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The Ant Man films -- a review

The first Ant Man movie was a pleasant surprise when it was released back in 2015. Paul Rudd starred in the title role as a man who can shrink himself down to the size of an ant (and more), thanks to a special suit. The film was well-directed by Peyton Reed, who took over at the last minute from director Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead). While Ant Man is considered a second-tier hero in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, he’s been around since his first appearance in 1962, in the comic Tales To Astonish, having been created by such big-league comics talents as Stan Lee, Larry Lieber, and Jack Kirby.

The first Ant Man film worked superbly by having its titular character operate as a street level hero. Rudd plays Scott Lang, an ex-convict who’s struggling to make it in the world, only to fall back into a life of crime, thanks to Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) and his grown daughter Hope van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly). Hank was the one who created the Ant Man suit, and the movie reveals that he was the original Ant Man, working as a counterintelligence operative with his wife, who was the Wasp, back in the 1980s. Hank and Hope recruit Scott into an elaborate heist to use the Ant Man suit to stop a tech billionaire (Corey Stoll) from weaponizing the Ant Man tech.

Michael Peña, Wood Harris and David Dastmalchian also star as Scott’s friends, and who serve as a great source of comic relief. They return for the superior sequel, Ant Man and the Wasp, in which Hope--after waiting in the wings for far too long--finally makes her impressive debut as the Wasp. Her fearlessness and fighting skills had already been established in the first film, and so the sequel offers a natural progression for the character by having her fight side by side with Scott Lang’s Ant Man. Michelle Pfeiffer also makes her debut in this film as Janet, the original Wasp.

The villains include the very good Walton Goggins as a gangster looking to steal the Ant Man/Wasp tech, Laurence Fishburne as Hank Pym’s former lab partner, and Hannah John-Kamen as Ghost, an interesting opponent who has the ability to phase through objects like walls (and she even uses this ability to put her arm through Hank’s throat in one memorable scene). Ant Man and the Wasp has some incredible and imaginative fight scenes, with Scott and Hope battling two separate teams of villains through the streets of San Francisco.

Yet while the stakes are bigger in the sequel, it never loses sight of its original focus: a street-level superhero story with memorable (and lovable) characters while still effectively raising the bar in excitement, humor, and overall excellence. Because the first two films were so good, I had high hopes for the third film in the series, Ant Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.

And then I saw the third film. Unfortunately.

Quantumania completely eschews all of the elements that made the first two Ant Man films work so well. And, because of this, Quantumania is easily the weakest film in the trilogy. Scott, Hope, Hank, Janet, and Scott’s daughter Cassie (Kathryn Newton) are all immersed in the microscopic Quantum realm, which looks sort of like outer space in the Guardians of the Galaxy movies. And they all become embroiled in a Star Wars-like battle involving a resistance movement seeking to overthrow an evil warlord named Kang (Jonathan Majors). It’s tired storytelling, with an overabundance of overblown special effects, that we’ve seen too many times before.

Where the first two movies used location work to keep their stories grounded, Quantumania was clearly shot on a stage with CGI backgrounds behind its actors, who look like they’re all struggling not to look bored. Granted, Quantumania was shot during the pandemic, with all of the restrictions that came from that era placed on the filmmakers. But Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness was also shot at the same time, along with the same Covid 19 restrictions, and I thought that movie still managed to be extremely engaging and fun.

The first two Ant Man films worked so well because they were witty, sophisticated adventures that offered a vibrant new fresh take on the superhero film. And then its third film becomes the very same mundane, unimaginative, creatively hollow superhero “epic” that we’ve seen too many times now from Marvel. Oh well, I guess, from now on, I’m just going to assume that Ant Man had two great films…and the less said about the misbegotten third chapter, the better. --SF

All three Ant Man films are available on Disney+. They're also all available on physical media, including DVD, Blu-Ray, and 4K.

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