'Ant-Man' Is The Best Marvel Movie Since 'Guardians Of The Galaxy'

Ant-Man, starring Paul Rudd, is a little movie that packs in big laughs and big fun.

It’s better than Avengers: Age of Ultron—though that movie was a huge mess—and most of the accompanying Avengers solo movies.

I rank it neck and neck with Captain America: Winter Soldier, and a few paces behind The Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy, my favorite in the MCU. It blows away both Thor movies.

In other words, Ant-Man was a huge and pleasant surprise to me. I wasn’t expecting to like it so much.

Some spoilers follow, though nothing too major.



I will admit to a preference when it comes to Marvel films: I prefer the funnier ones. Guardians of the Galaxy, The Avengers, Ant-Man—all very funny movies. The exception to this would be Captain America: Winter Soldier, I suppose, which is at times quite dark and an all around excellent picture. But overall I enjoy the humor, adventure, and fun that defines the modern Marvel Cinematic Universe.

So I suppose it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Ant-Man was delightful. Paul Rudd is at his best as Scott Lang/Ant-Man. Michael Douglas is an endearing Hank Pym with a solid right hook. And Evangeline Lilly (of Lost and The Hobbit fame) is a tough, capable, and bitter Hope van Dyne who we hopefully see much more of in the next Ant-Man or a spin-off.

Corey Stoll (House of Cards) plays the villain Darren Cross, a mad scientist who invents the Yellowjacket suit—a hyper-weaponized version of Pym’s original Ant-Man suit. Cross is the prodigy gone bad; the sour genius whose pride and hunger for approval from his erstwhile mentor drive him to wickedness.



We begin the film as Lang says farewell to his prison buddies and tries to make a go of things in the real world. He was a Robin Hood of sorts in his former life, which landed him behind bars. The opening segments, in which we meet his ex-con pal Luis (played wonderfully by Michael Peña) and find out just how thorough the HR department at Baskin & Robbins is, really set the tone for the rest of the film. Lots of good laughs, and a very happy audience as we move on to the meat of the story.

I won’t go into great detail here. The trailers (as usual) have already set the stage beyond the level of propriety. Stoll is a bad guy who never heard uncle Ben’s sage advice: “With great power comes great responsibility.” Quite the contrary, and so Dr. Pym, his mentor, tasks Lang with the holy mission of cat-burgling the Yellowjacket suit.

The following antics are filled with great action and humor. There’s a bit of Mission Impossible in the heist bits. Lang’s gang (Luis, Kurt, and Dave) provide comic relief on top of what’s already a very funny film, giving a little room for Rudd, Lilly, and Douglas to play it straight(ish) at times.