Great gags, but not enough

Rating: 7/10 (8 August 2015)

Guardians of the Galaxy kept me smiling throughout the movie, Ant-man did not. And I felt it should have.
The movie does a lot of things correctly. It shows how Ant-man's powers actually are really cool. And that he completely holds up as a superhero. It introduces some really cool characters into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. And it has some great visuals at time (though some sequences were disappointing). How it plays around with shrinking/deshrinking is also really fun. They have quite a few really funny gags. But there was room for many more. Too much of the movie is exposition, they could easily have cut down on the opening explanations and introductions. (Or: What do I know what they could have "easily" have done or not, I've never made a movie. But it felt like there was way too much.) I had a hard time distancing the movie from Edgar Wright. I knew about his involvement, and I was looking forward to seeing his version from the moment it was announced. And I was really disappointed when it was announced he wouldn't direct it after all. So watching the movie, I kept thinking about what the sequences could have been. Instead of what they were. Hopefully I will be able to appreciate it more next time I see it.