Summer Movie Musings: Ant-Man
This past weekend, I saw the new Marvel movie Ant-Man with a group of friends. It's been an anticipated movie for me since it continues the long, positive streak of films and television shows in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). While the trailers had me a bit worried, there was a lot of good buzz going in ahead of Ant-Man's release and the movie lives up to it's Marvel pedigree. It's a lot of fun and further builds upon the established MCU in some very cool ways.
The story surrounds Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) and his redemption through his origins as the classic Marvel hero Ant-Man. Hank Pym (Michael Douglas), who created the Ant-Man suit decades earlier, needs Scott to use the suit to stop the evil plots of Darren Cross (Corey Stoll), his former assistant who has been obsessed with recreating Pym's work. With the help of Hope Van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly), Scott devises a plan to break in and destroy Cross's work for good.
This film is another fun, light-hearted entry in the MCU. It is most like Guardians of the Galaxy, which also has a very different tone and vibe to it. Ant-Man is a heist movie (for the most part) much like GotG is a sci-fi, space-faring epic. None of the other Marvel movies really come close to embodying the unique feel of Ant-Man. What they do all have in common is the fun, humor, and increasingly rich universe they all share. They put Hank Pym into the history of the MCU properly and set up new characters too.
I really enjoyed Ant-Man and I hope people will check it out, especially if you're a fan of the MCU.