by Eric H. “Mr. The Mama Maven” – No Spoiler Review
Welcoming Moms, Dads, Uncles and a long pause for the Aunts (Ants), Paul Rudd kicked off the Ant Man screening to loud applause. It turned out to be a very appropriate introduction to Marvel’s most family friendly and funny movie so far. Make no mistake, this is a movie targeted primarily to adults and older kids but it worked well for kids. Even my seven year old daughter, who runs out of the room when My Little Pony villains get too scary, sat through the movie without closing her eyes much.
As one of the writers, the movie’s humor worked really well for Paul Rudd. It was a legitimately funny movie and the comedy didn’t seem forced like the some of the other Marvel movies, where jokes are squeezed in everywhere. 
Michael Douglas generally worked as the straight man in most of the comedy scenes but he also had a well-developed character, as Hank Pym, the original Ant Man. I think it was probably the first time in years where Michael Douglas was able to play a really cool character with a riveting forceful side. He and Paul Rudd set a nice tone for the movie.
Evangeline Lilly did a great job rounding out the trio of main characters. She held her own and didn’t come across as the token female actor which was nice to see.
In addition to the leads, the movie threw in a nice curve by adding three comic relief supporting characters played by Michael Pena, David Dastmalchian and T.I. Even with them going slightly over the top, they were very funny without knocking the movie off kilter. I suppose the same could be said for the thousands of ants crawling and flying around. The CGI worked really well with the ants as well as the shrinking and growing scenes. It was really amazing to go seamlessly from the big world to the small world and back and forth several more times in the space of a couple of minutes. Usually too much CGI drives me crazy but this flowed very naturally and made for a fun ride.
Since I said this would be a no spoiler review, I will not write who appears but there were nice cameos for Marvel fans and kids alike. I highly recommend seeing Ant-Man.
Like ANT-MAN on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/antman
Follow ANT-MAN on Twitter: https://twitter.com/antman
Visit the official ANT-MAN site: http://marvel.com/antman
ANT-MAN is now playing in theatres everywhere!
Thank you to Disney for inviting my family to a screening. As always, all opinions are my own.
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