Ant-Man (2015) * * *

Directed by: Peyton Reed

Starring:  Paul Rudd, Michael Douglas, Evangeline Lilly, Corey Stoll, Anthony Mackie, Bobby Canavalle

Ant-Man knows it is silly and has fun with that fact.    When Dr. Hank Pym (Douglas) asks recently paroled convict Scott Lang (Rudd), "Are you ready to be the Ant-Man?", it sounds really goofy, but it is par for the course.     This is a Marvel film about a superhero I had no idea even existed until I heard the film was being made.     Ditto for Guardians of the Galaxy and Iron Man.     Ant-Man is cheery, while some other Avengers films wallow in the Meaning Of It All.     I hope future Ant-Man movies do not become infected with whatever ailed the last Avengers movie.

Ant-Man opens at SHIELD headquarters in 1989, in which Dr. Pym resigns from the organization rather than reveal his secret weapon, a suit which would shrink a human being to the size of an ant and all of the pros and cons that entails.     He fears his weapon, in the wrong hands, would be devastating.    Years later, Pym's protégé Darren Cross (whose name certainly is an apt description of his character) has modified Dr. Pym's weapon to create Yellowjacket, which is to be used for military purposes and all of the pros and cons that entails.

Dr. Pym recruits a recently paroled thief named Scott Lang (Rudd) to be the human guinea pig in the Ant-Man suit.    The suit, which could be mistaken for Iron Man's to the unenlightened moviegoer, allows the wearer to shrink himself to the size of an ant in order to sneak into places and commandeer an army of ants as his fighting force.     Fortunately, one press of a button will also allow the wearer to return to normal size.    It would suck for Scott if he were stuck as an ant forever.  

Scott goes through a slow learning process in the suit.     His attempts to shrink himself through a keyhole at just the right time create laughs.     Guided by Dr. Pym and his daughter Hope (Lilly), Lang fulfills his destiny as Ant-Man.    Hope is a woman who resents her father because she feels he is not truthful about the death of her mother.     She acts as a double agent pretending to be aligned with Cross while secretly working for her dad.     How Cross trusts her enough to reveal his secrets to her is one of those things you just have to take on faith.

Ant-Man is a simple film by Marvel standards.     There is one villain, one or two impregnable fortresses for Scott to break into, and one goal, which is to steal the Yellowjacket suit.    It doesn't bog itself down with excess.    However, Ant-Man's treatment of Cross is interesting.     He feels a certain attachment to Dr. Pym even though he is planning to destroy him.     This inner conflict gives Cross some unexpected depth.  

I enjoyed Rudd in this role.    He approaches it with almost giddy glee, but is smart enough to be a convincing hero.     His everyman quality really works here.     Dr. Pym is not a smooth operator that Douglas normally plays.     He is smart, principled to a point, and carries around regrets about how his family nearly fell apart as he perfected the Ant-Man suit.     Evangeline Lilly is sexy and resentful of Scott.    It seems Dr. Pym took a liking to him faster than he ever did her.   

Ant-Man almost sounds like the title of one of those schlocky horror films from the 1950's, in which a normal guy is turned into an ant via a nuclear explosion.     If I remember correctly, the 1993 film Matinee was about the screening of a film called MANT, which promised a half-man, half-ant creature.    We don't get a MANT here, but the most unusual superhero this side of Darkman.     That's a good thing.