Ant-Man: "It's great. Not Iron Man great, but great."

Rating: 8/10 (20 July 2015)

We've seen some "meh" films in the MCU. For instance, Iron Man 2 and Thor: The Dark World. Ant-Man is not this. It's very refreshing, with the addition of new character abilities and new possibilities, rather than your Captain America-like punching powers. Ant-Man has punching powers too, but the movie features Scott Lang (Ant-Man) shrinking and growing mid-fight, and using ants to fight. It's also primarily a heist movie, with a Falcon cameo which felt well-placed, and it's easy to jump into if you aren't familiar with the character or previous MCU films.
Paul Rudd makes for a great Scott Lang, and he plays the role with a great balance of comedy and drama. My only problem is that I kept calling him Paul Rudd instead of Scott Lang when I saw him on screen, but maybe that's just me.
Michael Douglas's Hank Pym was also extremely well-done. The movie portrays him as a mentor and father- figure to Scott Lang but he's also a pretty tortured soul, which makes for good screen time with him and a good tie-in to the comics. His daughter, Hope van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly), is well-cast and she plays her role well, and she shares great moments with Michael Douglas and Paul Rudd.
On the downside, Darren Cross/Yellowjacket as portrayed by Corey Stroll seems to go crazy and murderous very quickly and for no reason. Michael Douglas mentions that he wasn't very stable to begin with at one point, but he wasn't that fleshed out to make me believe it very much. I'm on board with it, for sure, though. I read a review on the way in and I expected worse, so it was above expectations.
You may have heard that Ant-Man wasn't anything special or it was good, but not great, and I totally disagree. It was a refreshing story with new characters that we'll come to love in this film and in later installments to the MCU (at least, I will). If I haven't swayed you, I advise you see the movie for yourself and end up surprised.