Paul Rudd does not match up to the other Marvel superheroes Ant-Man
Director: Peyton Reed Starring: Michael Douglas, Paul Rudd Ant-Man is a midget Marvel film, a new superhero movie in which the protagonist’s most distinctive characteristic, at least when he is wearing his incredible shrinking man costume, is his ability to reduce himself to the size of a small insect.
After the portentousness of recent Avengers outings, it is refreshing to encounter an action- adventure with a Lilliputian lightness of touch. The downside, though, is that Ant-Man seems very insubstantial fare by comparison with Iron Man, Captain America et al.
The story here is by British writers Edgar Wright and Joe Cornish. Wright had originally been assigned to direct as well but stepped down from the project last year. Traces of the selfmocking humour found in Wright’s earlier films (Shaun Of The Dead, Hot Fuzz) remain but this is a film unsure of how seriously to take itself. At times, it is as if we are watching a fullblown spoof of the typical Marvel film but then AntMan will become strangely earnest. The filmmakers are clearly wary about thinking too small. This is a 3D summer blockbuster, after all, and there appears to be an obligation to throw in the usual bombastic special effects and action sequences alongside the Honey I Shrunk The Kids-style visual gags.
Rudd’s character Scott Lang (who eventually becomes Ant-Man) is as contradictory as the film itself. He has a masters in Electrical Engineering. There are continual references to some Robin Hood/Edward Snowden-like anti- corporate computer sabotage he committed and that landed him in San Quentin for three years.
Rudd plays Scott in engaging, laid-back fashion, even more tongue in cheek than Robert Downey Jr’s Iron Man. Much of the early part of the film shows him joshing around with his hapless friends from the criminal underworld (led by Michael Peña) who are trying to persuade him to take part in heists.
The film is aimed at a family audience. That means the violence is kept in check. In one tremendous scene early on, a villain zaps a colleague he doesn’t trust, thereby melting him down into a gooey puddle of blood and guts that he can then wipe away with a tissue. That, sadly, is as gory as it gets. The ants themselves aren’t given individual characteristics. They are impeccably hygienic, loyal little creatures who work like Trojans and can even be persuaded to put the sugar in your tea if you ask them nicely enough. (As Scott puts it, “they are kind of cute.”) We don’t see them getting squished. Nor do we encounter too many worms, cockroaches or slugs. The insect world as portrayed here is notably short on slime or larvae.
Midway through the movie, there is a prolonged passage in which Scott endures the equivalent of Ant-Man boot camp. He needs to learn how to use the suit and proboscis-like helmet and just what it takes to shrink himself down so he can fly through a keyhole. His mis-steps yield some enjoyable slapstick. We see him slamming into doors and continually being beaten up by Hope, who has become his personal trainer but punches and high kicks far harder than he does. The more hostile her behaviour toward him, the more ap- parent it becomes that they have a strong attraction to one another.
It is a pity to see an actor as capable as Bobby Cannavale (brilliant as mobster Gyp Rosetti in Boardwalk Empire) in such a thinly sketched role as the grumpy, dim-witted cop. Corey Stoll enjoys himself as a pantomime- style villain while Michael Douglas brings a sly humour to his role as the visionary scientist terrified his invention will fall in the wrong hands. Ant-Man, though, is more an horsd’oeuvre than a full meal - a slither of a film that Marvel is serving up while we wait for the real beef of the next proper, super-sized actionhero movie.