The Oversaturation Is Real

Rating: 5/10 (27 July 2015)

I was really looking forward to Ant Man. Paul Rudd was a good choice to take the Marvel formula in a more comical direction. As much as I like super heroes, the Marvel stuff is starting to wear on me. I don't like how hell bent they are on tying everything together and making sure to reference other franchises constantly. I knew Ant Man would eventually show up in an Avengers movie, but the casting of Rudd and the trailer signaled to me that this one would be somewhat off the board compared to what they've been doing everywhere else.
I was wrong unfortunately. The tone of this movie is exactly like every other Marvel flick. Somewhat jokey, never taking itself too seriously, but with a normal plot with high stakes involved. It just FELT like every other Marvel movie to date. I realize that's on purpose. They don't want to stray too far from what made the MU such a cash cow, but that's kinda the problem. Instead of letting Ant Man be its own thing, they made it "Not Another Marvel Movie."
Maybe the most unfortunate part is that I've seen better Marvel movies. There was nothing thrilling about Ant Man. The potential to get creative was pretty much entirely squandered aside from what you had already seen in the trailer. I mean come on. You have a guy that can shrink and go back to normal size at will, and all you can come up with is him mind-controlling an army of ants? It was such a letdown.
Rudd is good but they don't take advantage of him. RDJ had more quips in any single Marvel movie he's been in than Rudd does here. Why? This is why you hired the guy! Michael Douglas is fine as is everyone else. Corey Stoll is surprisingly decent as the villain, though they made his character a little too evil (selling to Hydra, who could basically be construed as Nazis? Come on). There's nothing wrong with the acting, it's just the writing and lack of flash that prevent this moving from being anything special.
When we first see Rudd transform to Ant Man, by accident no less, he's in the bath tub of his apartment and I was getting some great nostalgic flashbacks from being a kid and watching Honey, I Shrunk the Kids. I thought this would be a superhero version of that movie, having the same sort of premise. Unfortunately after that scene they don't do much creatively with Ant Man's abilities. He simply works with a bunch of ants to accomplish the end goal, and not much happens before that other than him training and a brief fight with Falcon (obviously shoe-horned in there to tie in with the Avengers). It's just lame, lazy, and as is customary with Marvel movies these days, it reeks of corporate interference.
They also introduce Wasp after the end credits. We need ANOTHER hero??? The last Avengers movie couldn't even give everyone enough screen time, now we're adding two more people? It's out of hand and downright absurd.
My overall impressions were that this movie was a victim of the strict schedule and format these movies (according to the studio) MUST take in order to maximize profitability. It's not about making the best movie possible anymore within the MU, it's about not going outside the box because it's a proved model. I'm sure millions will continue to eat this stuff up, but it's starting to become a broken record for me.