I went to see Ant Man this weekend, and you know what? It's better than a bunch of the other Marvel Cinematic Universe movies. Here's which & why.


The Incredible Hulk. Were you really going to defend this movie? It's got uneven performances, inconsistent effects, and a meh story. While forgivable because Marvel was still figuring things out, I think we can move on.

Iron Man 2. Ant Man does way better than IM2 at the "science." Ant Man states the idea of shrinking simply without going into too much detail (reducing the distance between atoms, pheromone ant control), whereas IM2 makes the "science" a plot element and has a whole montage (in which Stark "invents a new element"). Comic book sci-fi doesn't hold up to too much scrutiny, so it's universally better to paint in broad strokes and focus on the characters.

Iron Man 3. Tony Stark goes from lovable ass to hatable ass in this movie. The problem with Tony is that he's a guy with flaws who gets away with it because he's a millionaire with basically unlimited financial and technological resources. Scott Lang (Ant Man) is a guy with flaws who overcomes them by being a hero.

Thor: the Dark World. Look, I also liked T:tDW. But Doctor Who is criminally underused as a villain you don't understand, while that hairpiece guy from the Strain has clear motivations while being brutally evil in ways that other Marvel foes really haven't been.

Avengers: Age of Ultron. I said it! This movie is better than AoU. And while I still like the second Avengers movie, it had real sprawl issues. It had as many characters and plot threads as a series of comic books - I think it would have been awesome to release it with fewer cuts over the course of about a month in four one-hour segments. Ant Man keeps the scale small (hah) while still making the conflict feel important.