Ant-Man is one of Marvel’s most overlooked heroes. While he is a fan favorite, he is not expected to fight the bigger fights like Thor or Black Panther. This time, thought, is his time in the spotlight. He fights the new big bad of the MCU, and kicks off an entire new phase. But, now that Ant-Man’s been put in the spotlight, does he hold up?

First and foremost is the villain, Kang. He is honestly the best part of the movie. He has a very imposing presence. Just like Thanos used to have. Except for when ants beat him. The man who was wiping out waves of soldiers, ri the Avengers multiple times (allegedly), and he’s beaten by really smart ants. And M.O.D.O.K helps too I guess, but he came right at the end of the clash. Speaking of M.O.D.O.K

They did M.O.D.O.K  a disservice in this one. Making the comic relief was not a bad decision, he is a weird floating head thing so that makes sense. Him also being the villain from the first Ant-Man is not a bad idea either. It was a decent twist that made sense and gave M.O.D.O.K a goal to work with Kang. However, M.O.D.O.K is only treated as a joke in this movie. Normally he’s a pretty serious villain, except for the floating head thing, and he can be a major threat. But in the movie, he’s just there to be made fun of. And he switches sides at the end really fast. I mean, he goes from full blown villain to charging at Kang in seconds. Even his death scene is just treated as a joke!

The movie kept feels like it has two different movies going on inside of it. Sometimes it’s the light-hearted, comedic movie, then it shifts into a more serious one. One minute were talking with Bill Murray, then suddenly Ant-Man might not get out of the core thing. The ending even looks completely different. It builds up this whole thing of Ant-Man and Wasp, who was barely in the movie, are going to be trapped in the quantum realm, then they’re just…out? There was going to be a bittersweet ending, and it just ends normally. Like none of the movie happened at all.

The movie itself is fine. There are some funny moments, the guy at the coffee shop calling him Spider-Man, and Kang is still a great villain. But while there are great parts, there are others than just feel out of place. It feels like they wanted to make a darker movie, realized that Paul Rudd and a floating head were going to be in it, and decided to shove more comedic moments into it. Maybe this is just Marvel fatigue setting in. Still better than Thor 2 though.