Ant-Man is Marvel’s riskiest bet yet, if you don’t count Guardians of the Galaxy. And if can be as half as good as Guardians turned out to be, the studio would be very pleased.
Judging by the first reviews, it seems like Ant-Man is a tiny dose of fun, like its superhero itself. Lead actor and funnyman Paul Rudd seems to have handled his first superhero well, with his boy-next-door charm and humor being almost universally lauded.
The problem with Ant-Man lies elsewhere. It is the rather hackneyed script dragging the movie down, with the fun picking up only during the film’s third act, culminating in a final action set piece that is as jaw-dropping as any of the Avengers’ sprawling scenes, albeit in a much smaller scale.
Ant-Man currently stands at 72% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes with a total of 39 votes. On Metacritic, which assigns a weighted percentage, it stands at 66%, also positive, with 14 votes. Ratings for new movies have a tendency to start high and then taper down with time on IMDb, so take the current 8/10 with 2,668 votes with a pinch of salt.
Here’s what some of our favorite writers have to say about Ant-Man:
Todd McCarthy of The Hollywood Reporter gave the film a mixed review: “Having an actor of Douglas’ caliber on board lends the film some gravitas to balance the humor, but it’s the comedy that prevails in a project that is, in a historical sense, integral to the Marvel map of the world but also seems rather on the margins of it.”
Justin Chang at Variety appreciates the films smaller sense of scale, compared to some of Marvel’s other offering: “The refreshingly (and literally) down-to-earth scale of Ant-Man is largely a factor of Rudd’s charming performance as the nicest, most boy-next-door cat burglar imaginable — a most unlikely superhero who, despite his newfound abilities and washboard abs, refuses to take himself or his endeavors too seriously.”
On the other hand, Alonso Duralde at The Wrap was unimpressed, saying “The jokes don’t land and the thrills don’t thrill in this shrinky-dink superhero saga.”
Empire’s Kim Newman writes: “Ant-Man is a cut-and-shut muddle, haunted by a ghost, produced by a high-end hot dog factory, by turns giddying and stupefying. Watching it is like channel-surfing between Hot Fuzz, a duff early 90s Michael Douglas drama and the very schlockiest bits of Interstellar.”
Finally, from across the pond, Catherine Shoard, writing for The Guardian, says: “Disappointingly, but perhaps inevitably, Reed never makes the movie his own; much of Ant-Man plays like Reed is just trying to make sense of the notes Wright left behind. (The script is credited to Wright, Joe Cornish, Rudd, and Anchorman director Adam McKay.) And while there are some inspired moments to be found, overall the film is slapped-together; not bad, certainly, but rushed and inarticulate.”
So, there you have it. Ant-Man is an intermittently funny and refreshing superhero movie, but it is not one of Marvel’s best efforts. Still, are you excited to be seeing the superhero with one of the dumbest powers ever conceived on the big screen this weekend? Let us know in the comments.
