Parents' Guide to

Ant-Man

Movie PG-13 2015 117 minutes
Ant-Man Poster Image

Common Sense Media Review

Sandie Angulo Chen By Sandie Angulo Chen , based on child development research. How do we rate?

age 12+

Clever, funny, cool Marvel movie has lots of sci-fi action.

Parents Need to Know

Why Age 12+?

Any Positive Content?

Parent and Kid Reviews

age 11+

Based on 48 parent reviews

age 15+

This movie, while very good, is not appropriate as a family movie, certainly not for 12 year olds as indicated.

Maybe that's the reason kids say such bad words and act inappropriately with the opposite sex at such young ages anymore, because too many parents let their kids watch movies like this and think it's OK.
age 13+

Not sure how it got a CSM Family approved stamp.

With words like p---y and a--hat I'm not sure how this gets a CSM "Great for families" stamp of approval. Maybe some families don't believe in modesty or clean language, but I would certainly not give a movie like this a "GFF" stamp with such language. Certainly not for a 12 year old. It's a slippery slope to say "what is in movies now is more acceptable than in the past." By the time the current 12 year olds have kids should we expect a "GFF" stamp on a movie containing topless women and sexual harassment from men? I would argue that CSM's family stamp isn't worth the pixels its painted with. It's a PG-13 movie. Why would CSM rate it 12+?

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (48 ):
Kids say (172 ):

The Marvel Universe's story about a tiny but fierce hero is also its funniest. As always, Rudd is a natural with sarcasm and one-liners, playing off of a hilarious Peña as Scott's prison bestie Luis and enjoying an easy mentor-mentee rapport with Douglas' Hank Pym. As Cross points out, Hank and Scott have a lot in common -- particularly as fathers with a an obvious need to protect their daughters. The bantery chemistry between Scott and Hope is a predictable "opposites attract" storyline, but Hope is one of the most interesting Marvel women to date because she's clearly itching for a chance to put on an ant suit and get things done.

Cross is the standard emotionally fragile, egomaniacal villain with extreme daddy issues. Stoll seems to be making a name for himself as a baddie, and he's well able to play a man who simultaneously hates Pym and desperately seeks his approval. The plot and the explanations of how the Ant-Man suit works can get a bit convoluted, but the action sequences and humorous dialogue (much of which sounds like it came straight from Edgar Wright and Joe Cornish, two of the five screenwriters) make up for the occasional plot holes. Bottom line? There's a lot to enjoy or laugh out loud about in Ant-Man, and Rudd is so charming and so easy to invest in as a viewer that it's only natural to hope for a sequel that puts him in touch with more of the other Avengers.

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