Nothing special

Rating: 7/10 (5 December 2015)

MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) has given us some spectacular movies (The Avengers; Age of Ultron), some great movies (The Winter soldier; Guardians of the galaxy) and some good movies (The Incredible Hulk). All in all, MCU never let us down and always gave a good time. The quality was always top notch, but the movies themselves varied form just fun (The Incredible Hulk) to really great ones (The winter soldier). So, as the last movie in Phase two, a question emerges - where does Ant-Man stand in that interval?
The truth is, Ant-Man is closer to the fun movies than the great ones. It delivers exactly what all the trailers presented - a fun entertaining flick. Now, if this was not a part of MCU where no collision with other MCU movies and superheroes was present, this would have been a flop. And that says a lot.
Now, the acting itself is quite good, Rudd is as always fun to watch, and his ability to cross over between a likable comic goof and a real dramatic superhero is to be respected. So to cast him as Ant- Man was a success. Douglas is as always, great and gave a lot to the MCU franchise. He did not impose too much on the others and gave them enough space to develop and show what they have to offer. A gesture not many would do. Lilly was a bit of a letdown. I expected more form her but it goes to show that she was not right for the role. Her beauty is distracting (as it should be) but when combined with good acting she can be a lot more impressive (like in the Hobbit series). Here, I had the feeling, she didn't quite know how to approach the character or portray her, even with the help of an acting master such as Douglas. But aside from the main cast, Stoll was the worst. I don't like to say someone gave a bad performance but he really did a bad job. An MCU villain needs to be psychotic, crazy, have world domination plans etc., etc. Stoll's character was all those things, but Stoll just didn't portray him properly. The black and white characterization is something MCU does best, but an actor has to do the job right. He really didn't have that hard of a job, and he blew it. So the villain part just wasn't acted out right. Unlike Iron man 3 where it is unclear what is going on with the bad guys and no true villain actually exists, here that is quite obvious and that saves the storyline and the movie altogether.
As for the story, well, MCU never really had spectacular Oscar winning story lines and scripts, but they were always functional and fun with no real loopholes or problems. That is also the case with Ant-man. A fun story with predictable but likable outcomes and good character development with a nice emotional layer and an Avengers crossover. So all in all Ant-Man does the job just right.
What is the problem? Well, the timing. Ant-Man would have been a lot more interesting as the first movie in phase three than the last one in phase two. Simply putting it, it just couldn't compete with Age of Ultron or Winter soldier. The audience was staggered with Winter soldier and Ultron that when Ant-Man came out, everyone expected something like the last two installments. That is a natural human reaction and is completely understandable. Does Ant-Man deserve to a part of MCU - definitely. Is it as good as the rest of MCU movies - yes. A better timing with the release of the movie and a wiser casting could have made this movie better. But all in all, just like The Incredible Hulk, when it's on TV I'll sure as Hell see it over and over again.