Ant-Man is a Small Gem of a Movie

Rating: 8/10 (21 July 2015)

"They must REALLY be running out of ideas," I said to myself when I first saw a trailer for this movie. Ant-Man? Could Aqua Man be far behind? The Wondertwins? But putting this aside, Ant-Man turns out to be one of the more enjoyable movies of the summer (ok, I haven't seen many). It pulls off the right tone and spirit even though it is a fairly ridiculous premise of a man (Paul Rudd) who uses his cat burglar skills to help an old scientist (played by Michael Douglas) keep his dangerous technology out of the hands of the bad guys. Rudd is pretty well cast, as is Evangeline Lilly as the scientist's daughter.
Ant-Man exists tangentially in the same Marvel universe as Tony Stark, Thor, and the Avengers, but this is not an over the top action movie in the same vein. It exists somewhere between action and comedy, and is a fairly nice blend of the two. The scene where Ant-Man fights an Avenger and apologizes every time he hits him is amusing, as it the climactic battle on top of a Thomas the Train Set.
Sure, Hollywood is always churning out crap, with unnecessary reboots and heroes that don't warrant their own movies. But sometimes they find a small gem at the bottom of that barrel they are scraping. And Ant-Man is a small gem of a movie.