Ant-Man Review

      

Being a big comic book fan and being a big film fan often conflicts with how to look at a film. Watching superheroes you’ve read in the cells of the page for years is such a monumentally exciting experience, and no one in Hollywood is doing it better than Marvel studios. However that comic fandom has got be separated from watching a film on its own terms and as massively enjoyable as Marvel films are they have in the past become a little formulaic. How brilliant it is then that Marvel has managed to make such a spirited and individual film that fits into the Marvel universe yet doesn’t seem compromised. Ant Man’s greatest strength is its sense of old fashioned wonder, the massive world it creates when Ant Man shrinks is brilliant, and it uses this sense of 50s nostalgia to create a brilliant comic tone that feels so individual to the film and not restrained to the MCU. The nature of Ant Mans powers also lead to some incredibly inventive fight sequences and set pieces, whereas most MCU outings have the predictable finale of an aerial threat to a populated city, Ant Mans finale takes place in a little girls room on her train set and it’s brilliant. Credit has to be given to director Peyton Reed that he manages to impose his style on the film, this is most notable in the tip off montages which feature the hilarious Michael Pena, its touches like this that make the film feel so individual. Then we come to Ant Mans greatest strength which is its leading man Paul Rudd. You’d be hard pressed to find any soul on this earth who doesn’t like Paul Rudd, and he brings something entirely different to this Marvel universe, as you’d expect he’s incredibly charismatic and funny, more so than Chris Pratt or Robert Downey Jr, but more interesting than them is he feels like an everyman, yes the scenes with his family are probably the least convincing aspect of the film, but he feels like someone who fans can actually see aspects of themselves in. The only Marvel trapping the film seems to fall into is its unconvincing villain, Corey Stoll gives a quite good performance but the film doesn’t go to great lengths to explain his transition to a supervillain. That is however a minor drawback in what is Marvel’s best film to date. (5 Stars)