The perfect ANTidote

Rating: 8/10 (2 August 2015)

Marvel Studios have created something a little different here (pun intended), they have been able to introduce a fan favorite character into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, one that loved by many, but at the same time, a character that is unknown to many others too. Ant-Man is a fresh change from the normal Marvel film, or superhero film for that matter. We don't have all the massive destruction, or city toppling events found in many other Marvel (or DC) Universe films, and even through there is the odd building getting flattered here, its not in the fore front of this story.
Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) is the new (or next if you follow the comic lore) Ant-Man. He is able to change to microscopic size, which then hyper intensifies everything he does, from speed, to agility, to strength, but (just) being 'Ant-Man' doesn't mean he is a master of his craft from the first second he jumps in the suit, he has to learn as he goes along, and work out how to use the suit to his best advantage. This includes help from the suits creator Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) and even a little help from Pym's daughter Hope Van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly). When Lang changes in size, everything then changes for himself, so the environment that he would take for granted, like a bath, or a dripping tap, once changed size, this environment will become a hyper realistic environment to him (and a wonder for the audience to look at), so that bath will become a canyon, and that drip will become an gushing ocean.
This is where all most of the fun come from in Ant-Man. When Lang changes size, the way this is filmed puts it all to fantastic use. Of course there is CGI here, but there are also camera tricks, and clever filming aspects that make us really think Lang has changed into the size of an Ant. I loved watching these scenes, everything from a simple running through to carpet, which now to Lang felt like a forest, to the rushing and changing sizes to punch a guard in the face as he is about to pull the trigger.
That's not to say the scenes that didn't involve Scott Lang becoming Ant-Man were poor, the likes of Douglas' Pym was awesome and built up his character from the very off to the very end, giving insights into his why, how and who, and the likes of the 'baddie' here, Darren Cross played by Corey Stoll, who might not be the name puller to the general cinema goer, but he was excellent here as Yellow-Jacket, and was actually a scene stealer in a fair few occasions.
In each scene that Corey Stoll was in, be is Cross, or Yellow-Jacket, I enjoyed his presence, and as soon as they built up this character from a friend to a foe he just shone even more. I also loved the look of the Yellow-Jacket suit, this looked both awesome and at times scary. There is a scene where Yellow-Jacket is in a young girls room (building up to the fantastic final act), but just this scene can feel very menacing the younger viewing, plus the play on lines in the scene 'Are you a monster?' were delivered beautifully by the young actress played by Abby Ryder Forston, who plays Scott Lang's daughter Cassie Lang.
We need to give some massive props to Michael Douglas. This is the best acting I've seen from him in years. He played Hank Pym to perfection. We may not have seen all the dark side, that the Hank Pym story is known for (drugs, beatings, alcoholism etc so may have been a good choice considering the family element that Ant-Man is playing to) but the way he conveyed this character on screen, as this father figure looking for someone to take on his work, was a joy to behold.
There is a lot here to love in Ant-Man, the acting from everyone was sublime, the likes of Evangeline Lilly showing that she certainly could be 'The Wasp' if the power that be wanted to take that character into the MCU too. She is Hope Van Dyne after all! It was also great to see loads of little nods here and there to future possibilities in the series, the likes of speaking about the Avengers in general, or the fact that Lang's suit had multiple buttons, some that did not work, could relate to future characters in the Ant-Man verse, the likes of when Ant-Man become Goliath, that could make the next parts of the Ant-Man story massive, on so many levels!
There was flickering of action here and there within Ant-Man in the first hour or so, and in all honestly, the real action only kicked in, in the last 25 or so minutes, which when thinking about a superhero movie is unusual, but I give massive dues here, as it built these characters, and showed the unknowing audience who they are, and why they should be loved.
Ant-Man is the perfect ANTidote to the heavy superhero films that we have had over the last few year. I loved the fact that this was more a character driven story, and even though there is action here, and when the action kicks off it certainly kicks off, Ant-Man just felt different to the others that we are used to in the Marvel Universe, it even at times, felt like a heist movie, I loved that. Ant-Man was a fun ride from start to finish and deserves your viewing, and is a very worthy film to be added to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.