Starring Paul Rudd. Rated PG.

In a world where action movies and action heroes strive to be larger, harder, and more fully packed… one man has the courage to display his shrinkage.

And yet, less can be more. With Ant-Man, Marvel Studios brings us a tiny hero in a film that feels relatively small in scope and pretty much devoid of topical allusions and deeper meanings—refreshingly so. The stakes amount to men trying to prove themselves as fathers to their daughters.

As the film trailers have made clear, this is an origin story about a thief who is granted the powers of the Ant-Man suit. For the Marvel completist, it’s the next chapter in the ever-expanding Marvel Cinematic Universe narrative, bridging Age of Ultron and Civil War with chatter and cameo appearances, while hinting at the rage of Hank Pym and the fate of the Wasp. For the nongeek audience, it’s a heist movie with science-fantasy trappings and the wry charms of Paul Rudd, here being mentored in derring-do by Michael Douglas.

For this viewer, it was a jaunty romp with some truly eye-popping special effects, a striking support performance from a glassy-eyed Michael Peña, and no hint of its troubled production history.

It’s also a Marvel formula movie, with the hero being opposed by a dark version of himself while things explode, but the downsizing literally creates a different perspective on these tropes and for considerable stretches, they are fresh and fun again.