Now in Theaters: Ant-Man #Review

The next evolution of the Marvel Cinematic Universe brings a founding member of The Avengers to the screen for the first time with Marvel Studios' "Ant-Man". Marvel Comics first introduced Hank Pym/Ant-Man in 1962 in "Tales to Astonish #27" and later Pym appeared alongside The Avengers in the team's debut in "Avengers #1" in 1963. Pym became Ant-Man after discovering a chemical substance- the Pym particle- that allowed him to alter his size and possess superhuman strength. With the development of another of Pym's technologies, Ant-Man also has the ability to control armies of ants.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe's new action-packed adventure brings us master thief Scott Lang as the present-day Ant-Man. After being armed by Dr. Hank Pym with the astonishing ability to shrink in scale but increase in strength, Lang must embrace his inner hero and help 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!

Marvel's "Ant-Man" starts Paul Rudd (from "I Love You, Man" and "Role Models") as Scott Lang aka Ant-Man; Evangeline Lilly (from "The Hobbit:The Desolation of Smaug" and "Lost") as Hope van Dyne, daughter of Hank Pym; Corey Stoll (from "House of Cards" and "The Bourne Legacy") as Darren Cross aka Yellowjacket; Bobby Cannavale (from "Chef and "Blue Jasmine") as Paxton; Michael Peña (from "End of Watch" and "American Hustle") as Luis; Tip "T.I." Harris (from "American Gangster" and "Identity Thief") as Dave; Wood Harris (from "Above the Rim" and "Remember the Titans") as Gale; Judy Greer (from "13 Going on 30" and "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes") as Maggie; David Dastmalchian (from "the Dark Knight" and "Prisoners") as Kurt; and Michael Douglas ("Behind the Candelabra" and "Wall Street") as Dr. Hank Pym

**** Potential Spoiler Alert- I will be sharing some parts of the "Ant-Man" story in this review. If you don't want to know anything, please stop reading.****

Our Thoughts....

Matt and I (along with our friends Steve and Jen) had the opportunity to attend an advanced screening of the movie hosted by Ant-Man himself, Paul Rudd. There is no playing it cool here, I was all kinds of geeky excited about it, and we got to meet quite a few really great fellow-bloggers!

Not the Greatest Picture, But That is PAUL RUDD!

The 4 of us have seen most of the other Marvel superhero films and we went in with high hopes that Ant-Man would live up to the rest of the films in the franchise. Expectations met and exceeded!

The visual effects in the other Marvel movies have been amazing (super skinny Steve Rogers before he was "Captain America", the gorgeous views of Asgard in "Thor") so there was no doubt in my mind that they would be just as great in this film, and they were. From the shrinking down scenes to the fight scenes between Ant-Man and not so small men, every effect was just kind awe-inspiring. However, my personal favorite effect, the one I cannot get over, occurred in the beginning of the film (I have been searching for it online, but I can't find it). There is a scene, at the start of the movie, with a "young" Hank Pym played by Michael Douglas. The scene indicates that it was taking place in 1989 and I still can't get over how well they de-aged Michael Douglas.

Like the other Marvel films, whether or not you are familiar with the characters beforehand, you will be drawn into the movie. The story-line in Ant-Man is fantastic; Hank Pym originally discovered the Pym Particle, but quickly realized the dangers and decided his research would best be hidden away and declared as simply a "legend". Many years later, Pym's "protege", Darren Cross, would discover the research and work toward achieving the results that Pym had decades earlier. Pym's daughter, Hope, who works with Cross, confides in her father, hoping he will let her help save the day by donning the suit, but he recruits recently-released from prison and wants to get his act together for his daughter (whew) Scott Lang. Hope is not pleased, but still works to help train Scott to prevent Darren (who is now kind of crazier than he had been before because of the affects of the Pym Particle) from being successful in releasing the Pym Particle to the world by planning the ultimate heist. However, nothing is that easy and Cross ends up becoming the villain Yellowjacket.

We all really enjoyed Ant-Man. In fact, it has replaced Thor as my favorite Marvel film. The humor (that you'd expect from a movie with Paul Rudd) was perfectly weaved into the seriousness of the story. The "secondary characters" offered some of the best lines in the film and we were all pretty psyched about the cameo from Anothony Mackie as The Falcon!

I am so excited that Ant-Man will be returning in future films. If you don't already have plans to go see this movie, make plans to see it sometime this weekend! I can't wait to watch it again and add it to our personal collection!