Ant-Man (2015)
Directed by Peyton Reed
Armed with the astonishing ability to shrink in scale but increase in strength, master thief Scott Lang must embrace his inner-hero and help his mentor, Doctor Hank Pym, protect the secret behind his spectacular Ant-Man suit from a new generation of towering threats. Against seemingly insurmountable obstacles, Pym and Lang must plan and pull off a heist that will save the world.
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What critics say influenced Ant-Man
I enjoyed the scenes in which Rudd first tries to function in a world of giant household objects, but only because they reminded me of The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957).
At the end of the day, frankly, any film that references The Incredible Shrinking Man so beautifully deserves its moment on the stage.
The rest of the movie, with simulated direction from a mixing-lab keyboard by somebody called Peyton Reed, is a series of stunts borrowed from such sci-fi classics as The Incredible Shrinking Man and The Fly.
It seems a pity, though, that the screenplay didn’t have the guts to emulate the wonderfully ethereal close of its real progenitor, Jack Arnold’s “The Incredible Shrinking Man” (1957).
We've seen some of these tricks before, most effectively in 1957's The Incredible Shrinking Man and 1989's Honey, I Shrunk the Kids.
As for the effects, they're generally excellent, particularly in a bravura inner-space sequence that hearkens back to the 1957 classic The Incredible Shrinking Man.
"Ant-Man" is this year’s "Guardians of the Galaxy."
The “Captain America” movies are political thrillers, “Guardians of the Galaxy” is a space opera and “Ant-Man” is, at its core, a heist movie.
What allows Ant-Man to flourish is that it largely turns its back on the solemnity and self-importance that occasionally hamper Marvel features and instead traffics in the same sort of freewheeling frivolity seen in last summer's smash, Guardians of the Galaxy.
But the tone is right, light like "Guardians of the Galaxy" rather than heavy like "Captain America," and the balance between jokes and action sequences keeps it afloat.
We're not too distant, it seems, from movies about Matter-Eater Lad, Squirrel Girl or Arm-Fall-Off-Boy (truth is, the next big one is the multi-character hellstorm "Captain America: Civil War," featuring Iron Man, Spider-Man, Ant-Man and many others, coming May, 2016, brace yourselves for impact, exclamation point), but after 2014's "Guardians of the Galaxy" charmed us with a talking raccoon, a grunting tree-being and an emo Han Solo, why not give Ant-Man a shot?
Like the recent, refreshing “Guardians of the Galaxy,” “Ant-Man” is a rare Marvel movie that doesn’t take itself seriously.
While it certainly doesn't possess the depth and polish of say, "The Dark Knight," match the level of weird and quirky fun as present in "Guardians" or be the near perfect cinematic adaptation like 1978's version of "Superman," "Ant-Man" is quite fun, funny and entertaining in its own right.
As with Robert Redford in last year’s “Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” he takes the material as seriously (or lightly) as the moment requires, without the sense of, say, Marlon Brando in “Superman” (1978) obviously slumming it.
It's also wistful, exciting, hilarious and heroic, with a charming performance by unlikely superhero star Paul Rudd and some visual effects so ingeniously immersive, they recall the hallucinogenic ending sequence in "2001: A Space Odyssey."
Partway through its “Honey, I Shrunk the Burglar” plotline, “Ant-Man” turns into yet another cinematic riff on the mind-altering, reality-shifting visual journey pioneered by Stanley Kubrick in “2001: A Space Odyssey.”
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While Ant-Man borrows from the likes of Inception and Ocean’s Eleven, its heist elements are reduced to window-dressing.
There's a train fight sequence hearkening back to train robbery westerns, a little Mission: Impossible thrown in, some subtle references to Ocean's Eleven and plenty more for those who know their heist movie history.
We see Scott in action on a couple small thefts building up to the third act centerpiece, and along the way we spend time with some ex-con sidekicks, cool gadgets and even a quick Mission: Impossible homage.
There's a train fight sequence hearkening back to train robbery westerns, a little Mission: Impossible thrown in, some subtle references to Ocean's Eleven and plenty more for those who know their heist movie history.
What the movie delivers for most of its running time is a surprisingly disarming amalgam of “The Incredible Shrinking Man” and “Rififi” by way of Brian De Palma ’s first “Mission Impossible” movie, except with Jules Dassin ’s goofball element thrown back in the mix.
