faint whiff of similarity to the battle between Tony Stark and Obadiah Stane in the first Iron Man, just with the younger character being the nefarious asshole this time around. And unlike the best entries in the heist-movie genre, Ant-Man is never quite tense enough in making it seem like Scott and his army of ants (as well as his old ex-con buddies, including a delightful Michael Peña) won’t succeed in their quest. But director Peyton Reed and the committed ensemble offer a spry and loose take on these hackneyed tropes; more heist movies, for example, would be vastly improved by Peña’s blissed-out way of describing a new job, visualized a la the Comedy Central show Drunk History, wherein each character clues him into a new gig by lip-syncing their dialogue to match his oddball way of talking.
As Scott, Rudd is most believable when humanizing his desperation, proving how badly he wants to get back into his daughter’s life; that urge is what grounds the action, as much as Pym trying to keep his frustrated and resentful daughter, Hope (Evangeline Lilly), away from the Ant-Man suit herself despite her experience. Douglas isn’t stretching too much here, granted, but he brings a necessary gravitas to an inherently ridiculous premise. (Also worth noting: his first scene, set in 1989, features some of the most remarkable special effects in recent memory. Douglas, via CGI, is de-aged in such a way that looks completely believable, the uncanny valley nary in sight.) The silliness of a movie about a guy working alongside ants translates into appropriately goofy action setpieces, building up to Scott and Darren facing off by hurling toy trains at each other. In scenes like that, specifically, Reed gets to be playful enough to recall his best film to date, Down with Love.
Ant-Man, though, can only be so playful. Marvel movies are the new paradigm in Hollywood, and the new formula feels a lot like the old formula. Despite all its campy self-awareness, Ant-Man checks off all the boxes we come to expect from Marvel movies these days—Stan Lee cameo, marginalized stock female characters, redemption arc, and a one-dimensional bad guy. What makes it stand out is less that it avoids the formula, and more that it simply tweaks the formula enough to seem special.