They took an incredibly silly premise and they ran with it and had some fun. Considering the noted behind the scenes turbulence, Peyton Reed’s Ant-Man feels surprisingly coherent and uniform – it’s witty, it’s stylish, and it’s totally disposable in the way that most homogenized Marvel product feels. And that’s not necessarily a knock; say what you want, but the people at Marvel have built a cinematic brand that carries a certain expectation, and this effort, however minor in the grand scheme of the world building of the Marvel universe, is one of the more purely enjoyable. The action scenes pop with fantastic CGI, hurling the audience on a miniature level through all sorts of visual pyrotechnics and chaos; this is basically what a new-fangled version of Honey, I Shrunk the Kids would look like. Paul Rudd, as usual, is self-effacing and very laid back, all sorts of charming, and as always, a great sport. Michael Pena steals some scenes as he always does, and Michael Douglas clearly got a kick out of playing the sage mentor. However, whoever decided that the stunningly attractive Evangeline Lilly should be saddled with that horrendous short black wig should have been fired on the spot – why take away from her naturally gorgeous features? Cinematographer Russell Carpenter (True Lies, Titanic) has a field day with the action set pieces, which are cleverly staged and excitingly rendered; I’m VERY picky with CGI these days and the stuff here looked like it cost a pretty penny. This is harmless, easy to digest nonsense that has a smart sense of humor about itself. Nothing is taken seriously, and as a result, the film has a welcome comic buoyancy that separates it from most comic book/superhero movies.
Podcasting Them Softly 