Latest Marvel movie hopes wee will rock you, but tiny superhero doesn’t quite deliver

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This article was published 16/07/2015 (3713 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

There can be no doubt Ant-Man, the latest entrant in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, will emerge as the big man at the box office sweepstakes this weekend… at the top of the ant hill, if you will.

What is up for debate is whether the movie will be a surprise blockbuster along the lines of last summer’s Guardians of the Galaxy, or just another Marvel movie like, say, the second Thor.

Bet on the latter. As a hero (or, more properly, an ant-y-hero) Ant-Man lacks the mythic qualities of Thor, the raging kid appeal of the Hulk, or the sheer popularity of Spider-Man.

Add to that: he arrives in the cineplexes at a time when we’re all feeling a bit of comic-book-movie fatigue. In the ever-expanding Marvel realm, heroes are aligning against a cosmic bad-ass named Thanos destined to play out in a two-part Avengers epic. In the Hollywood universe, the battle is between Marvel and DC, with the latter camp’s Batman Vs. Superman, Suicide Squad and Justice League movies waiting in the wings to fight, not for justice, but for your cinema dollars.

Going into that arena, Ant-Man feels a bit… undersized.

It’s not a bad movie, mind you. Paul Rudd provides an everyman quality to Scott Lang, a well-meaning thief (with a college degree in engineering) who gets out of prison and blunders into his hero status after a fateful encounter with scientist Dr. Hank Pym (Michael Douglas). Pym has long mastered technology that allows human beings to shrink to the size of ants while retaining full-size human power.

That tech, and Pym’s business empire, has been usurped by Pym’s power-mad protegé Darren Cross (Corey Stoll), assisted by Pym’s own resentful daughter, Hope van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly).

Having invented a miniature combat suit dubbed Yellowjacket, Cross intends to sell the technology to the highest bidder. Rattled by Cross’s dangerous megalomania, Hope teams up with her estranged father to hijack it back.

For that, they need master thief Lang, motivated by his parallel desire to reconnect with his adorable daughter Cassie (Abby Rider Fortson).

He’s not alone. Lang has a trio of criminal buddies led by the loquacious Luis (the reliably entertaining Michael Peña). He also learns to master communication with actual ants, who prove both valuable and expendable.

Ant-Man was to have been directed by Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead) but was at the last minute handed off to Peyton Reed (Yes Man), which probably accounts for the film’s rather stolid, generic style. Wright and Joe Cornish (Attack the Block) retain screenwriting credits, along with Rudd and Adam McKay, who presumably contributed an additional comedic polish.

Another cog in the Marvel machine, it runs smoothly, with Douglas providing the necessary gravitas and Stoll giving emotional viability to his unbalanced villain. The inevitable battle scenes do have an eccentric comic edge, including a battle on a child’s toy train track. (You’ll never look at Thomas the Tank Engine the same way again.)

Even so, Marvel appears to be dialing back on the out-of-left-field unpredictability that served it so well in Guardians of the Galaxy. It’s surprisingly bland.

All the technical prowess that went into creating a miniature realm seems a bit wasted somehow. Ant-Man doesn’t overshadow the 1957 sci-fi classic The Incredible Shrinking Man when it comes to the existential terrors of miniaturization. In fact, it makes one think the world is ready for a remake of that film, skewing closer to the adult content of Richard Matheson’s original novel.

One likes to think the world would appreciate that more than another entry in an unending cycle of superhero movies.

randall.king@freepress.mb.ca