So, basically, we’ve got this scientist by the name of Hank Pym (Michael Douglas), who has invented a formula that shrinks matter.  It supposedly does this by decreasing the distance between atoms, thus condensing molecules.  Pym and his wife use this formula (in conjunction with high-tech suits) to carry out secret operations for the United States during the Cold War.



At some point, Russia launches a nuclear warhead at the U.S. and Pym’s wife sacrifices herself to destroy it by disabling her suit’s stabilizer and shrinking to subatomic size (thus passing through the shell of the missile and destroying the core).

Two years later (in 1989), Pym is approached by Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell), Howard Stark (John Slattery), and Mitchell Carson (Martin Donovan) to help in replicating the serum and suit for military purposes.  Pym, recognizing the danger of the shrinking technology falling into the wrong hands, refuses and subsequently resigns from his position at S.H.I.E.L.D.  He then starts his own private company and recruits a young protege by the name of Darren Cross (Corey Stoll).



At some point, Pym and Cross have a falling-out, and Cross takes control of the private company.  In 2015, Cross creates an imitation serum and suit that he calls the ‘yellow jacket’.  Pym gets wind of this, and decides that he has to destroy it before Cross can sell it to the military and cause world-wide chaos.



It’s at this point that we find out that Cross is actually a total psychopath who will stop at nothing to get what he wants.  At some point in the presentation of the ‘yellow jacket’ project, there’s a dude in attendance who’s concerned that it might fall into the wrong hands.  How does Cross react to this?  He follows the dude into the bathroom where he brutally murders the crap out of him.  Yeah.

Which brings us to Scott Lang (Paul Rudd), an ex-convict who uses stealth skills to steal money from millionaires (kind of like a modern rendition of Robin Hood).  Pym selects Lang to wear the Ant-Man suit and help him stop Cross from completing his cheap knock-off.  So Pym, with the help of his daughter Hope (Evangeline Lilly), train Lang to use the suit, and to control ants with some kind of electro-radio-thingamajig.



Thus begins an near-hour-long training montage that includes, but is not limited to hand to hand combat, ant symbiosis, using disk-like weapons that shrink/enlarge objects, and the art of brewing tea.  At some point, Lang attempts to modify the suit’s stabilizer, but Pym warns him that if he deactivates it he would shrink to subatomic size and enter a world beyond the laws of physics, where he would remain trapped for all eternity.  Yikes.



Anyway, before they can set out on their plot to foil Cross’ evil plans, they need some vague piece of technology that (apparently) can only be acquired from the Avengers.  So Lang infiltrates the Avengers’ warehouse where he gets into (I swear I’m not making this up) a brawl with Falcon (Anthony Mackie).  Ant-Man wins, of course, and returns with the gadget.



Also, since a heist of this magnitude is no easy task, they also recruit Lang’s partners in crime: Luis (Michael Pena), Kurt (David Dastmalchian), and Dave (T.I.).  I just want to point out that these three dudes are the best source of humor throughout the film.  Literally every scene they’re in is hilariously funny.



So the crew infiltrates Cross’ laboratory.  Lang, along with his army of tech-savvy ants, enter through the water supply system, while Hank and Hope attend as guests in the presentation of the finished yellow jacket suit.  Lang fries all of the computer data, sets explosives, and breaks into the vault to destroy the suit, when he finds that Cross was expecting him.



Yes, apparently Darren Cross was aware of their plan the whole time, but neglected to stop it because he wanted them to hand deliver the Ant-Man suit to him.  It turns out that Mitchell Carson is actually a high-ranking hydra affiliate, and Cross intends to sell the suit to him.  A fight ensues, and Carson get’s away with a vial of the shrinking serum, while Cross gets away with the suit and boards a helicopter.



Lang pursues Cross, but Cross dons the yellow jacket suit mid-flight.  They fight, but the built in laser beams on the yellow jacket suit cause the chopper to crash.  Cross ends up incapacitated, while Lang is arrested by police.



Lang finds out via the police radio that Cross has broken into Lang’s ex-wife’s house and taken his daughter hostage and manages to use his shrinking powers to escape the police car and confront Cross.  A long fight sequence ensues that ends with Cross threatening to kill Lang’s daughter.



In a last-ditch effort, Lang deactivates his suit’s stabilizer and passes through the Cross’s suit, which causes it to implode, killing Cross and sending Lang into a subatomic nightmare realm.  Lang manages to use one of the disks that Pym gave him to replace the stabilizer core and expands to his original size.

The mid credit scene is Pym unveiling a modified suit to his daughter, and the post credit scene is a brief cameo of Captain America and Falcon in a warehouse with the recently apprehended Bucky Barnes.

-Excellent acting from all parties, especially Corey Stoll who played one of the best Marvel villains to date.

-Great chemistry between the characters.

-Hilariously funny, especially when Luis is present.

-Well paced.  It’s refreshing to see a Marvel film that builds up to one grand finale, rather than just transitioning from one mindless battle sequence to the next.

-The science in relation to the shrinking suit is absolutely ridiculous and makes no sense whatsoever.

-Relatively banal score.

-The lazy deus ex machina at the end that spares Lang from a gruesome subatomic fate is just dumb.

-The fight scene between Ant-Man and Falcon was unnecessary and only served to shoehorn him into Civil War.

-The Ant-Man suit shrinks the distance between atoms, but also seemingly decreases the mass of the subject.  A change in density should not yield a change in mass.

-The Ant-Man suit has the capacity to shrink the subject to subatomic size.  This shouldn’t be possible, since the size of the atoms remains constant; only the distance between them shrinks.  Even if the nuclei were close enough to touch, the subject still wouldn’t be able to shrink to that size.

-The weaponized shrinking disk somehow works as a suitable replacement for the stabilizer core.  If it’s that simple, why not just program the stabilizer to work in a subatomic environment?