Even though it's been number one at the box office for two weeks, there's been a bit of skepticism regarding the latest Marvel Movie: Ant-Man. That might be understandable – Unlike the top tier Marvel characters like Iron Man Captain America or Thor, Ant-Man may be known only to real comic book aficionados. As a result this movie has been waging a war between perception and reality since before it even had a trailer! So here's the breakdown for this summer's most unlikely hit.
The Perception:
From the first announcement of the project nearly 10 years ago, the Ant-Man movie has been met with nothing short of derision. Even with talented director Edgar Wright at the helm for many of those years, there was doubt as to whether this movie would ever come to pass...with the perceived likelihood of ending up a tax write off/ or worse yet a box office bomb for Marvel Studios. From a pop culture stand point this reasoning was understandable as :
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He's not well known – Marvel comics has thousands of impressive characters with even more “impressive” powers. Yet Ant Man was a founding member of the Avengers in the Comics, even though it took almost 10 years for him to arrive in the Marvel cinematic Universe. As far as the general public is concerned he has nothing to do with the Avengers – so why bother with him now? What could he possibly bring to the team that someone like Hawkeye can't do? This leads us to the second perception:
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His Under Estimated skill set – As far as the general populace knows, he turns small and talks to ants – which seems to be utterly useless. Maybe they think the whole movie is going to be a version of Honey I shrunk the kids, where we spend two hours watching him avoid being eaten by a house cat while trying to get large again...? It's true, he does shrink and talk to ants, but at his shrunken stature he's as strong as a full size Captain America. And for spoilers sake I won't mention what he does with the ants he talks to... suffice it to say they are more handy than one might think. Still, despite all that I understand the skepticism still because…
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How many times have we seen People get shrunken down in size in movies and TV? Usually it's to save a dying or sick patient, by having some sort of Body Adventure; making our way through the various organs and systems of the body to find/destroy the virus or whatever before time runs out? Thankfully none of that happens in Ant-Man either. The fact of the matter is this:
It was REALLY GOOD.
The REALITY
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It was fun AND funny. -Look , I laughed out loud at least 3 or 4 times, Paul Rudd is known to be a charming dude and he makes you take this movie seriously even though his character doesn't... There are a number of great gags that have the best set ups and payoffs through out the film.The Best comedy surprises you and this film was chock full of humorous surprises. That's no easy feat. Still, even though he delivers the Paul Rudd humor you've come to expect, Michael Pena was also key in terms of making this an enjoyable time at the movies. Why? Because even though Paul Rudd did his thing -
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Michael Pena stole the show – Seriously, every scene this guy was in either made you laugh or smile...that's Hollywood magic essentially. Ironically, when he started shooting he only had four or five lines of dialogue.... and NO experience doing comedy whatsoever. But if you've seen him in his other movies, you know he delivers great, dimensional performances; where you can't help but care about the character he's playing...His performance in Ant-Man was no exception, and he creates a character that not only has a certain type of intelligence but is also humorously idiosyncratic. This guy makes the movie fun in the first 5 minutes alone. However, that doesn't mean everyone else was dragging their feet... In fact all of the supporting cast gives this movie added dimension, and as a result:
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Everyone has a Character Arc – by the end of the movie nearly everyone changes in some manner shape or form. Relationships shift. Goal and motivations are mutable and expanding. Basically it did what a film/story is supposed to do. Obviously I can't make examples without going into spoiler territory, but I will say that even some of the damn ants had character arcs. Now that's thorough. So thorough in fact that :
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The Villain was a credible threat – I've gone on a rant before about Marvel and some of their lackluster villains... so I'll spare you the tirade for now. Suffice it to say, the villain has a: motivation, a moral flaw, an emotional tie to the protagonist, and a pretty bad attitude... So yeah, He's no Heath Ledger but... he was definitely entertaining.
Long story short (oops) – Ant-Man deserves your attention. Better yet, YOU deserve to have FUN at the movies...The budget and scope of the movie may be smaller but the fun you'll have will be huge! So go see Ant-Man already, and save enough space in your gullet for a few good laughs!