Ant-Man, the movie, was originally written by Joe Cornish (Attack the Block, The Secret Service) and Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz).
Wright was also meant to direct but at the eleventh hour he had a fight with Marvel and walked away. Step in and lead Peyton Reed, who 'reworked' the script with the lead actor Paul Rudd, and we have the current incarnation of Ant-Man. Is it good? Let's dig in...
In the comics Ant-Man is actually one of the original founders of the Avengers. Hank Pym (the original Ant-Man played by Michael Douglas) is like the antithesis of Tony Stark's thinking man scientist. He is the scientist with the conscience and he's less flamboyant so him and Tony constantly debate each other.
In the movie version we follow the story of the second Ant-Man - Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) because the first one was a woman abuser so i doubt the mouse company would like kids to feel conflicted about a hero who is a wife abuser.
We get the hero who wants to prove to his daughter that he's a good and well meaning dad. This is the kind of mushy stuff that Iron Man 2 poked fun at - but this is what you get with Ant-Man. Sentimentality on overdrive but at least it's funny.
There are lots of clever and funny gags in this movie to make you overlook how average this film truly is. There are no risks taken in narrative, nor characters - the film really has little to no impact on the MCU (Marvel cinematic universe) other than to introduce Ant-Man. In actual fact, the post credit sequences carry more weight than the entire movie in my mind.
This is neither Marvel at their best nor their worst but Ant-Man is Marvel at their safest and it shows in how forgettable the movie is once you step out of the cinema.
Rating **1/2