Is Marvel the new Pixar?
Okay, that may be hyperbole, because nothing Marvel has done short of "The Avengers" has come close to the insane quality of films Pixar put out its first 15 years.
But with "Ant-Man," Marvel has taken the formula and struck gold again, creating a serviceable action/adventure comedy from a third-tier character that even most comics fans would acknowledge is stretching the limits of expectations of quality.
With "Ant-Man" they don't deviate from formula, but neither do they fix what's not broken, relying on a talented comedic actor and a few marginally-thrilling action scenes to carry a narratively pedestrian fairy tale to greater heights.
Paul Rudd plays Scott Lang, an ex-con battling his own demons, trying to make right by his daughter, and stay on the straight and narrow. When his ex (an underused Judy Greer) tells him to shape up or get out of his daughter's life, he falls back into crime, set up by former super scientist turned bazillionaire Dr. Hank Pym (Michael Douglas).
Pym, it turns out, years before created a particle that allows him to change the distance between atoms, essentially allowing the person to shrink themselves down to the size of an ant, but retaining the strength they did as a full-sized person.
Pym was a member of S.H.I.E.L.D., the same supersecret spy group that Nick Fury and those folks on ABC's "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." belong to, but quit when the group tried to nab his formula in a power grab, taking the particle and its secrets with him.
Cut to present day, Pym is too old to continue working in the suit, but needs someone, because his former protege Darren Cross (Corey Stoll) has been developing a similar technology based on his designs without his mentor's blessing. He is coming close to rolling out the Yellowjacket project, which, you know, makes for a convenient name for a bad guy. Pym looks to Scott to inhabit the Ant-Man suit and stop Cross from unleashing this potentially dangerous weapon on the world.
Also throw in Pym's beautiful daughter Hope Van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly), and you have all the pieces you need for an action extravaganza.
What you get instead is a surprisingly leisurely film that is pretty light on the action and heavy on exposition, spending time establishing Ant-Man's place in the Marvel Universe through short appearances by people like Peggy Carter and Howard Stark (that's Captain America's girlfriend and Iron Man's dad, respectively), as well as an appearance by at least one bona fide Avenger (though not necessarily one of the Big Four).
The film is built around one silly, bombastic up-and-down, big-and-small action piece that starts inside a corporation, continues on a helicopter, and finishes up in a suburban home, complete with a rather goofy but imminently enjoyable battle on a toy Thomas the Train track.
This being an origin story may put off some people, but it, much like the first "Iron Man" is as much about spending time watching likable characters figuring out what they are doing as much as it is about fireworks.
And Michael Pena threatens to steal the show as Scott's buddy with a penchant for storytelling, and the device director Peyton Reed uses to visualize that storytelling is wickedly funny.
That's not to say "Ant-Man" is quite equal to its hot-rod-red-and-gold contemporary. Rudd, as much as I love him, is no Robert Downey Jr., and Stoll is an appropriately slimy bad guy but is almost an afterthought until the end of the film.
But "Ant-Man" continues Marvel's ongoing saga just fine, playing as with the Netflix "Daredevil" flick more of a "street level" hero, but one that certainly has a place with those other guys.
By the way, as is the custom with Marvel movies, stay until the end of the credits for a linking-scene setup from "Ant-Man" to the next Marvel Universe extravaganza, "Captain America: Civil War."