[6]

Paul Rudd stars as one of Marvel’s new feature film superheroes, a man who can shrink to miniature proportions with the help of a special suit. Michael Douglas shares a huge amount of screen time as the suit’s inventor. Together with his estranged daughter (Evangeline Lilly), they train Rudd’s character how to use the suit and control a variety of different ants to help him achieve his missions. Corey Stoll plays the corporate bad guy who wants to steal the suit. Oh, and Rudd’s motivation for being Douglas’ guinea pig is so that he can be the hero his daughter needs. Because Rudd is a whistleblowing computer hack who just got out of prison and has no visitation rights to see his daughter.

Overall, this is like all the other superhero movies in its story structure — pretty paint-by-numbers. But I liked Ant-Man because I like Paul Rudd and Michael Douglas, and their characters are decently written. The action scenes are also better executed than most other superhero movies these days, so kudos to Peyton Reed or whoever storyboarded/previzzed those for us. What I don’t like about Ant-Man is that Ant-Man isn’t the star. He’s part of the ensemble. Normally, that’s ok. But since this is his origin story, I’d like the film to have centered on him more. I think the film could have been funnier, quirkier, and more engaging if Rudd had more screen time and was given more license to ‘let go’. I think they let him do this more in Captain America: Civil War.

I also have icky feelings about the whole ‘no visitation rights/dead-beat daddy’ backstory. The film walks a fine line in trying to portray Rudd’s character as a criminal, but also as a loving father. The result is that he comes off as a castrated yes-man in patronizing scenes with his ex-wife, daughter, and her new step-dad. No man would ever act this way — it’s not realistic. It reminded me of the castrated yes-man Sandra Bullock took home in The Blind Side. It may be narratively convenient to make these character docile, but in real life, characters like these have very good reason to be upset and angry. The fact that Rudd’s character’s ex-wife won’t let him even see his daughter until he has a job and pays child support rubbed me the wrong way. The guy just got out of prison and can’t get a job due to the permanent mark on his record (he tries hiding his record, but gets fired from a Baskin-Robbins after they find out about it). Ant-Man’s supposed to be a light, fluffy summer movie, and maybe should have stayed away from issues like fathers’ rights and the perpetual doom suffered by men who are ever unfortunate enough to be tagged by the criminal justice system.

But the visuals were neat whenever he got real tiny.