The Surprise of the Year

Rating: 9/10 (22 July 2015)

So far, 2015 has been a pretty disappointing year for blockbusters. The recent additions to the Jurassic Park, Terminator and, yes, Avengers story lines have all been fairly underwhelming and let the theater public down. But along comes Ant-Man, a lesser-known character in the Marvel universe, and stars in the most entertaining movie of the summer and, what's more, a well-deserved addition to the Marvel saga.
Paul Rudd is excellently cast as Scott Lang, a cat burglar who longs to turn a new page so that he can be with his daughter. Just as he realizes that society isn't intent on giving him a chance, along comes someone who is - Hank Pym, who has invented a method of scaling a human being down in size while simultaneously increasing their strength. This technology has fallen into bad hands in his company, in particular the hands of maniacal CEO Darren Cross, whose shady intentions with the technology are plain. Thus, Pym and his estranged daughter work to put Scott up to a heist where he destroys all copies of the technology, with the help of the most undetectable partners imaginable - ants.
I can't imagine anyone but Paul Rudd pulling off Scott. He's got the comedy and humanity of the character down to a tilt, but he's frequently upstaged by his loudmouth friend and ex-cellmate, Luis, a theater-roaringly hilarious performance by Michael Peña. Ant-Man is fun across the board, exciting and plays with its themes of a man in a supersized world in consistently inventive ways. It strikes the balance between the themes of fun, action and serious that Age of Ultron so missed.
If you're a Marvel fan, you owe yourself not to miss Ant-Man. It's more than a worthy addition to the Marvel roster, and one of the most entertaining movies of the year. Don't be in a hurry to leave the theater, either - two last scenes that Marvel loves to put in their movies are really worth your time.