As most reviewers are saying, taking the stakes way down (from saving the world to breaking into an office building) greatly helps this film succeed. The story is pretty bland, essentially setting up a heist movie (which we’ve seen done much better countless times before) but the witty cast really elevates the whole film to something enjoyable.
Paul Rudd works perfectly as Ant-Man and it’s so great to see Michael Douglas back in a mainstream film (even if his character is stuck spouting exposition for most of his lines). Evangeline Lilly is much better than she was in the Hobbit here, becoming quite a likable and interesting character. It’s unfortunate that Marvel had to go back to the tired plot line of bad guy in suit vs. good guy in a suit. I can’t help but think there were so many better ways to tell this origin story but overall I had a lot of fun with this and am excited to see what they do with Paul Rudd as part of the Avengers longer term.