Ant-Man is fun if you don't want anything groundbreaking

Rating: 6/10 (17 August 2015)

As the Marvel Cinematic Universe starts to get stale, Ant-Man for me was the one that would make or break it. Either it'd be so fresh that it'd bring on a new wave, or it'd be so generic that it'd kill the whole thing for me. What it does - well, it sits somewhere in the middle. Its not the make or break, it just prolongs the question and I guess we'll see next year.
Paul Rudd is Scott Lang "the Ant Man" (I was terrified going in that this film would be like the trailers, trying to make fun of the awful name). Rudd is adequate - he's not Hemsworth or Pratt, but he's not Norton's Bruce Banner either. His attempts to be charming are actually quite grating at times - such as one supposedly fun scene where he ruins a nice moment between Douglas and Lilly, and then realises on screen. Oh you shouldn't have said that? No duh. Is this meant to make us like him?
My favourite performances of the cast were Corey Stoll and Michael Douglas. Stoll is a diabolical villain, probably the best human villain in the MCU since Jeff Bridges' Obadiah Stane. Unfortunately, he also comes across as a frothing lunatic, because his screen time is so minimal that Stoll has to overact in order to establish himself as a villain at all. Its not bad - his disregard for any life makes him truly terrifying, demonstrated in a few incredible scenes that I won't spoil, and Stoll's sheer presence is always incredibly menacing, which Peyton Reed uses to great effect. Michael Douglas is a world class actor, and unlike a few other similar actors in the MCU like Redford, Rourke and Close, he's given a decent role to play AND he does something with it.
Evangeline Lilly, hiding underneath probably the worst hairstyle brought to screen since the invention of the toupee, plays a character so generic that you can pick the whole movie from her. She's the distant child who calls her father by his first name. She's the tough chick who doesn't actually do anything. The love interest who doesn't like you until the end of the film. She's the assistant to the bad guy who has a change of heart. If she was any more generic, her name would be John Smith. Lilly may try, but its hard to tell when her role is so cookie- cutter. Bobby Canavale is given a nothing role that now prevents him doing anything good in the MCU, much like Glenn Close and John C. Reilly were in Guardians of the Galaxy.
The CGI in this film is amazing - especially a digitally youngified Michael Douglas, and some awesome ant sequences. The sound mixing is also really terrific, and you only notice that sort of thing when its really good. I did really enjoy Peyton Reed's direction of the action scenes in particular - the seamless cuts of big-to-small were delightful, and the two funniest scenes in the film were perfect transitions from high-intensity, high drama action to the zoom out shot that reminds you how low the stakes are.
I will always wonder what Edgar Wright's screenplay was, because this is pretty darn generic. Its the same origins story you've heard a thousand times over, and I'm not going to bother touching on it. Because Wright's script was ditched for more generic fare, however, the only laughs I got were the aforementioned transition shots. The rest of the screenplay is filled with generic lumps like "clear your mind. Focus on your daughter and it'll help."
Ant-Man isn't groundbreaking, but its solid. It lacks the enjoyability of Guardians, Iron Man or Thor, but it doesn't insult me like Winter Soldier or Iron Man 3. It ranks somewhere around the middle, which is just enough to recommend it, I suppose.