And the award for the most surprisingly great movie so far this year goes to.... You guessed it! I mean, come on -- Ant-Man isn't exactly the one Marvel hero everyone looks back on with fondness or even lust. I don't know, maybe it's his size?
But this movie might have set itself up as one of the best Marvel Studios films yet. It takes kinetic humor straight from Guardians of the Galaxy, proper character development from Iron Man (2008), and introduces some stylized visuals unique unto itself. More importantly, it carefully maintains a difficult balance between proper drama and humor amidst all the action and sci-fi spectacle. We have lengthy scenes of fairly somber dialogue, usually delivered by none other than Michael Douglas. While some will undoubtedly groan at the apparent lack of action, I applaud a "superhero movie" for finally giving us some concrete and worthwhile character development. Rarely have I felt this kind of gravitas in a Marvel Studios film, even when their characters are dripping blood.
But the other big part of the movie that charms me is its sheer wit. Not only is this movie intensely concerned with the characters and their articulation -- a motif explored twice quite literally, with mad props to the director and Michael Pena for those delightful sequences of visualized voiceovers -- but if the narrative has a defining trope, it is a coming of age story. I mean, here we have a guy whose history is taking things that don't belong to him, which might be one of the first sins young children enact on the playground. He finds a mentor, develops a romantic interest, grows physically into his own, and takes on the playground bully. Along the way, he gains humility (the guy shrinks to the size of an ant, for crying out loud), bravery, and, most importantly, responsibility. He learns that his gosh-darn adorable daughter (whose career has suddenly exploded with this summer's The Whispers and now this) already thinks of him as a hero, and now it's up to him to become one, as I think his ex-wife advises at one point.
If this is all a little heady, that's probably why I liked this picture. It has other virtues, too, especially in its fast-paced humor. Paul Rudd plays his character as self-aware and uses humor in a far more sensible manner than, for example, Star Lord did in Guardians. This guy is down-to-earth, which is probably good, since his ant companions spend a lot of time down there. Director Peyton Reed, whose films up to now have been comedies, I believe, allows this film more dramatic weight without ever losing its bubbly energy, a tactic seen most clearly in the final fight scene. Loud, dramatic music plays as our hero and villain fight each other in sequences of complex visual effects, and then Reed pops in a music-less shot from farther away, and we can barely see our characters as we remember they are only the size of ants.
It's not a particularly original idea -- even the central conflict is recycled from Age of Ultron, wherein Corey Stoll's (House of Cards) villainous character seeks an all-powerful police force of sorts -- and it's by no means the most action-packed movie this summer. But a lot can be said for a film with simple goals that is produced with an eye for excellence. A lot can also be said for a superhero film (a genre dominated by white, straight American men) that concerns itself more with family than with hetero-romantic flings, more with friendship and trust across ethnic lines than with suspicion and antagonism of other ethnic groups, and more with the rising power of women along with men than with woman as office workers and sexual objects. So bravo, Ant-Man. Let's do it again soon.
PS: The fight between Falcon and Ant-Man is possibly one of the best scenes yet in the franchise. I hope we can look forward to more of these low-stakes scuffles between our scrappy Avengers. But seeing as the next big film is subtitled Civil War, I have my doubts.
IMDb: Ant-Man
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