The film begins with Scott Lang being released from prison after serving a sentence for burglary. Finding he can't get a job due to being an ex-con, he soon turns back to crime and performs a job where he steals a mysterious suit from Dr. Hank Pym (Michael Douglas). After finding that the suit has the power to make him shrink in size, whilst increasing in density, Lang is hired by Pym to do a heist to steal a similar suit from Pym's extremely unstable former apprentice, Darren Cross. Evangeline Lily co-starts as Hank Pym's daughter, Hope.
Despite the doubt that I may have had regarding Rudd's casting, by the time we were 20 minutes in, all of them were pretty much dispelled. Much like last summer's Guardians of the Galaxy, Ant-Man thrives on a mixture of action, humour and genuine emotional moments. Rudd transitions easily between all of the above - going from comic relief to sentimental father-daughter mushiness. Thankfully there is not too much of the former. There are plenty of laughs packed in there and the contributions from "Hot Fuzz" director Edgar Wright are quite obvious in the humour. Yet Ant-Man still manages to take itself seriously and doesn't feel like too much of a joke.
On top of Rudd's great performance, it's brilliant to see Michael Douglas in something again. This seems to be his first big role in a popular genre film in years, and he's great in the role of Dr. Hank Pym. Pym is a character that definitely deserves some screen time in the cinematic universe, given that his role of creating Ultron has been effectively usurped by Tony Stark in the most recent avengers film. And speaking of avengers, this film is not lacking in them, with a cameo appearance from Falcon thrown into the mix. Both in the feature film, and one of the post credits sequences (Ant-Man has two of them - unlike Age of Ultron). As per the norm for Marvel, the effects are also wonderful. The scene where Scott first uses the Ant-Man suit is a real stand-out scene where effects are concerned, and the whole concept of a shrinking hero leaves room for a lot of interesting camerawork, especially in the aforementioned scene. There are quite a few really well used shots in the course of the film that are used to exploit the size differences - usually for a comedic effect. The most memorable being during the end battle between Ant-Man and Yellow Jacket (Darren Cross in his shrinking suit), where what seems like an epic battle to them, really boils down to them knocking over Thomas the Tank Engine.
Darren Cross (played by Corey Stoll) makes for a good antagonist. A clearly unstable business CEO messing with dangerous tech - I find him comparable to Guy Pierce's character from Iron Man 3. However, whilst the acting is great and he is by no means a bad villain - he doesn't make for a great one. Sometimes it feels almost as though the sense of threat is lacking from the film. So much focus is placed upon Scott building up to the final heist and the confrontation with Cross, and yet it's not until the climax of the film (when he equips the Yellowjacket suit) that Cross seems like a serious threat. The rest of the time he's just a bit of a psychotic creep. Also, it's well worth sitting through the whole credits. Not to give too much away, but that second post credits sequence is definitely linked to Civil War. I hope that's enough to excite you.
Great fun to watch, with plenty of action and humour. Ant-Man proves that good things really do come in small packages.
