Welcome to The Morning After, where I share with you what movies I’ve seen over the past week. Below, you will find short reviews of those movies along with a star rating. Full length reviews may come at a later date.

So, here is what I watched this past week:

Ant-Man

By now, Marvel has become accustomed to creating origin stories on the screen. With four prior Avengers, the company has built a reputation on introducing compelling characters that are easily relatable and entertaining for the audiences. Ant-Man accomplishes those aims well, though it never exceeds our expectations.

The story revolves around cat burglar Scott Lang (Paul Rudd), a father and ex-con who is struggling to get back in his ex-wife’s good graces so that he can see his daughter again. When a tip leads him to steal a suit that allows him to shrink in size and control ants, the opportunity to save lives, particularly that of his daughter, lead him to accept a dangerous mission to stop a megalomaniac from selling a similar prototype to individuals wanting to militarize it.

Rudd has always been an affable presence on film. This character’s personality perfectly molds with his giving us a fascinating figure who’s both sympathetic and humorous. Rudd is such a reliable actor that it’s not to see him finally getting some measure of success. At his side are Evangeline Lilly hopping from the Lord of the Rings franchise into the Marvel Cinematic Universe with aplomb. Her character doesn’t have a lot of depth, but the potential is there and she gives us Hope that it will eventually. Also on hand are Michael Douglas as the suit’s creator (and original Ant-Man) Hank Pym and character actor Corey Stoll as Darren Cross, his megalomaniacal former protege.

The supporting cast are thoroughly wasted in thinly-written roles including the typically reliable Michael Pena, Bobby Cannavale and Judy Greer. These actors deserve better material as they feel like characters that were completely unnecessary to the film’s success and could have been written out somewhat easily. The action is fairly tepid, but the effects are strong and the end result is an engaging, if severely flawed piece that effectively pulls a new character into the MCU.