For fans who are not familiar with the Marvel Comic history, Ant-Man seems like a bad joke; a flashback to the heydays of low-quality science fiction B movies.

In fact, Ant-Man (at least in his original iteration, Hank Pym) was always want the integral members of the Avengers. As one of the founding members, and resident geniuses, of the group, Ant-Man was every bit as important to the team as Iron Man and Captain America.

For obvious reasons, Marvel very early on decided to delay a Ant-Man movie.  It is hard enough to get the non-comic book reading public to buy into Thor and mystical objects from space, without having a character that can miniaturize and control ants. That said, Ant-Man is able to deliver as a nice addition to the 2015 summer blockbusters.

The story begins with an introduction of Hank Pym (played by Michael Douglas, who we discover was the original Ant-Man). In this movie iteration of the story, Pym was a superhero decades earlier, in an era long before the Avengers. Pym had been a key part of the science team for S.H.I.E.L.D., the global police force, until he feared they would steal his secret technology of miniaturization and abuse that power.

Pym however has been pushed out of control of his own company by his protegé Darren Cross (Corey Stoll), as well as his own daughter, Hope Pym (Evangeline Lilly). We soon discover that Hope (who, as we find out, has a troubled history with her father) has a coming-to-Jesus where she realizes her mistake too late.

Pym is looking for a new hero to wear his Ant-Man suit, and to defend his life’s work from the abuse from evil hands.  In that quest, he finds his hero in the likes of a petty, convicted burglar, Scott Lang (Paul Rudd).

The biggest fear for movie producers of these type of films is that they will look cheap or silly. Ant-Man has that problem more than many other characters. As ridiculous as the character’s name is (and they don’t shy away from making fun of the name), the ability for him to control, ride, and use ants could have been ludicrous if done incorrectly. Instead, they make the interaction with the miniature world seem to be exciting, and actually fun to watch.

What makes this movie work however, in ways that Age of Ultron did not, was that this was a much more personal story. We grow to learn who these characters are, and cheer for them to succeed in what ultimately becomes in some ways a classic heist story.  Ant-Man also seems somewhat more lighthearted than any of the recent additions to the Marvel Universe, including Age of Ultron and Captain America: The Winter Soldier. The stakes here are significant, but can’t compare to the global annihilation in those movies. Thus, it allows the characters just enough leeway to be loose and relaxed, instead of waiting for the apocalypse.

In many ways, I enjoyed this movie far more than Age of Ultron, not that I disliked the latter film. This movie is not groundbreaking at all; people will recognize several very similar plot analogues to Iron Man for example.  But after the dull seriousness of the past few movies (despite their excellence) it was fun to watch Marvel get back to just making a fun movie.

Ant-Man concludes Marvel’s ‘Phase 2′ roll out of new heroes for the new Avengers. The end credits help set up several major characters that will be integral in the coming Captain America: Civil War movies, as well as the ultimate Infinity War series.

Overall, this was simply a nice, fun classic summer superhero movie, that doesn’t prove a game changer, but definitely adds to the ever-growing Marvel Comics Universe.