Well, this is unexpected - Ant-Man is better than Avengers: Age Of Ultron. Seriously. At the start of the year that seemed a ridiculous concept; Ultron was the sequel to the biggest (and best) film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, while the other was a publicly troubled production based around a bizarre-in-concept hero. There was only one clear winner. But it's wound up completely the other way round. Turns out the Avengers sequel actually had just as much behind-the-scenes agro, with Joss Whedon's clashes with the studio leading to a compromised film lacking in any form of serious development. There was still some exciting high spectacle, but it was accompanied with none of the joy of the original. Even though it was a box office hit (it made $1.3 billion, only just shy of the original's take), even the most die-hard Marvel fan would agree it was something of a let-down. And Ant-Man... Well, it's pretty good. The debut of Hank Pym and Scott Lang isn't a perfect film (see my review here), but for all its feeling like an Edgar Wright imitation, it's still a fun time at the movies with heart and a nice through line about confronting the past. Bottom-line - it gets plenty right, making it relative leaps ahead of Age Of Ultron. Here are eight (spoiler-free) reasons why Ant-Man ruins Joss Whedon's picnic and emerges as the best Marvel (and likely superhero in general) movie of 2015.
