I saw Ant-Man on its opening day – who have I become? Thoughts under the cut!

SPOILERS!

From the very beginning, I thought, based on its title alone, that Ant-Man was going to be ridiculous. I mean Ant-Man, really? Ant-Man? Take Spiderman – okay, spiders are scary so he sounds a little threatening. Batman, bats are creepy and mysterious? But ants? Really? Ants aren’t scary! Okay so there are those ants that can destroy everything! – I saw it on an episode of MacGyver. You can argue that superheroes aren’t meant to appear scary, creepy or mysterious – but they are to the baddies. I mean, no bad guy would fear Kittenman – maybe unless they were allergic – but there should be some degree of fear all the same.

There are many ways someone can become a superhero. Be from another planet like Superman, be bit by a spider like Spiderman, have money for gadgets like Batman, Ironman etc. In Ant-Man, his “powers” come from the suit. I’m not going to go into the logistics of how he does what he does – but basically, he can shrink to the size of an ant which gives him superhuman strength. As well as this, he can control ants with his mind (sounds lamer than it actually is).

I went into this movie not knowing anything about it except that I have a small (okay large) crush on Paul Rudd.

There are many positives in the movie:

• Paul Rudd, as always, is charming.
• The action scenes are good. I especially like the fight scene on the child’s train set. The shrinking moves are actually quite awesome.
• Ant-Man also has humour – this is especially strong from the performance of Luis (played by Michael Peña).
• Michael Douglas does good as the ex-Ant-Man.
• The ending, although predictable, is good, as is the gadgets involved.
• The connection to the Avengers was good – as is the cameo (who I didn’t know but the audience roared).
• Abby Ryder Fortson is an adorable little actress.
• The bad guy I also liked – but the poor little lamb.

The cons:

• The middle dags a little … when you’re just wanting to get to the big action scenes but there’s a lot of exposition that goes on. Granted it’s necessary but I just wanted to see some cool action stuff. I’m not talking about the training montage either.
• The movie could have done without Evangeline Lilly – I’ve never been a fan, but she should have been the evil villianess she was meant to be – although you can see she has a little something something going on.
• The movie also very much reminded me of the movie Honey, I Shrunk The Kids (which I love!) except with fight scenes. Paul’s relationship with his ant Antony is very reminiscent of Honey, as is his death. RIP Antony. I was interested to learn that an earlier draft of the script was passed on because of its similarities to the movie.

All up, I liked it. I’m not a fan of Superhero movies. I never have been and I never will be. But I’m not the target audience, and that’s okay. I liked it more than I thought I would and I would recommend people see it – if you’re into this kind of thing.