Ant-Man
Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures | Release Date: July 17, 2015 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
64
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 44 Critic Reviews
Positive:
28
Mixed:
15
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
71
Paste MagazineMichael BurginJun 15, 2018
Ant-Man has more than its share of logic lapses and convenient (read: sloppy) scripting, but most viewers won’t care. In much the same way Guardians of the Galaxy was powered by the charisma and affability of Chris Pratt, Ant-Man is buoyed by the charm of Rudd. Read full review
60
The New YorkerAnthony LaneJul 20, 2015
Then, there is Thomas the Tank Engine, who gives the most thoughtful performance in the movie. He is part of a train set in the bedroom of Scott’s young daughter, and, as such, he is perfectly adapted to the dimensions of Ant-Man’s world. Read full review
60
SalonAndrew O'HehirJul 19, 2015
A discombobulated summer movie that’s kind of fun but doesn’t have nearly enough story to fill up two hours. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaJul 17, 2015
Although its origin-story machinations get the better of it, Ant-Man isn't a bust. Read full review
60
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottJul 17, 2015
A well-conceived superhero romp in its own right, and one that stands nicely on its own six legs. Read full review
60
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinJul 17, 2015
Ant-Man isn’t much more than pleasant (Peyton Reed directs limply), but anything Marvel that doesn’t feel Marvel-ish makes me smile. Read full review
67
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerJul 16, 2015
I wish the film had gone even further into loopiness. Like Ant-Man, the film, directed by Peyton Reed, comes in two sizes – it’s sometimes big on laughs but often small on risk-taking. Read full review
63
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliJul 16, 2015
Unfortunately, it's almost impossible to make it through the entirety of Ant-Man's two hours without thinking of "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids" as least once, and I'm not sure that's an association the filmmakers were courting. Read full review
40
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternJul 16, 2015
Mr. Rudd, whose overall performance as the former con-man Scott Lang is fairly pallid, confines himself to genial winks and nods in a film that will surely be popular, given Marvel’s marketing might, but one that’s woefully short on coherence and originality. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeTy BurrJul 16, 2015
The movie’s OK, nothing more. Read full review
75
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsJul 16, 2015
This debut film is fun, and everyone involved can proudly declare, “Honey, I shrunk the Marvel Cinematic Universe.” Read full review
75
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanJul 16, 2015
The second half of this nearly two-hour film is a pure delight — fast-paced and funny and filled with special effects and humor as great as any recent Marvel movie, with the possible exception of “Guardians of the Galaxy.” Read full review
75
USA TodayBrian TruittJul 16, 2015
Tonally, Ant-Man is a little all over the place — at times, it's a quirky comedy, heist film, trippy sci-fi project and family drama, never able to really blend everything in a cohesive fashion.... That said, when it's on its game, Ant-Man does some of the best stuff ever in a Marvel movie. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranJul 16, 2015
Playful in unexpected ways and graced with a genuinely off-center sense of humor, Ant-Man (engagingly directed by Peyton Reed) is light on its feet the way the standard-issue Marvel behemoths never are. Read full review
67
Portland OregonianJeff BakerJul 16, 2015
Ant-Man wastes the regular-guy appeal of its star, Paul Rudd, on a bland, by-the-numbers story that starts small and keeps on shrinking, a metaphor for the movie itself. Its modest ambitions are admirable and unrealized. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter TraversJul 16, 2015
The latest film franchise culled from Marvel's comic-book universe packs a ton of fun into a teeny package. Its low-key charm helps glide us over trouble spots in tone and pacing. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleJul 16, 2015
By being more than a superhero movie, it reminds us of what it’s worse than. Its greatest virtue isn’t that it’s a superior comic book movie, but rather that it comes close to not being that at all. Close, and yet not close enough. Read full review
60
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzJul 16, 2015
The problem with Peyton Reed's film is that when he shrinks the always-affable Paul Rudd, he shrinks a big part of Rudd's charisma, too. Read full review
60
The New York TimesA.O. ScottJul 16, 2015
This film is a passable piece of drone work from the ever-expanding Marvel-Disney colony. It provides obligatory, intermittently amusing links to other corporate properties, serving essentially as a sidebar to the “Avengers” franchise. Read full review
88
RogerEbert.comGlenn KennyJul 16, 2015
It’s delightful and almost miraculous the way this movie manages to work as a comic heist picture on a huge scale, and with a comic science-fiction picture blended into it…while managing to cohere to the whole, you know, Marvel thing. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleJosh KupeckiJul 15, 2015
It is a perfect instance of meta self-awareness that thankfully lets a little air out of this grand narrative pomposity. Ant-Man is infectious, silly entertainment, a popcorn flick that knows what it is and does what it does to an intoxicating degree. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierJul 15, 2015