By the time the final Mission: Impossible-style heist arrives, my mind was drifting off to all of the unpredictably loopy and lunatic places original Ant-Man director Edgar Wright might have taken the film’s sluggish climax.
Pride of place would go to “Them!,” the mysterious 1954 movie about ants in New Mexico that grow as huge as horses after a nuclear test; the stridulation of unseen creatures in the desert makes music—a high, wavering whistle—that you cannot wipe from your mind.
That said, Ant-Man winningly conjures the days of The Incredible Shrinking Man and Them! , cheesy science-fictions, for the young atomic age, that likewise played with scale.
Wright’s cast remained, but he was replaced with Peyton Reed (Bring it On, Down with Love), a competent if less-than-distinctive substitution who was then forced to cobble together a summer tentpole from a combination of Wright’s not-totally-discarded screenplay and concepts, and his own new material.
To showcase Scott in action, director Peyton Reed ( Bring It On , Down with Love , and a few other movies machismo prevents you from liking) shrinks down to the hero's level.
The director, whose resumé includes everything from Bring It On to directing stints on New Girl , dials up a potent combination of whimsy and action while still providing room for secondary characters to flourish (Evangeline Lilly’s Hope in particular is compelling proof that there is room for powerful female characters in this universe beyond just Black Widow).
That hired gun turned out to be the not-exactly-beloved Peyton Reed, arguably best known for cheerleader comedy “Bring It On.” And, in an apparent attempt to mollify star Paul Rudd, his “Anchorman” director Adam McKay was brought on to help overhaul Wright’s screenplay.
Director Peyton Reed's background is in comedy (including "Bring It On" and the Jim Carrey vehicle "Yes Man"), which fits the lighter tone "Ant-Man" aims for.
But it’d be unfair to call his replacement – Bring It On’s Peyton Reed – a Marvel stooge, or to suggest that the things that make Ant-Man enjoyable are Wright-era vestiges.
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Wright’s cast remained, but he was replaced with Peyton Reed (Bring it On, Down with Love), a competent if less-than-distinctive substitution who was then forced to cobble together a summer tentpole from a combination of Wright’s not-totally-discarded screenplay and concepts, and his own new material.
To showcase Scott in action, director Peyton Reed ( Bring It On , Down with Love , and a few other movies machismo prevents you from liking) shrinks down to the hero's level.
The replacement director is Peyton Reed, who normally makes comedies, including the brightly-colored Doris Day tribute, Down with Love .
First-time action director Peyton Reed ( Yes Man , Bring It On ) recaptures some of the style and charm that qualified his Down with Love as an underrated pastiche of the waning days of Hollywood's golden age.
Yet that lack of an emotional center feels less frustrating when director Peyton Reed (Down With Love) kicks the action into gear.
More conventional than one might have hoped for from the collaboration of Rudd and director Peyton Reed (“Down with Love”), and marred by a few serious misjudgments (must each of Ant-Man’s three comic-relief heist collaborators represent an ethnic stereotype?), the movie recovers its footing where most Marvel epics flounder: Reed transforms the climactic hero-vs.-villain…
Ant-Man was originally a project put in the hands of Edgar Wright, the fanboy-beloved genius behind Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and The World’s End, and a filmmaker whose love of geeky things—like, say, a relatively uncool second-tier character like Ant-Man who can shrink down to the size of a you-know-what thanks to his high-tech outfit—is matched only by his inventively electric, hyperactive comedy-action directorial style.
For that, thank the four screenwriters — Shaun of the Dead's Edgar Wright (who was the initial director until the usual "creative differences" forced him out), Attack the Block's Joe Cornish, Funny or Die's Adam McKay and Rudd himself — and their ability to include witticisms both verbal ("tales to astonish" is there for the comic fans) and visual (love the bug zapper, and is that oversized toy with the happy face a nod to Ghostbusters?).
As movie fans may recall, this was supposed to be a different kind of Marvel experience in the hands of "Shaun of the Dead" director Edgar Wright.
Director Peyton Reed — who replaced original director Edgar Wright of “Shaun of the Dead” and “Scott Pilgrim” — has a lot of fun with the concept, though it is at times a hindrance.
Original director Edgar Wright, who gave us "Shaun of the Dead," "Hot Fuzz" and "The World's End," was jettisoned from the production over "creative differences" and replaced by "Yes Man" director Peyton Reed.
Ant-Man began as a film project for Edgar Wright, who directed Shaun of the Dead , Hot Fuzz , and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World .