This film began as a promising* project: “Shaun of the Dead” director Edgar Wright teaming up with funny man Paul Rudd to do a lighter Marvel movie.

    But then, Wright left the project, and the movie seemed dead for a time, only to be revived when “Bring It On” director Peyton Reed, no stranger to humor but otherwise untested in sci-fi action films, signed on as a replacement*.

    Our hero is Scott Lang (Paul Rudd), fresh out of prison, a low-rent Robin Hood now determined* to go straight for his young daughter. But he struggles to find work and so is persuaded* by his criminal friends to break into the safe of millionaire Dr. Hank Pym (Michael Douglas).

    But it’s a setup. Hank just wanted to make sure Scott had the skills required for an important task: to be shrunk* via a special suit and then do battle alongside a troop of telepathically* controlled ants. Their target is Hank’s former protege* Darren (Corey Stoll), who has controlled this special shrinking tech and aims to use it for evil ends.

    Disappointingly, but perhaps inevitably*, Reed never makes the movie his own. Much of “Ant-Man” plays like Reed is just trying to make sense of the notes Wright left behind.

    A couple of lovely montages* involving Scott’s pal Michael Pena (the film’s highlight) are straight out of “Shaun of the Dead,” and fights in a child’s bedroom and a briefcase are clever and skillfully presented.

    But other scenes are no fun at all. Rudd’s romance with a scientist called Hope (Evangeline Lilly) is flat. Douglas, too, is bland compared to mad scientists in other movies. Stoll plays things very straight as Darren the baddie, and it’s a shame Judy Greer has gone from interesting indie* star to an always worried mom (as Rudd’s ex she basically reprises* her concerned turn from “Jurassic World”).

    (SD-Agencies)