"Ant-Man" Dares to Be Different

Rating: 6/10 (18 July 2015)

I'm not one for big action spectacles where we see New York getting destroyed for the four-millionth time, so I'm always a little worried before I go into a superhero movie. Fortunately, Ant-Man dared to be different than the usual superhero flick like the largely overrated Avengers and abysmal Man of Steel by being a heist movie. Ant-Man, based on the Marvel character, Scott Lang has to use Dr. Pym's Ant- Man suit and plot a heist to stop Darren Cross from making more Ant-Man suits. The suit itself allows the wearer to shrink to the size of an ant while their physical strength increases, making them a virtually unstoppable force. The worst thing I can say about Ant-Man is that it's not as neat and controlled as Marvel's best entries. It doesn't match the tight story of Iron Man or the thrilling nature of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, but it makes up for that by being an incredibly fun and sometimes unpredictable heist movie. A majority of the film is dedicated to showing how Lang attempts to pull of the heist rather than showing non-stop action. It makes Ant-Man feel unique and significantly different than any other Marvel movie I've seen. Most of the action doesn't happen until the final act of the film, but the scenes themselves are very interesting since you see Lang and Cross constantly growing and shrinking. There's also quite a bit of comedy in there, which unfortunately, misses a lot more than it hits. Nevertheless, Ant-Man is an appropriately fun and unique superhero movie that actually tries to tell a story rather than showing fifty skyscrapers fall to the ground.