Genre: Adventure/ Science Fiction
Director: Peyton Reed
Cast: Paul Rudd, Michael Douglas, Corey Stall, Evangeline Lily
Bottomline: Part fun, part froth, Ant-man fails to soar beyond its central conceit.
Superhero is supposed to be big and brawny but what if he shrinks to save the day. Well, Peyton Reed invokes every trick from Marvel universe to create one more sleek but light adventure and once again the costume outshines the screenplay.
Engineer- turned-conman Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) is on his one last job to pay his daughter’s child support! If the tone sounds familiar, it is supposed to. The difference, if any, is both the hero and the villain are thinking in terms of nanotechnology to outmanoeuvre each other. Lang is engaged by an aging scientist Pym (Michael Douglas) who wants Lang to infiltrate into his old company as Ant-Man as the new CEO (Corey Stoll) is planning to devise his own version of a shrinking suit called Yellow Jacket to create global chaos.
The film is saved from shrinking to absolute silliness by Paul Rudd who retains his unassuming charm while embracing the smaller-than-life plot! Rudd is one of those actors whom we expect to see in a spandex costume but he doesn’t disappoint.
And Reed has given him enough opportunity to make fun of the situation. Unlike other Marvel superheroes, Reed has crafted Ant-Man as more goofy and self-deprecatory. One of its biggest action sequences is set in a little girl’s bedroom with pink walls. As Lang whizzes past the drain and gets into the groove of the LP, there are plenty of ‘Antony’ moments. However, for how long you can get astonished by Lang avoiding a big foot or his miraculous jump through a key hole. There comes a time when you want somebody to cut him to size.
Michael Douglas lends a helping hand as Pym, the inventor and a former Ant-Man to keep the suspension of disbelief going. So is Evangeline Lily who doesn’t get reduced to an eye candy. Stoll is suitably cheesy as the villain of the piece and Michael Pena as the comic relief is hilarious in a couple of scenes. But as the tone gets uneven with the father and daughter melodrama eating up a lot of screen time, the plot holes start getting magnified.
