Due to circumstances outside of my control, I am unfortunately a week behind schedule. As such, I suspect most of you have already seen Ant-Man. If not, what on earth are you waiting for?

Brief disclaimer: I don’t read comics. I’ve read a few Doctor Strange graphic novels and the original 1964 run of Daredevil, in addition to being disappointed by a few other titles that perhaps About Comics can be coaxed into letting me do a guest post about. But for the most part my expertise is in film. (And Japan, but that’s a story for another day.) As such, my discussion of Ant-Man will be limited to my experience with the film. I’m not here to say whether or not it was a good adaptation or anything of that nature.

When Marvel first announced Ant-Man, I must confess that my first thought was, “What are they thinking?” Hopefully by now you’re already familiar with the comedy sketch “Marvel Can’t Fail.” I was thinking, “Honey, they’re about to.” Ant-Man? His only power is literally that he can shrink to the size of an ant. I’ve heard of some pretty ridiculous superheroes, but this might just take the cake. Of course, Marvel owns all of our souls until at least the start of the next decade, so I resigned myself to going to see the film in the theater anyway.

Then the trailer came out. Once again my initial reaction was nearer to disbelief than anything else. But I was secretly glad they had decided to take things in a more campy direction. That bit with the Thomas the Tank Engine toy nearly had me in stitches. After all, you already have a ridiculous superhero. Why not have a ridiculous movie too?

Anyone who’s seen the film, though, knows it’s far from ridiculous. Yes, it is campy, but so was Guardians of the Galaxy. Ant-Man is positively delightful in that the only things sacred are the characters’ thoughts and feelings and emotions. Everything else is fair game to poke fun at. The name Ant-Man? There’s a joke for that. The costumes? There’s a joke for that. Scott’s friends, the Avengers themselves, even Baskin Robbins gets poked fun at. It’s an uproariously funny movie, and just plain fun to boot.

However, as I said, the characters’ emotions are a driving force in the film, and boy do the actors do well. Scott’s affection for his daughter. Hope’s anger with her father and grief over her mother. Hank’s guilt. Darren Cross’s downright sociopathy. If I hadn’t seen (in particular) Corey Stoll in other roles, I would be forever terrified to work with him for fear of bodily harm. For serious. As usual, Marvel’s casting department has positively blown me out of the water. (We’ll see whether or not the trend continues through Doctor Strange. The one comic I’ve actually read, and they cast Benedict Cumberbatch? I mean, he’s a good actor and all, but as Doctor Strange? My first choice will always and forever be Gary Oldman.)

I don’t want to dwell too much on the film theory-type stuff when it comes to Ant-Man; it’s been a little while since I saw it and as such most of what’s left are simply impressions. Plus, it’s the latest Marvel installment, and I doubt you really care whether the lighting was appropriately motivated or how many jib shots were in the final edit or whether they chose 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound. (For the record, from what I can tell, it was 5.1. Seven just isn’t catching on the way I’d hoped. Sigh.) Suffice it to say that it was as spot-on as we’ve come to expect from Marvel movies.

My overall impression of the film was definitely positive. I have some personal problems with Evangeline Lilly as an actress, so she was kind of disappointing to me, but everyone else was positively brilliant. In particular I think Corey Stoll deserves a nomination for Best Supporting Actor, because damn. I belatedly learned about the film’s social media campaign on Twitter and YouTube as WHIH, the fictional news station in the MCU. They even brought back our good friend Christine Everheart from Iron Man to anchor. I wish they would have advertised it a little better beforehand, but they do make for good supplementary viewing after the fact as well.

Bottom line: if you haven’t seen Ant-Man already, you are seriously missing out. Keep an eye out for a particularly funny cameo, and as usual be sure to stay until the credits are completely through. Comics fans are going absolutely nuts over that last post credits.