• March 3, 2018
• Leave a Comment on REVIEW: Ant-Man (Road to Infinity War)
• Comic Books, Disney, Entertainment, Film, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Marvel Comics, Marvel Studios, Papi Chulo RADIO, Pop Culture, Reviews, Road to Infinity War, Spoilers
• Ant-Man, MCU, Road to Infinity War

REVIEW: Ant-Man (Road to Infinity War)

Alright, let us continue The Papi Chulo RADIO Road to Infinity War (RTIW for short) review event with the twelfth movie in the lineup, Ant-Man.

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After Avengers: Age of Ultron comes another film about a superhero that is mostly unknown. Well, can Ant-Man be like Guardians of the Galaxy or will this film be Marvel’s first flop?

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Before we get into it, it should be said that there will be spoilers if you haven’t seen it yet (Although since it’s 3 years old, you should have seen it already).

The story is another origin story but it’s also a heist film as well. We open up with a flashback to 1989 where Hank Pym (Michael Douglas), meets with Howard Stark (John Slattery) and Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell). The board of Pym Industries votes to kick Pym off and this causes him a lot of anger. We then flash forward to present day where we meet Scott Lang (Paul Rudd), is being released from prison. His friend Luis (Michael Pena), is there to pick him up from prison and take him back to his apartment. Scott along the ride talks about how he has a degree in engineering and wants to use it to find a job but ends up in a Baskin Robins. While at work, Scott is called into the back by his manager and he is then fired when the manager learns who he really is. When Scott comes home, Luis introduces him to his friends Kurt (David Dastmalchian) and Dale (Tip “T.I” Harris). Luis tries to interest Scott in a job but declines because he wants to remain on the straight path. After this, he visits his daughter for her birthday party at his ex-wife’s house. While there, he sees Maggie (Judy Greer) and meets her new boyfriend Paxton (Bobby Cannavale). While there Scott talks to both Paxton and Maggie and they both shun him and forbid him from seeing his daughter. Taking this to heart, Scott goes back home and asks Luis on the details for the job. We learn that the heist involves breaking into Hank Pym’s house to steal something from his vault. When Scott breaks into the vault, he only finds a suit, the Ant-Man suit. He takes the suit and flees the scene. Later on, he tries the suit on and discovers what it can do and then Hank talks to him over comms and shows Scott what he can do with the suit (It involves being small and Ants). Later, he wakes up in Pym’s house and meets his daughter Hope (Evangeline Lilly), and they inform Scott on what is happening and why he has the suit and that they need him for what is coming. We then see that Pym’s company is being transformed into Cross Industries lead by Darren Cross (Corey Stoll). When Pym left his company, he took a substance called Pym Particles with him and Cross has been trying to replicate his formula ever since. This causes Pym great fear because he doesn’t want it falling into the wrong hands and we later find out that Cross is working on an Ant-Man suit of his own called the YellowJacket. He wants to create the Yellowjacket suit so that he can sell it to the highest bidder. This new info causes Pym and Hope to speed up Scott’s training on how to use the suit and we get a montage of him learning. Later on, we see Cross finally is able to create his own Pym Particle formula and is going to sell it to HYDRA. This leads to one final mission that leads to Scott going to the new Avengers base where he fights with Falcon (Anthony Mackie), in order to obtain a device that will help with the big heist. The rest of the film is spent on that big heist, which is breaking into Pym Industries in order to steal the Yellowjacket suit and when that plan fails, all hell breaks loose. When Cross tries to escape with the suit, the Pym building is imploded, destroying all of Cross’s work. This causes Cross to go mad and leads to a big epic battle between Ant-Man and the Yellowjacket. They fight each other until they are separated by Paxton who tries to arrest Scott but when he gets a 911 call from his house, he goes to investigate when Scott escapes his handcuffs and fights Yellowjacket. Scott destroys the Yellowjacket suit and kills Cross by going subatomic Shrinking smaller than reality). Scott is able to escape and come back to regular size and get’s his happy ending.

Ant-Man is basically an Origin-Heist film. It’s fun and entertaining to watch the heists unfold and Scott Lang is a Thief/Hero that is so likeable that you will route for him, even when he is doing wrong.

The acting in this movie is amazing. Paul Rudd absolutely kills it as Ant-Man, Michael Douglas is also great as Hank Pym. Michael Pena is also a barrel of laughs being Luis, the gullible but lovable best friend of Scott. The rest of the cast also did such a great job that all the characters in this movie are funny and likeable. However, the villain Yellowjacket falls short. His motivations are clear but he comes off as one-note and he dies in the end as well. I really hope Marvel will fix this problem soon because it’s really starting to get on my nerves.

The CGI and effects are outstanding. These are some of the best effects I have seen in a Marvel film. The Ants look awesome and cute and when Scott shrinks or is small it looks great. The Particle world is also visually stunning looking both trippy and gorgeous as well.

The Verdict:

Man, Marvel has done it again! Ant-Man is a fun entertaining heist film with some action thrown in. The characters are fun and entertaining and the effects are some of the most visually stunning effects that you will see in a Marvel movie. It feels like at this point, Marvel can do no wrong when it comes to there movies. Ant-Man is the perfect movie to watch with friends and family if you want to have a good time.

9/10

Next up, is the third film for Captain America but it’s really Avengers 2.5 when you think about it. Of course, I am talking about Captain America: Civil War.