Ant-Man - Film Review
Getting the formula right
Welcome, Ant-Man, to a long list of formulaic superhero origin stories. It gets to sit alongside other Marvel staples such as Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk. It often felt like this was a film I'd seen before.
First off, this is mostly a heist film featuring superheroes. That's the element that stands this apart from the crowd, but the film can't help but surrender to the gravitational pull of its genre.
With that familiar comedic approach to contrast our more serious offerings in today's box office, Ant-Man casts Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) as a down on his luck man looking for something, but instead of looking deeper simply continues to revert back to his old ways. Then an opportunity is offered to him by a man who chose him out of all of the people in the entire country, because, as we learn, Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) sees a lot of himself in Scott. It's a pretty thin line.
The film plays the father/daughter parallels with a subtle touch, though it doesn't fail to spell it out for us in a deep and meaningful between the mentor and pupil of the film. Evangeline Lilly (Lost, The Hobbit Trilogy) puts in a solid performance as the not-so-subtly named Hope, Pym's complex daughter with a background worthy of where her character is sure to go.
Indeed, Scott often feels like an intruder in a very heavy family affair, and the film manages to balance tragedy with light-heartedness with an ease and grace. Pym has solid reasons for not putting the suit on himself, so too for not allowing his daughter to do the same.
Pym's integration into Scott's life is the result of one of the films standout scenes, during which Scott breaks into his house to steal a heap of cash from a safe vault. This is where the films humour, mingled with action, peaks, a benchmark it replicates a handful of times throughout.
But, complete with training montage, this is your standard superhero fare. And no semi-comedy would be complete without its comic relief characters, a trio of misfits who really spend more time annoying you than conjuring a good laugh. At times, though, it's the less forced moments of humour that are genuinely funny, and Paul Rudd in the lead delivers some solid acting to match a fairly commendable script. The dialogue falls flat only when it forces itself to be funny. And that's never funny.
One of my favourite moments was a cameo by Roger Sterling in the opening scene. I'm aware that's a character from Mad Men, and not his real name. But whatever, it was an awesome moment.
It wasn't all doom and gloom (the film makes that clear). The emotional thread that needs to keep any superhero grounded so that we actually care is solid, if not exactly original. There's not a lot more to be squeezed out of the genre, to be fair.
The special effects are the standout here. It's a bizarre but enjoyable experience to watch our bite-sized hero take on the enormity of the world around him. We're put into the shoes of the insects we trample on everyday, and despite the frantic pace at which we bounce and topple through the world with Ant-Man, it never becomes jarring.
As the film goes on, it becomes less frantic and a lot smoother, cleverly easing us into the role at the same time as Scott is. The insects are much less cringe-worthy than I'd have expected, and that's a flaw. The ants and the spiders and whatever else was there all looked like robots rather than the hairy, disgusting creatures we know they are. Guess the film still needed to cater to children who might get a little freaked out.
We come to a climax that doesn't feel much like a climax, maybe because we've seen it all before. The hero fights a bigger version of himself? Tick. The bad guy is bald and power hungry? Tick. The hero has a dire situation which he can't possibly make it out of, only for him to be victorious? Tick. The audience's collective breath held as we wait to see if the hero makes it? Cross. We've seen it before. We know what's going to happen. There will be sequels. He'll appear in the next Avengers movie. Whatever.
It often feels like superhero movies are strangling the industry, forcing it to pump out generic products with different packaging because it's a money-making machine. It's not quite that depressing, because Ant-Man, for all of its genre's restrictive presence, is an enjoyable film with solid ties to the franchise that will please fans. Its heightened logic provides some fantastic scenes, and the acting for the most part is solid. Ant-Man will have a sequel. And that sequel might just get an opportunity to break from the mold. It won't be an origin story, which is a win.
Review taken from Burst Culture. For more reviews, follow the link - http://burstculture.com/
