Smaller in size and scale but no less creditible

Rating: 6/10 (26 July 2018)

Paul Rudd as the would-be hero brings lots of verve and self-confidence and good comic timing to the role. Ant-Man as a film, in comparison to earlier releases in the Marvel canon, isn't nearly as tightly packed and bombastic and it doesn't exhibit the same kind of rapid, choreographed fighting but it is no lesser film for it. We enter the strange world of the miniscule - where science would present big problems according to shrinkage and theories like ontogenetic allometry - but pay no heed to instincts or science - this is an imaginative comic fantasy. Most of the fun is in the knowingness of its place in the Marvel series for many viewers and the unlikely hero quality of Ant-Man compared to the Avengers. The most touching aspect, though, is his hero like quality to his daughter. There is a feeling by the mid-point of the film that it is positioned to step up the gears and become a full epic treat but sadly that doesn't happen. Nonetheless it is a competent heist film and with good support from Michael Douglas as the troubled scientist.