It really is a fairly major miracle that we live in a world where a movie called ANT-MAN is even in existence. On the merch side of things in Marvel history, this character wasn’t running around with T-Shirts and Posters… That this film exists before Dr. Strange, is amazing. That the resulting film is amongst the sheerest most entertaining films in Marvel’s history – is just pure crazy talk. ANT-MAN just didn’t have an enormous fanbase like DEADPOOL demanding its existence. This film exists, because a crazy man named Edgar Wright carried it for like 8 years upon his shoulders… and even then, the weight of the production and making it to the screen was a bit more than he was willing to handle. Think of Edgar as the Hank Pym of this project and Peyton Reed is Scott Lang, coming in and ultimately bringing it to the theaters it’ll be opening at this weekend.
I’m not completely up on all the Scott Lang stuff in the comics, I’m an old school champion of Hank Pym. I loved him as a kid, kinda because I had to discover him. He wasn’t a t-shirt or a poster… he simply existed in the comics and was awesome.
His introduction to comics in TALES TO ASTONISH 27 wasn’t some introduction of Marvel’s greatest new character… it felt like a horror comic. A nightmare, that became something more. Even Marvel struggled a bit with the character – how ridiculous is a character that shrinks to the size of an Ant… so they made him get big, become more powerful… But ANT-MAN survived, changed and his and Hank Pym’s history in the book was down right amazing.
As a Silver Age super freak, it always bugged me that Ant-Man and Wasp were not a part of the AVENGERS from the beginning. That we were suddenly dealing with ULTRON, without ANT-MAN… well, it was kind of violating some of my geek programming, but Feige and Team Marvel seemed to make sense of it.
Tonight, I hosted ANT-MAN on the largest screen in Texas, the Bob Bullock IMAX here in Austin. The audience had a few True Believers in it, whose emails were verbose and passionate, but most weren’t all that up on him. He was the mystery of the Marvel Cinematic Universe… and they simply had to know. I had one father that wrote in saying their kid was spooked about the movie out of a fear of ants that came after a Fire Ant attack. It wasn’t till the THOMAS THE TRAIN ENGINE scene appeared in commercials that the child demanded to see the movie. If that was precisely calculated, then great job MARVEL!
I’m somebody that got to talk with Edgar for years about his ANT-MAN. I didn’t get spoilers, but I had an idea about the structure and style that the movie would be – and almost all of that was intact. Without having all the drafts to read through, Edgar’s storyboards, etc… it’s impossible to assign who did what where. But at the end of the day, Peyton Reed stepped up to bat, oversaw some rewrites and completed a movie that just served me and the rest of the audience their own kicked ass.
For Silver Age fans, there is a moment of Hank Pym and Janet Van Dyne as Ant-Man & the Wasp… in a very Captain America & Bucky BARON ZEMO kind of situation – and if you’re like me… those brief moments of seeing the Ant-Man and Wasp in action… it gave me cold chills and emotional holy shits. I just couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I’ve longed to see those two since I was a little kid.
Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) is a strong character in the film. An ex-con, that went to jail for doing the right thing, but getting caught doing it. He has a little girl he doesn’t much know, who is being raised by his ex-wife and her cop boyfriend, that enjoys making things tough on Scott it seems. Scott has ex-Con problems like finding a job at all. His ex wants Scott to have his own place, job and child-support. Scott understands all of that, but misses his daughter tremendously.
He decides to return to crime, solely because it’s the only way to meet his goals of reuniting with his daughter soon. Turns out the first gig is to break into Hank Pym’s basement and steal whatever is inside. Unknown to him, Hank has been following him for some time. Feeling that he’s the perfect man to become the next Ant-Man.
Let’s talk Michael Douglas and Hank Pym for a bit. Ok, so when we see him and older Howard Stark and older Agent Carter… and younger Michael Douglas… I was in Holy Shit mode. First, young Michael Douglas working for SHIELD, just made me dream of him going on a mission with young Nick Fury and young Robert Redford. I mean. A lot. With the Wasp. In 1960’s Marvel Universe – and that the flashback scene that we see them all in happens, just makes me want that more and more and more. Michael Douglas’ Hank Pym is a man haunted by regrets, and regrets to come. After losing his wife, he’s just had problems. We can’t even begin to understand the magnitude of here.
He needs Scott Lang, and his daughter Hope Van Dyne to help him stop Corey Stoll’s Darren Cross… a brilliant former protégé, that took over his company and pushed him out, but who has managed to replicate his best work at some level. Now, I adore Corey Stoll’s work in Guillermo Del Toro’s THE STRAIN, and here… I like that he’s putting the world at risk, essentially to earn the respect of Hank Pym. But, he might also be going crazy.
Did I mention that I love that the film is a great big Heist and Training film? It is. Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t RIFIFI, not by a long shot. It’s also not the original THE LADY KILLERS… nor is it brilliantly laid out like in the original GAMBIT, but the plotting and planning against all odds with a heist that could very well be impossible even to a man the height of an ant… well, that’s spectacular fun heist play on its own right.
That he has to steal something from out of the protection of the AVENGERS that’s just essentially a tool they need… well, it made me full on giddy. The resulting showdown was a blast! And you were concerned because… well, ANT-MAN is Paul Rudd… and believing that Paul Rudd could be a capable superhero… well, he’s gonna have to earn that, and with this film he does.
