THE Ant-Man character has been around in the Marvel comic book since 1962. Unfortunately, Marvel Studio with its counterparts from Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures waited for 11 movies from the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) before giving the shrinking hero its first movie break.
A huge leap or in this case shrink backwards for some comic book fans; since Ant-man’s character has been synonymous with the Avengers since [far from what most people know] the original Ant-Man known, as Doctor Henry “Hank” Pym is one of the founding members of Avengers and the scientist who originally created Ultron.
The movie gives it own twist and timeline to how the hero is related to the Avengers. They started the movie with Pym played by Michael Douglas leaving SHIELD in 1989 after he declined to share his knowledge and “Pym Particle” or shrinking serum.
Along the movie line, it is also suggested that during the 1960’s cold war era, Ant-Man was an agent of SHEILD together with his wife Janet van Dyne, another shrinking hero with wings known as the Wasp. A totally different take from what it has been offered in the comic books even in the other alternative dimensions.
When the character of Scott Lang played by Paul Rudd the movie started to show off a witty side and sometimes-cheesy comedic tone, which was borrowed from the success of Guardian’s of the Galaxy. The humor gave its audience moments to smile and laugh yet at times pushed too hard casting a shadow above the main theme.
The script was made around Scott Lang’s world, a reluctant hero who wants to rebuild his father-daughter relationship in exchange for saving the world as the new Ant-Man after Pym offered him the job utilizing his skill as a would-be cat burglar.
The antagonist in the movie is another scientist known as Darren Cross (Corey Stoll) who worked with Pym in the past and started his own work to replicate the Pym Particle who later created Yellow Jacket. Again, a far jump from the comic since Yellow Jacket is another alter ego of Pym from a different timeline.
The 12th movie from the MCU, Ant-Man was worth the wait. If you are looking for an award winning storyline and script well this movie is not for you, but if you want to just relax, sit back and enjoy a good moment, well, the film will surely entertain you.
For me, its mellow dramatic father-daughter dilemma between the characters topped with humor rich blend and shrinking thrill ride adventure was successful enough to capture the smiles of its audience. Although it was not as successfully crafted, as its other Marvel movie counterpart, it did make its mark. Telling you that size doesn't matter but humor does.
Spoiler Alert: Another twist in the movie shown after the end credits, Pym’s estranged daughter, Hope van Dyne [love interest of Lang] will soon follow in her mother and father’s heroic accolades as the new Wasp.
Well, can’t wait to see how Ant-Man and Wasp will follow off with the upcoming Captain America: Civil War movie.