Ant-Man

Comic book summer movies were starting to "bug" me.  The plots all seemed the same, with super-heroes getting into ridiculous battles with bad guys, but this was not the case with Ant-Man. This film has some character development,  as well as a nice balance between drama, humor, and action, (much like the original Toby Maguire Spiderman). Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) has just been released from prison, having served time for getting caught on one of his cat-burgling escapades.  He wants to go straight, but gets fired from his fast-food counter-person job, after his Manager learns that he has a criminal record.  Scott desperately wants to see his daughter regularly, but needs to pay child support to his ex-wife in order to get visiting privileges. Needing money and without any viable employment option, Scott gets talked into doing another home theft by his former crew, but gets caught by the home owner, genius scientist Hank Pym (Michael Douglas).  Pym had previously invented a way to shrink a man down to the size of an ant.   He also had developed a suit that gives the shrunken man super-powers and enables him to communicate with and command many types of ants. The tiny man, with the help of these ants, can then go on missions for good to keep the USA safe. Pym is too old to go on these missions anymore, and is reluctant to let his daughter, Hope (Evangeline Lilly - aka "Kate/Freckles" from Lost), go on dangerous missions. He offers Scott the chance to earn money and avoid returning to jail if he agrees to become the new Ant-Man. Pym's former protege, Darren Cross (Corey Stoll - House of Cards), seems to have something up his sleeve. He has been desperately working on similar technology, but it has some serious glitches, so he plots to steal Pym's superior formula, especially the famed "Pym Particle." Cross stands to make a fortune if he can create an army of ant-men to take over the world! Having no other alternative to make money, Scott agrees to become the Ant-Man to try to prevent Cross from succeeding. The movie has great special effects, an interesting plot, plenty of comic relief, and some exciting action scenes.  If I were to have one complaint, it would be that the ants' abnormally-long life span really detracted from the complete realism displayed by positively everything else in the film! It is by far my favorite comic book movie of the year. I liked it even better that Iron Man I or Guardians of the Galaxy. The movie must be seen on the BS or it won't work. I recommend the 3-D version, which is worth the extra money. Ant-Man soars and I predict it will be a "huge" box-office hit.