The most fun I've had with a Marvl movie

Rating: 8/10 (26 December 2015)

I was pleasantly surprised by this movie, and it may end up being my favorite Marvel movie to date.
Like most of the recent Marvel movies, Ant-Man adds superhero elements to a different type of film, in this case a heist movie. A lot of the excitement and fun in the film comes from the merging of these two elements, which are otherwise carried out in a standard way. The movie is full of staples and clichés from both genres, such as the criminal who wants to go straight, the hero having a troubled personal life, the "impenetrable" building that has to be broken into, and so on. While this makes the movie fairly predictable, the advantage is that the movie maintains a brisk pace. Backstories, motivations, and relationships are all quickly established, formed, and explored, allowing for the humor and action to shine.
The characters, while not being particularly deep or complex, are still a lot of fun to watch. The performances are mainly good and invest you in the movie, Paul Rudd uses perfect comedic timing, which works all the more well because of how effective Evangeline Lilly and Michael Douglas play the straight men. Though all the characters, even the minor ones characters, get humorous moments throughout the movie. A lot of the enjoyment comes from the characters themselves having fun, which has been absent in a lot of superhero films. The characters enjoy what they're doing which adds levity to the movie and makes it engaging.
The plot itself is pretty standard, but provides a good backdrop to explore the abilities of Ant-Man, which are fantastically portrayed. This movie does an extraordinary job making ants, the ability to control them, and the ability to shrink all very cool. This is due to how the powers are used, with the ants and shrinking being used creatively and shot in a visually eye-catching way. The shrinking effect wonderfully conveys the scope of the environment, while the CGI is magnificent. There is a particular instance in the beginning, when CGI was used to de-age some characters, and it is unbelievable how realistic it looks. The movie makes sure to convey the size and space of everything in relation to the characters, making easy to understand who's doing what and where they're doing it.
The movie is pretty much it's own thing, making it so that you don't have to have seen the other Marvel movies/TV shows to enjoy it. There are some easter eggs and cameos, one of which is particularly cool, none of which interrupt the story or flow of the movie.
Overall, I'd recommend this movie to all that want a fun, funny, lighthearted flick. I found it to be refreshing and highly enjoyable and look forward to the sequel.