There’s been a lot of talk about the Microverse scenes in the film, but I found them to be pretty, but without anything really “spooky” happening there. There’s a moment where it seems he could be fragmenting – it was at that moment that I thought we were gonna see some serious weirdness, but suddenly the quantum trip was done and I was like… it was just about to get interesting. And I kinda loathe the post-script, “I don’t really remember anything” bit… and that’s about all that I was left unconvinced by.
It didn’t last long enough to feel threatening to Scott, didn’t give us nearly the “spooky” physics of the situation. BUT – it was a nice light show. Hopefully in DOCTOR STRANGE, they wallow in the weirdness they give us.
The big surprise out of ANT-MAN was how much I loved Michael Pena telling stories. Those flashbacks as he tells stories were pure comedy gold.
In many ways, this could be just about the geekiest of the MARVEL films. First, that it is ANT-MAN… well, that’s mega-wattage geek right there. That you get multiple time frames for storytelling… outstanding. But then, everything from Adam Ant on the soundtrack to IT’S A SMALL WORLD… To the various training scenes, planning scenes, evil co-horts… It’s just so bleeding cool!
Families absolutely loved the film. My sis texted me after the movies saying to invest in ANT FARMS, cuz kids are going to demand them. I don’t think she’s wrong.
Now, in the weekend before I watched ANT-MAN, I decided to delve into the microverse of cinema. DR. CYCLOPS, THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN, ATTACK OF THE PUPPET PEOPLE, INCREDIBLE SHRINKING WOMAN, HONEY, I SHRUNK THE KIDS and so forth. In my estimation, the best shrink movie ever is still THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN. Matheson’s screenplay has so much soul searching and micro-philosophy and pure threat. I mean, the cat attack and the spider in the basement… still terrifying – and the end monologue is one of the greatest end monologues in film history.
But you know what no “Shrink” film in history ever did? They’ve never given the power of shrinking and returning to normal size in the hands of the person it was happening too. You’ve never seen anyone like ANT-MAN on the big screen before. Not even close.
The film is a real exercise in the cinema of what the fuck. The perspective shifts will mess with your mind in a glorious way.
But I tell you – if we get a movie with young Michael Douglas, very young Samuel L Jackson and a young Robert Redford in a rip-roaring 60’s based Marvel adventure… I’ll friggin flip the fuck out. It’s all set up. Needs to happen. Holy wow.
OH – you’re also getting two stingers. One after the more graphical first part of the end credits. Then another after all the credits. Both are very significant stingers. Laying groundwork for future things that are quite tantalizing. You’ll see.
Hey! I forgot to tell you… You’re gonna love ants in this movie way more than you did in ANTZ or A BUG’S LIFE. They’re not gonna terrify you like in THEM. But I’d say the best movie with ants prior to this was the George Pal film NAKED JUNGLE with Charlton Heston! In that, you see in a rather terrifying manner, the ingenious ant doing his best to just lay waste to everything, carving a scar into the planet Earth as we know it.
In ANT-MAN, you never see him wield his power to do something super cool like strip the meat from the bodies of enemy combatants… dang it. I mean, don’t you kinda wanna see a pissed off Ant-Man getting all Dr. Phibes on an annoying dick? No, instead, you’re kids are going to become very curious about ANTS after this film. I mean, we all want a little ant puppy of our own, right?
The visual effects work is very impressive and easy to visualize follow and admire. Very clean work. The briefcase fight is one of the more crazy fights I’ve ever seen on film. Really terrific work there.
The 3D of the film is also a pure marvel! One thing is certain, you’re going to see this world from perspectives and move through it in ways you’ve never seen before. It is tremendously cool. The audience I saw this with seemed to be completely thrilled. My Security Guard buddy who is a rabid modern Marvel fan was one VERY HAPPY MAN! Seriously! It was fun to see just how electrified folks were about the film. Before hand, there were a lot of reservations. Afterwards, lots of “I’m seeing that again” type of statements.
I’ll be fascinated to see how he comes into play with CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR… In particular, I love the dynamic of having Hank Pym quarterbacking Scott Lang. But I also loved how smart Lang was in a pinch. But I want Evangeline Lily as the WASP very very badly. Watching those two in action and romance would be a complete blast. All I know is I’m definitely seeing this one a few times for sure. It’s the most different Marvel film we’ve gotten since GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, but hopefully that’s going to be the new standard with Marvel. They’ve got a whole bunch of new characters coming, playing with genre conventions and Marvel powering them up is going to be a blast.
To sum up the experience. Peyton Reed’s execution is going to surprise a lot of folks. At every level this film was working. Rudd was having a blast making this, and if you were doing the things he was doing in this movie, you’d look either terrified or… terribly surprised. He has a panic and a sense of empowerment from those experiences. Those scenes are just a whole lot of fun. See this on the largest IMAX 3D screen you can get to. It looked absolutely jaw-dropping tonight. Paul Rudd’s a superhero. I mean, once upon a time, who would’ve thought Robert Downey Jr could do Iron Man? Especially in them John Hughes days. CHAPLIN days? I love the history of some of these actors. Makes for very funny thoughts. Paul Rudd… Superhero… classic. I love it. You’ll see.
