Ant-Man Review: 8 Ways It's Better Than Avengers: Age Of Ultron

8. It Moves Away From The Marvel Formula

If there's one universal complaint in amongst the otherwise undying praise of the Marvel Cinematic Universe it's the consistent reliance on formula. Break down the key elements of any of the movies, particularly those after The Avengers made $1.5 billion dollars, and they're all pretty much the same; a typical hero's journey set against a MacGuffin driven plot that sees them come up against a one-note villain, culminating in an explosive, high stakes finale, maybe with a death fake-out along the way. Ant-Man does tick these boxes in a broad sense, but everything's twisted or subverted to the point it feels new. Biggest of all, the typically explosive third act showdown is pared down extensively, with the stakes much more personal. The narrative is pretty front heavy, meaning that the main plot and character story finish at different points, thus feeling wholly developed in their own right and not conveniently mashed together. It's not a total departure from what's come before - Darren Cross is still an underdeveloped villain - but at the very least manages to do something new with the now well-established tropes. Avengers: Age Of Ultron, on the other hand, was the Marvel Formula typified, following everything to a tee and thus emerging as a rather predictable, unexciting affair. It was still fun (the formula exists in the first case because, on a basic level, it works), but was too strictly followed to be anything exciting.