"Ant-Man" is the final film in the second phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and now that it has been finally screened to critics, it is the best time to learn if the movie is worth watching or not.
With the "Avengers: Age of Ultron" being a hit at the box office but not with the critics, Marvel is looking to "Ant-Man" to alleviate some of the fans' worries that the studio is losing their touch with the quality of their stories.
This is going to be an uphill battle as "Ant-Man" had one of the most troubled production phases in the MCU and if things weren't bad enough, the film may have never seen the light of day.
Sandy Schaefer of Screen Rant reported that "Ant-Man" was initially developed alongside the first "Iron Man" movie. Hence, "Ant-Man" was supposed to be in Phase I of the MCU. However, production problems and a bit of creative trouble caused Edgar Wright to step down as director of "Ant-Man" just weeks before filming was set to begin.
Marvel then hired Peyton Reed as the new director of "Ant-Man" and then entrusting Paul Rudd and Adam McKay to handle script revisions.
Now that everything has been said and done, is "Ant-Man" worth watching?
Roth Cornet of IGN said that "Ant-Man" is a strong stand alone Marvel movie and that it fits in well within the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
"Marvel delivers another strong standalone film with Ant-Man. As is typically the case with the more effective of the studio's offerings, Ant-Man works within the framework of the larger Marvel Cinematic Universe, but also delivers a streamlined, fast-paced, lively and - frankly - utterly charming story," wrote Cornet.
Bryan Bishop of The Verge notes that "Ant-Man" knows that this is not a typical superhero movie and it relishes the fact and wants everyone in the audience that it knows that too.
"['Ant-Man'] knows it's dumb. Rudd and Anchorman's Adam McKay rewrote the script after Edgar Wright left the project, and what they've constructed is a movie that knows just how skeptical people are going to be, and gets around the problem by winking at nearly every major trope we've come to expect from superhero movies," wrote Bishop.
However, Matt Singer of Screen Crush was not impressed with the film, saying that "Ant-Man" is as generic as they come when it comes to superhero movies.
"['Ant-Man'] is, at least on paper, such a canny change of pace for Marvel... Maybe it's a bit too basic, though. There's nothing distinctive or idiosyncratic about Ant-Man, which plays less like Marvel trying something different than Marvel trying the same thing, just cheaper. A few brief flashes of sarcastic wit aside, it's as generic as comic-book movies come," wrote Singer.