Ant-Man

Alright everyone, the wait is finally over. It’s time to conclude “Avengers Phase Two” with the latest installment, “Ant-Man,” which came out last month and I got to see it last night. Sometimes “lightweight” isn’t a negative. “Ant-Man,” the comics-based superhero movie that’s focused around one of the more arguably silly Marvel Comics characters succeeds its particular magic by keeping its happenings almost as light as its shrunken-down hero. Glenn Kenny stated in his review, “The movie, directed by Peyton Reed (“Down With Love,” “Bring It On”) and starring Paul Rudd, isn’t exactly or entirely fluffy, but it’s pretty darn agile, and as a result provides the most pure, uncomplicated fun, and even joy, of any Marvel picture I’ve seen.”

The movie opens in 1989, with a digitally rejuvenated Michael Douglas walking into an intelligence-gathering fortress and going up against some powerful frenemies, among them Howard Stark (John Slattery), a still-lovely-in-middle-age Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) and new sneery Mitchell Carson (Martin Donovan). Kenny stated, “Douglas’ character, Hank Pym, has a red vial containing something called “the Pym particle,” and SHIELD wants it, and Carson’s pretty insistent on the point.” It doesn’t end well. This starter of backstory sets up not only the narrative for this movie, but serves as the equivalent of nation building for the larger abstract stability of the MCU, which will be providing the entirety of the United States’ entertainment content, if all goes according to plan, by the year 2025.

The good news is that your enjoyment of this movie won’t be dependent on your getting many in-jokes and character references, even though there are a decent number of them. Kenny mentioned that, “What the movie delivers for most of its running time is a surprisingly disarming amalgam of “The Incredible Shrinking Man” and “Rififi” by way of Brian De Palma’s first “Mission Impossible” movie, except with Jules Dassin’s goofball element thrown back in the mix.” Short version: The “Pym particle” makes the tiny-but-powerful Ant-Man suit operable. In the present day Hank’s too old to work it and too protective of his tough daughter Hope, played by Evangeline Lilly from the show “Lost,” to let her put it on. So Hank highly hires newly-sprung-from-prison hacker/cat-burglar Scott Lang, played by Paul Rudd, for a “job.” Said job involves putting a stop to megalomaniacal Darren Cross, played by Corey Stoll. Kenny says, “Cross is an old protégé of Pym’s, a current employer of Hope’s, and he’s about to make a multi-billion-dollar killing on a weaponized “Yellowjacket” suit that pilfers Pym’s technology.”

The stakes are high here, but they’re not as pretentious as they are in most contemporary comic-book-based movies, where the fate of the entire world if not the universe seems to be at stake every time. Yeah, Cross “IS” a lunatic (fooling with the sort of atom-manipulation that makes these suits work can mess with your mind), and he does want to make an army of Yellowjackets, and his buyer, represented by the abovementioned Mitchell Carson, is none other than an outfit called HYDRA. However, this movie doesn’t need to destroy whole cities to get its job done. Ability, wise-cracking Scott wants to make it in the “straight” world so he can have more time with his daughter, played by Abby Ryder Fortson. The fact that his ex-wife (Judy Greer) now lives with a defensive cop (Bobby Cannavale) includes not just emotional dad-rival complications, but some plot twists as well. After Cross senses some kind of rat in his system (it’s not a rat, incidentally, just a whole group of telepathically controlled ants), Scott’s likeable knucklehead criminal friends – played in varying types of hilarity by Michael Peña, rapper T.I. and David Dastmalchian – are thankful to get in on the action as well.

This is a lot of material for any movie to balance, and it’s also fighting with a crazy visual-effects element. Kenny said, “The different sizes of Ant-Man bring with them different worlds, and his interaction with ants has a crazy pop-art surreality, like a pulp reiteration of Dali’s imagery in “The Persistence of Memory” and other insect-packed artworks.” The script is credited to Edgar Wright and Joe Cornish, and then to Rudd and Adam McKay. Kenny went on to say, “Wright was originally set to direct, and while I’m not one to play pick-the-authorial touches (especially after only one viewing), I suspect quite a few of the visual gags in this picture originated with his contributions. In any event, the movie Reed has directed offers a remarkably direct through-line; I kept waiting, in dread, for a flashback explaining how the villain got that way, but it never came; instead, we find out what we need to know via dialogue and action, which is very welcome.” Despite the movie’s enthusiasm, it manages to express Cross’s villainy and its gravity with an appropriate tone. It’s delightful and almost miraculous the way this movie manages to work as a comic heist movie on a huge scale, and with a comic science-fiction movie mixed into it…while managing to join together to the whole, you know, Marvel thing. Even the usually alarmed training-montage sequence manages to unfold like a persuasive dance number. Part of it has to do with the novelty of the training – it’s not many movies that show its protagonist trying to leap through a keyhole, or get a group of ants to pile sugar cubes into a cup of tea – but it’s also the character work from Rudd, Lilly and Douglas. Also clever is the size-matters humor the movie works so skillfully and unpredictably – there’s an iPhone-centered joke in the middle of a ridiculous (in a good way) climatic action that’s satanically clever. As is customary with Marvel films, “Ant-Man” has more than one ending – more than two, as it happens. Kenny ended his review by saying, “My favorite was the second one, which will probably please thinkpiece writers and/or Evangeline Lilly fans, so I’m sure you’ll hear about it soon. As for myself, I found myself grinning a bit at the final promise “Ant-Man Will Return.”"

Spoiler alert: In the mid-credits scene, Hank shows Hope a new Wasp prototype suit and offers it to her. In the post-credits scene, Falcon (Anthony Mackie) and Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) have Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) in their custody. Unable to contact Tony Stark because of “the accords,” Falcon mentions that he knows someone who could help.

If you haven’t seen this movie, go to the theater and watch it if it’s still playing in one of your local theaters. Much like “Age of Ultron” was this year’s “Winter Soldier,” “Ant-Man” is this year’s “Guardians of the Galaxy.” To be completely honest, I actually was more entertained with this movie than I was with “Guardians of the Galaxy.” This was very comedy-driven, which I like, but it is surprising for a Marvel movie. Doesn’t matter because I think this is, like “Guardians of the Galaxy,” one of the better comic book movies that have been made in the past decade and another one of my favorites.

Thank you for joining in on my reviews of “Avengers Phase Two” and my reviews throughout the month of August. I hope all of you have enjoyed them and are looking forward to the “Phase Three movies” like I am. See you in September.