Because of his easygoing comedy persona, Rudd is a perfect choice — and another example of Marvel’s savvy casting. He never takes anything too seriously, but he seems invested in the emotional side of the story. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyJul 15, 2015
It still makes for an enjoyable, intermittently inspired effects-driven comedy and a welcome antidote to the over-burdened world-saving that seems to define big-screen superhero stories. Read full review
75
New York PostKyle SmithJul 15, 2015
The film never flags. To find a smarter bug-man saga, you’d have to go back to “The Metamorphosis.” I was far from sold on insect superheroes, but now I say: Bring on Cockroach Chick. Read full review
38
ObserverRex ReedJul 15, 2015
Ant-Man is a brainless bore and a colossal waste of money, time and computer-generated special effects. Read full review
50
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperJul 15, 2015
This is a lightweight, cliché-riddled origins story that veers between inside-joke comedy, ponderous redemption story lines and admittedly nifty CGI sequences that still seem relatively insignificant compared to the high stakes and city-shattering destruction that take place in most of the “Avengers” movies. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsJul 14, 2015
The plot's the same old thing. Mad, mad, mad, mad science; imminent apocalypse; parent/child issues; blah blah blaggidy blah. The tone of Ant-Man, however, is relatively light and predominantly comic. Read full review
67
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallJul 14, 2015
Never thought I'd type this about a comic book movie, but Ant-Man needs to take itself more seriously. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineJake ColeJul 14, 2015
Half-assed mentions of the Avengers, as well as a few cameo appearances sprinkled both within the feature and in its credits stingers, exude less shame than a crowd-pandering politico. Read full review
63
Movie NationRoger MooreJul 14, 2015
A lively, silly opening and a deft and daft finale rescue it from all its Avengers/Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. back-engineering. Read full review
70
Village VoiceAlan ScherstuhlJul 9, 2015
Ant-Man is spry and often funny, despite its familiarity. Read full review
83
HitfixDrew McWeenyJul 9, 2015
Ant-Man has its own voice, no doubt thanks to all of the talent involved, and it stands as a surprisingly sturdy success for the studio, a delightfully weird little movie that has no business working this well. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyChris NashawatyJul 8, 2015
Reed and Rudd's film is proof that no matter how silly some ideas sound at first, good things often do come in small packages. Read full review
80
CineVueJoe WalshJul 8, 2015
Ant-Man is a smart action adventure that breathes new life into a long-running franchise, told with a level of intelligence that reminds those beleaguered by the onslaught of superhero movies that the genre still has a lot to give when in the right - if not the Wright - hands. Read full review
80
EmpireKim NewmanJul 8, 2015
A science-fiction, action-heist, superhero comedy soap opera, this straddles as many genres as the Avengers films have characters but manages to do most of them pretty well. Extremely likable, with a few moments of proper wonder. Read full review
80
Total FilmKevin HarleyJul 8, 2015
It’s Ant-Man, not pants, man. Marvel passes its biggest test in years with flying critters… plus wit, flair, top-notch casting and some good, gratuitous size gags. Read full review
60
Time OutDavid EhrlichJul 8, 2015
Rudd’s affable wit makes him a perfect choice for the part. But his performance is uncharacteristically inhibited, as if he felt there was too much at stake to try something new. Read full review
80
The TelegraphRobbie CollinJul 8, 2015
What we’ve seen since the beginnings of the Marvel serial in 2008 is an ongoing stretching: bigger casts, grander set-pieces and more intricate interplay between characters, with no clear end in sight. Ant-Man scuttles off in the other direction. Brisk humour, keenly felt dramatic stakes, and invention over scale. You know: small pleasures. Read full review
40
The GuardianCatherine ShoardJul 8, 2015
Ant-Man is a cut-and-shut muddle, haunted by a ghost, produced by a high-end hot dog factory, by turns giddying and stupefying. Watching it is like channel-surfing between "Hot Fuzz", a duff early 90s Michael Douglas drama and the very schlockiest bits of "Interstellar". Read full review
62
TheWrapAlonso DuraldeJul 8, 2015
There are individual pieces of the movie that work wonderfully.... Unfortunately, this is also the kind of movie where talented actors do some of their least notable work. Read full review
58
The PlaylistRodrigo PerezJul 8, 2015
Size may not matter in this diminutive story, but the film's slight, disposable quality hardly qualifies it as an essential tale to astonish. Read full review
50
Screen DailyTim GriersonJul 8, 2015
Jokey rather than funny, and a bit forced when it’s trying to be sincere, Ant-Man has plenty of enthusiasm but not a lot of inspiration. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyJul 8, 2015
Although the story dynamics are fundamentally silly and the family stuff, with its parallel father-daughter melodrama, is elemental button-pushing, a good cast led by a winning Paul Rudd puts the nonsense over in reasonably disarming fashion. Read full review
80
VarietyJustin ChangJul 8, 2015
Reed’s movie succeeds well enough as a genial diversion and sometimes a delightful one, predicated on the rarely heeded Hollywood wisdom that less really can be more. Read full review
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