"Ant-Man"

What if you take the origin story of Iron Man, mix in a dash of Captain America: The First Avenger, pepper in the guy from Wall Street, bake it at 350 for an hour and serve it with the brother from Clueless? You get Ant-Man.

Newly released convict Scott Lang would do anything to see his daughter, including steal to most advanced suit ever created. Then this already barely exciting heist becomes even less exciting when Hank Pym, creator of the Ant-Man suit, allowed Scott to steal it in the first place, completely riding on the chance that Scott would even steal it at all. Hank offers him a chance to become the Ant-Man and be the hero his daughter thinks he is. Having to deal with the cop boyfriend kicking him out of the birthday party, Scott accepts the chance.

Scott spends the movie learning how to shrink and grow, martial arts, and communicating to ants. The ants play a vital role throughout the film. They presented the suit to Scott while he was in jail, they helped him infiltrate the Avengers’ storage facility, and they helped deploy charges to take down Pym Tech. This is all important because back in 1989, when thoughts were short and hair was long, S.H.I.E.L.D. was attempting to recreate Pym’s technology, causing Pym to leave S.H.I.E.L.D. and set up shop in San Francisco. He picked Obadiah Stane, Jr. as his assistant, who decides to Steve Jobs his ass when Pym refused to spill the secrets of the Ant-Man tech.

When Obie Junior unveiled his own technology, dubbed the Yellowjacket, Scott is in the middle of the third most infuriating Ocean’s Eleven plan, taking down the Yellowjacket the same way Iron Man took out Obadiah, only Maggie didn’t fry him.

The special effects were good but the action was lackluster. The biggest action was blowing up a Thomas the tank engine toy and crushing a house with it. The rest was a just a slapping b*tch fest, and no one won.

I was a little disappointed that Michael Peña was in a role this silly. Makes you respect Ocean and his Eleven even more. And T.I. probably took his role because nobody said T.I. aloud in ten years. Bobby from Third Watch has been losing his charm the last few years as playing crappy bad guys in crappier movies. He wasn’t the bad guy in this movie, but I didn’t like him anyway, even when he helps Scott stay out of jail. The Russian guy was the only relatable character in this movie. Sam Wilson was also only in this movie to help you remember who he is. In fact, that reminds me of how they almost botched the plan not because of Scott introducing himself to Falcon, but because Hank Pym brooded so hard he didn’t keep tabs on a 25-year-old warehouse being upgraded.

Another thing that should be mentioned: Hank and the ants. How does Hank even know about Scott? Sure, he saw him in the paper and he did a background check, but what made him think he could take on a cat burglar to be his minion? Do the ants like having Gordon Gekko as their master? Do they like Josh Lucas? There’s got to be at least one or two ants that want to venture out on their own. Also, the last time we saw this many bugs crawling around Indiana Jones was involved and they tried to eat him.

Oh, let’s not forget about the love interest. A recycled plot borrowed from The Incredible Hulk, Hank’s daughter plays the bug, pun intended and keeping tabs on Obie’s rise to power. She and Scott have no chemistry that we know of and I got to side with Hank on this. Shoot me again. They talked once in the car and the rest is in the kickboxing montage.

The end credits scenes show a hint at potential sequel and Hank finally letting his daughter be a hero like her mother. The other looked like a deleted scene from the upcoming Civil War. It was incoherent.

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Released On: July 17, 2015
Rating: PG-13
Stars: Paul Rudd, Michael Douglas, Evangeline Lily, Corey Stoll
Director: Peyton Reed Rotten Tomatoes Score: 82% Certified Fresh
IMDb Score: 7.3/10

Awards
Saturn Awards

• Best Comic-to-Film Motion Picture - Winner
• Best Supporting Actor Michael Douglas - Nominated
• Best Supporting Actress Evangeline Lily - Nominated
• Best Actor Paul Rudd - Nominated
• Best Film Director Peyton Reed - Nominated
• Best Film Editing Dan Lebental & Colby Parker, Jr. - Nominated

(Click here to view more awards for "Ant-Man".)

Videos
How It Should Have Ended - How Ant-Man Should Have Ended
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CinemaSins - Everything Wrong With Ant-Man in 19 Minutes or Less