Chart Position: 13th Worldwide Gross: $519,250,779 There's a great film lurking somewhere in Ant Man, and it's the one Edgar Wright would've made. You feel Wright really would've got to the heart of the absurdity at the centre of Marvel's story (or all of Marvel for that matter), about a man literally shrunk to the size of an ant in order to help fight global problems. The director is a master of sending up the genres he loves (whilst still always keeping them sincere), and Ant Man was his perfect vessel. For whatever reason (the "creative differences" cited nearly always refer to some bigger problem), it wasn't to be, and we're left with only an inkling of what Wright's version of Ant Man might have looked like. Bolstered by a game, charming lead performance from the always-great, Paul Rudd, Ant Man is cast well across the board, with the always welcome Bobby Cannavale showing up as a cop to everybody's delight (Michael Douglas is fine as Dr. Hank Pym, but the CGI younger version of himself is just plain creepy). Overall, Ant Man is middle of the road Marvel: decent, sometimes good, never likely to be great. It's one of the most bizarre comic book creations, and as a consequence, it really needed its ideal director.
