Ant-Man is the next Marvel superhero to get his own Cinematic Universe solo outing. Last night, a trailer for the movie, which drops in July, came out during the premiere of Agent Carter. The decision to release Ant-Man in July is another bold move from Marvel; giving one of their premier summer movie slots to a hero who has thus far been absent from the MCU. The last time that happened, I had faith in Marvel and was proven right to have done so. I had loud confidence in Guardians of the Galaxy in the years before its release, nobody thought would work, but in the end, it did. Ant-Man, however, has me worried and there are many reasons for this. At this point, anything Marvel Studios makes should be a shoe-in success, but Ant-Man is giving me serious concerns, even following the release of the trailer.
Starring blank space as Ant-Man! Oh, wait...
The first big trailer and the reasons that Ant-Man could face trouble at the box office can be found after the jump.
Just so we're all up to speed, watch the first Ant-Man trailer below.
The Edgar Wright Stuff
Are we all up to speed now? Yes? Good. Now, lets tear this mother down.
The elephant in the room around Ant-Man will always be the departure of Edgar Wright. Make no mistakes, I am a huge Edgar Wright fan. Although I am a bigger fan of his British-centric work, like Spaced and the Cornetto Trilogy, Wright showed how he could handle big-budget Hollywood comic book action in Scott Pilgrim Vs The World, a film which performed poorly at the box office, but soon became a cult favourite. And rightly so; Pilgrim is a movie that really does get better with repeated viewings. It does so much to adapt the source material as best as possible whilst making changes where necessary to create a coherent, distinct and very memorable cinematic experience. So, given the quirky nature of the Ant-Man story, Wright was a great pick to helm the movie; he is a huge Ant-Fan to boot. But Wrights departure of the project over ‘creative differences’ after six years was a dark cloud on the production, and a great loss to Marvel Studios’ creative forces.
Come back, you beautiful bastard.
And then you have his replacement, Peyton Reed. Without wishing to be harsh, Reeds back catalogue of movies is piss poor; the best being 2008’s Jim Carey comedy Yes Man and the worst being the Jennifer Aniston vehicle The Break-Up. It’s a risky move, more of a fix than a true passing of the torch, but more importantly, it doesn’t fit the pattern of choosing directors that Marvel usually takes. Jon Favreau had experience telling the story of flawed empowered people in Made, James Gunn showed his love for the offbeat outsiders in Slither and the Russo Brothers demonstrate their handling of out-of-the-ordinary characters in Arrested Development and Community. Reed, though, has shown only that he can produce less than stellar romantic comedies. Wright, we miss you already.
Play it again, Marvel
Stop me if you’ve heard this one. This superhero movie tells the story of an eccentric outsider who doesn’t play by the rules, who must use technology not only to right his former wrongs, but to re-invent himself into the hero he needs to be to protect those he cares about, whilst being pursued and challenged by an evil man who has taken and modified the technology of the main characters significant elders.
Pictured: The same plot
Yep, Ant-Man has inexplicably become Iron Man. The problem with Ant-Man shown in the trailer is that it seems to be a loose re-tread of the original Iron Man movie, but with an added ‘assuming the mantle’ subplot. It’s not to say that this is a direct impact of Reed’s influence on the film, as we know Edgar Wright originally intended to adapt the ‘To Steal an Ant-Man’ story, one which introduced Scott Lang as the new Ant-Man. However, the tried and tested Marvel formula appears to be stretching a little thin here. Ant-Man is being denied an original angle, which would have worked wonders for such an offbeat hero, and something you really could have pictured Wright heralding were he still directing.
No Strings Attatched
Ultron is one of the biggest parts of the Ant-Man story. It is Hank Pym’s single biggest mistake, which later leads to the scientist into a downward spiral, which includes an identity crisis and domestic abuse toward his wife Janet van Dyne. The creation of Ultron leads to some of the biggest knock-on effects in the Marvel universe, such as the creation of Vision and Jocasta, and at one point, he also becomes a major player in the Marvel Cosmic event Annihilation: Conquest. Ultron has even been so powerful that it took the combined force of the Avengers, the Inhumans and the Fantastic Four to bring him down, and in an alternate timeline, almost succeeded in killing all super humans on Earth and establishing a new world order.
Pinocchi-Oh Fuck!
The problem is Hank Pym is not Marvel’s poster boy; That honour has always been Iron Man’s. This is why Ultron is now no longer part of the Ant-Man story, and is instead now a creation of Tony Stark. I mean, it makes sense, seeing as the Ant-Man movie doesn’t focus on Pym’s origins, meaning Ultron doesn't need to be a central plot point or even a major impact on Pym’s life anymore. That, and James Spader has shown his acting chops to be worthy of bringing menace to Ultron whilst being removed from his sinister origin. So what are we left with? Darren Cross, played by Corey Stoll, a minor villain from the 70s who was effectively a pink Hulk. This version, however, gives Cross a similar shape-shifting suit in the form of the Yellowjacket; once another identity of Hank Pym. Yeah, it’s basically Obadiah Stane, isn’t it?
