Ant-Man

I was not looking forward to this film. I know, I know, is there any film I was looking forward to? Anyway, I was not looking forward to this film. A superhero that can shrink to the size of an ant sounded like an incredibly lame film. Especially considering that there are more interesting superheroes out there that are still waiting for their moment to shine.

Scott Lang is finally free from prison after three years for burglary. He has a daughter and wants to be straight edge for her. Due to his imprisonment, it's hard for him to find a job. As long as he has no apartment and no way to pay his child support, he cannot see his daughter. Desperate for money he turns to his friends for help. They tell him a rich man who is out of town and has a promising safe in the house. The safe holds nothing but the suit and the rich man is none other than Hank Pym, the original ant-man, who planned the break in all along. Out of options, Scott agrees to help Hank.

Hank was the original ant-man, but stopped after personal tragedy. One of the people he used to mentor, Darren Cross, is fascinated with the shrinking technology and since Hank won't share his secrets, Cross decides to figure out how to make his own suit. He is close to discovering it and he cannot be trusted since he is doing it recklessly and for profit. Scott must steal the yellow jacket suit in order to foil his plans.

Hank and his daughter Hope train Scott for this mission and when he is ready they put the plan into place.

Despite my reservations about the film, I ended up enjoying it. I thought it had its witty moments and I enjoyed seeing Scott change sizes in order to fight. I also enjoyed the ants. I found them quite cute and I promise not to step on them anymore. At least as long as they stop invading my house.

I will say some of the characters were one dimensional such as Darren Cross and Paxton. The actors did well with what they were given and it wasn't much which is a shame. I had the pleasure of seeing Corey Stoll in a staged reading over the summer in Williamstown. He was brilliant and I think had he been given more to work with, his villainous yellow jacket would have been cooler. Not Loki cool. No one will ever be that cool, but cool at least. I can't complain and say that he's the lamest villain I've seen because he's not, but he had no story arc.

I may not have wanted to see this film, but I'm glad I did. It was funny and there were some cool action sequences. If anything it was all worth it because of Michael Pena. He was hilarious and he's also a great actor. I hope we can definitely see more of him in future films.