★ ★ ½ ☆ ☆
Early positive buzz for Marvel’s latest offering raised high
hopes that Ant-Man would be this year’s
Guardians of the Galaxy: a diamond in
the rough, a unique and unexpected gem that used wit and charm to become a surprise
hit. This seemed a lot to expect of a film with such a troubled history: Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz writer/director Edgar Wright
had been working on the project for years when ‘creative differences’ with
Marvel led to his departure and a new script co-written by leading man Paul
Rudd was cobbled together using both old and new material. But let’s face it;
no-one expected a film featuring a talking tree and a gun-loving raccoon to be
a hit, so how hard could it be for Ant-Man
to land a similar blow?
Answer: very. Ant-Man
is the first Marvel film to be enveloped by the law of diminishing returns; a
chink in the otherwise mostly unblemished armour. In fact, if it weren’t for
certain unique stylistic choices cropping up every once in a while, the film
would just be another run-of-the-mill action movie rolling off the Hollywood
production line.
The plot itself follows con-man Scott Lang (Rudd), estranged
from his daughter and down-on-his-luck after finishing his parole. Lang is
hired by tech-savvy entrepreneur Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) to steal a
revolutionary but weaponised suit with the ability to shrink in scale from
greedy company chairman Darren Cross (Corey Stoll). Aided by Pym’s daughter
Hope (Evangeline Lily) and a super-suit of his own, Lang sets out to perform
the most daring heist in history and become a hero to his daughter in the
process.
What audiences usually expect of Marvel is interesting and
enjoyable comic book characters brought to life: sure, the action might be a
bit lacklustre in places (see Age of
Ultron and Thor: The Dark World),
but the writing is often engrossing enough for us to overlook this and simply
enjoy spending time with our heroes. Ant-Man
has the opposite problem: the character development might take up a large
portion of the film even when it feels rushed and throwaway, whilst the
zip-zang-boom action sequences are handled with expert finesse. The constant
switching scales is a unique and immersive way to break the usual linear flow (read:
man punches man until one falls over) of bombastic brawls and – were I a bigger
fan of the film in general – I would even stretch to seeing how they looked in
3D.
But it’s not enough to just throw some spectacle in our
faces and expect the applause to follow unless we care enough about the people
involved. Paul Rudd is perfectly reliable and delivers the punchlines with his
usual panache, but Stoll’s villain is the boring, embittered cliché we’ve all
seen hundreds of times before. Michael Douglas (like Stanely Tucci and Robert
Redford in their respective Captain
America appearances) offers a degree of exterior experience to the
character scenes, but Evangeline Lily is served very poorly with minimal
dialogue and an arc that requires her to stand around frowning for 90% of the
picture, though Michael Peña as the comic relief lightens the tone
whenever he’s given room to breathe.
In fact, the humour in general is more reliable than the
wobbly narrative structure, especially during the small-scale sequences (for those
worried that the Thomas the Tank Engine gag was spoiled in the trailer, you ain’t
seen nothing yet). The self-deprecating humour and flashy editing – plus a
small set-piece lifted almost shot-for-shot from the original demo reel – demonstrate
glimpses of Edgar Wright’s vision fighting to escape, but – much like the
titular hero – they’ve been shrunk to ant-size.