Pym-s O'Clock
Hank Pym is both a problem and privilege for Marvel. On one hand, Hank Pym was a founding Avenger, has one of the more complex and emotional character arcs when it comes to dealing with life as a superhero, and has impacted the stories and origins of so many other heroes. On the other hand, it’s unlikely that Disney or Marvel will have wanted to put a wife beater into the spotlight for his own movie. And that’s why we’re stuck with Scott Lang as our Ant-Man. The loss of the true Ultron origin and Pym’s involvement with the Avengers is a huge shame, as it looks like most of this will be downplayed with Michael Douglas’s interpretation of the character. Not to mention, Pym’s wife Janet, otherwise known as the Wasp, is getting replaced by his alternate universe daughter Hope to take up the insect mantle of her mother. And because literally every movie needs a romance story, it seems.
I wouldn't expect to see this scene in the movie.
The Pym lineage also faces serious retconning issues when it comes to fitting into the MCU. Given that there was no major superhero activity between the end of World War II and the events of the first Iron Man, it will be a bit of a stretch to believe that Douglas’s Pym was running around as Ant-Man in the 60’s without SHIELD having anything to do with it. In fact, the very angle of the wacky 60’s Ant-Man really does not fit in with the aesthetic that Marvel and Reed have chosen to display in the trailer. Even Pym in the trailer seems far more serious and fatherly than he has ever been in the comics. That’s not to say that Scott Lang can’t be interesting, but Paul Rudd hasn’t yet shown the drive for redemption or salvation that initially inspired Scott Lang to steal the Ant-Man suit to begin with.
Trailer Trash
Here’s the thing. I wrote up 90% of this article prior to the trailer dropping, and I was hoping I’d be able to scrap the article and write something new because the trailer would put all of my fears to bed. This has not been the case. The overly serious tone of the trailer juxtaposed against the lack of confidence that Rudd shows as Lang in his newly found identity is very, very troubling. It’s almost a mirror image of how Marvel are seemingly down-playing Ant-Man in general. His movie comes out mere months after Avengers: Age of Ultron, depraved of his signature villain, without the original visionary director and with a performance from the main hero that seemingly does not subscribe to the school of thought that has carried Marvel movie through from 2008; “Yes, this is ridiculous, but it’s fun”. The very fact that Captain America can continue to use his outdated mantle and not look ridiculous doing it is a tribute to the po-faced bravado that Marvel have been able to strike in their heroes.
Although, the costume is pretty sweet...
Ant-Man though? Very content to pick holes in himself before he’s even had a chance to shine, whilst the rest of the trailer is building him up to be this complete game changer. When Tony Stark told the world he was Iron Man, he believed it. When Star-Lord announced the arrival of the Guardians of the Galaxy, he meant it. When Captain America defied the US government to fight for freedom, he did it with integrity. Ant-Man hasn’t been seen inside of his suit for a cumulative minute yet and he’s already having doubts. And the trailer didn’t have any incrediblt ‘holy shit’ moments either. The Ultron trailer had the creepy Pinnochio music and Spader’s imposing “There are no strings on me.” Guardians had the edge of comedy and nostalgia found in its remixing of Hooked On A Feeling. Ant-Man has a run of the mill action trailer with a protagonist with performance problems.
The domino effect of development hell, production troubles and unnecessary rewrites can be felt full force here in the trailer. By all means, it could still be an incredible bait-and-switch by Marvel, who somehow has made a talking tree into a pop culture icon. Marvel are still masters of composing multiple players in this huge world of thiers, from giving all of the Avengers enough stuff to do in the intermediaries between team-up movies, the expansion into the cosmic realm and now the exploration of new heroes in mutan—err, I mean Inhumans. But Ant-Man’s first appearance does little to put any of the worries of its conception to bed. It feels so very lacking in confidence, something with Marvel have never shown. Could this be the beginning of the end for the superhero titans? Just a misstep on the path? Or the biggest shattering of expectations the studio has ever turned? We look forward to finding out in July.
By Mike Owen
@ThatMikeOwen
The Editor in Chief of Foul Entertainment, Mike edits most of what you see on the site. He runs the production of all three of our current podcasts, he is responsible for logo, art design and site design, and does a good deal of writing across the spectrum.
@ThatMikeOwen
The Editor in Chief of Foul Entertainment, Mike edits most of what you see on the site. He runs the production of all three of our current podcasts, he is responsible for logo, art design and site design, and does a good deal of writing across the spectrum.