We get about two or three Marvel cinematic movies a year all of varying quality and style each backed by tremendous talent. The talent is usually what could be referred to as a "studio risk" as each talent has proven themselves to be geek icons, but not huge box office draws. John Favreau taking on Iron Man and James Gunn taking on Guardians of the Galaxy for example, their careers before these major blockbusters were not the kind you hire for huge projects such as these. Ant-Man is perhaps the most troubled Marvel production, being developed before even Avengers was released and went through many constant changes during pre-production.
First off we have the no fail formula of genius writer/director Edgar Wright. His show Spaced as well as his critically acclaimed "Cornetto Trilogy" cemented him in the minds of all pop culture junkies as a nerd idol. His only flop being Scott Pilgrim vs the World, which itself is a masterpiece of film making. This man along with long time fellow screenwriter Joe Cornish, director of Attack the Block, "Brat! Brat! Brat!", was to deliver us a movie of one of Marvel's most centric yet least popular characters, Ant-Man. Through constant changes and arguments with Marvel over the films direction and what he called "studio meddling", Mr. Wright decided to pull out of the project. With much of the project ready to roll and a deadline looming, Marvel once again turned to an unlikely source for direction. Director/Writer Adam McKay who had delivered us both Step Brothers and Anchorman. An unlikely choice, but it gave us an inclination that the movie itself was indeed going to take a much more comedic turn as if Edgar Wright's involvement wasn't enough of an indicator. Unfortunately McKay passed on directing and opted instead to help rewrite the script alongside star Paul Rudd. Marvel then turned to a person whom was a complete turn, but once again went with the idea of taking risky chances. 
They chose director Peyton Reed, who had at this point only done television and romantic comedies of varying quality with the most notable film in his resume being the hit film, Bring it On. Nothing about this man instilled any sense of easiness on our minds of what this film would turn out to be other than one simple fact. He is a fan. None of his films were anything worth going to comic con with yet he had gone to comic con every year as a fan for over a decade and had read and loved these characters since a very young age. I wanted to believe in him. So with this knowledge, does Ant Man live up to hate or hype?
Avengers was all over the place and convoluted. This movie was just simply fun. We have a nice little opening snippet that shows us a bit of the past with SHIELD and introduced us to Michael Douglass's Dr. Hank Pym. We see a few returning faces that give you the geek giggles and damn if they didn't do a good job making Michael Douglass look like he did in the eighties! Cut to present day as we see Paul Rudd's Scott Lang getting the crap kicked out of him in prison on his last day in the joint. He is picked up by one of my favorite characters in the movie, Luis played by the great Michael Pena! 
The two play off each other perfectly as Scott has his air of sarcasm just like in the comics and Luis has his lovable naivete often going through an hour long story of lunacy to get to a point. Scott is trying to make his way in the world and get his life together so he can be there for his daughter Cassie. Unfortunately without having paid child support in a long time he is unable to legally see her. In order to pay off his child support debt, Luis convinces him to use his burglary skills to rob the home of Hank Pym where he not only discovers the suit but learns Dr. Pym has been watching him for a long time. Due to a tragedy in his life with the suit Dr. Pym locked it away forever never to be seen again, however his protegee Darren Cross has spent most of his adult life trying to develop the serum once again for his own benefit. Dr. Pym doesn't trust Cross in any way having using his estranged daughter Hope, Evangeline Lilly, as a spy at Cross labs to see the progress of Cross's new formula and possibly stop it. Dr. Pym reaches out to Scott and with the help of Hope they train him to become the Ant-Man to stop Cross from creating an army of shrinkable soldiers called Yellow Jackets.
That's the setup which is pretty basic, but the imagery and dialogue really make this movie something special. We have the obvious parallels of Dr. Pym and Evangeline Lilly's Hope Pym in their father daughter relationship alongside Scott and his daughter, but it plays very sweetly through the movie and is much of it's driving force. The training sequences of how Scott learned to control his abilities are very reminiscent if the original Sam Raimi Spider-Man, trial by error and played for many laughs which never get dull. Evangeline Lilly in these segments really shines as an absolute bad-ass. She has obviously mastered the abilities of the suit as well as conquered any fears or inhibitions that Scott had while training. The woman even knows martial arts for god's sakes! It makes you wonder why she doesn't just take over the suit, but the aforementioned tragedy in Dr. Pym's life plays a pivotal role in that and even sets up a future for Hope to return in a more combat ready capability if you decide to stay after the credits! While the actors themselves are obviously hysterical, I cannot stress the most amazing aspect of this movie. The ants.
It would've been simple just to say hey this guy shrinks and talks to ants so he's Ant-Man. Nope! We have many different types of ants all doing different jobs within the movie! This plays up the burglary aspect really well as Scott uses them to infiltrate Darren Cross's building mission impossible style but it's even cooler because it's little insects weaving in and out of vents, building structures out of their bodies and assaulting people like bomber jets! The music in the scenes are even reminiscent if awesome heist movies and you know you want to see ants breaking int places while listening to the mission impossible theme. They are very fun and cute in the beginning but as the film progresses you learn you don't want to mess with them especially when led by Scott! After you see this you will remember and love the name "Anthony."
The final battle between Darren Cross as Yellow Jacket and Scott Lang's Ant Man is insane! Cross at this point is built up like the worst deranged piece of slime ever to walk the Earth. His ego and greed get in the way of any humanity he has left. We get to see a battle royale train set style in the playroom of Cassie Lang and it is gloriously funny and brutal. This scene is where we are treated to a sequence that is the equivalent of a Steve Ditko Marvel Acid trip. It is so amazingly done and hearkens to the spectacular illustrations of Steve Ditko's Dr. Strange work of what the world looks like beyond space and time. You'll see what I mean.
In the end, I don't know who to thank more. Wright or Reed as I see bits and pieces of all creative forces within this final product and I have to say this melting pot of a movie not only impressed me as a film, but I thoroughly enjoyed it as a fan. There are do many subtle references here and there that sometimes can muddle down the movies but here play perfectly normal. It even took one of my chief complaints about Age of Ultron and gave me an amazing scene that more than any film this far proved to me that we are indeed watching a Marvel Cinematic Universe. For sheer enjoyment I give Ant Man five Pym particles out of five!
