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MCU Revisit: Ant-Man
Written by Christian Garcia
Introduction:
I remember having low expectations for this film when it was first announced. Not in its quality but I feared it would be the Marvel film to bomb at the box office and be the one that no one saw. I didn’t know much about the character and figured not many other people did either. The casting choice of Paul Rudd as the lead also had me scratching my head.
Now before anyone gets the wrong idea, I am a big fan of Paul Rudd and his work. I loved him in The 40-Year-Old Virgin and I Love You, Man, and many other of his films. I met him a few years ago at Comic-Con and he was the nicest and coolest guy ever.
At the time, I just couldn’t picture him as a superhero. All these elements had me worried if the public would actually go see this film. And then when it came out, I was never happier to be wrong in my life. Everyone I asked all had the same reaction: Ant-Man was good. When I saw it myself, I felt the same way. It was a fun and funny comic book movie.
I was excited to look back at this film and show it to my girlfriend who is also a huge Paul Rudd fan. Does this film still hold up? Let’s take a look.
The Hero:
Scott Lang is a former convicted thief who attempts to turn his life around and be a part of his daughter’s life.
He is a highly skilled engineer and thief. He usually stole from criminals and returned the money to the people they stole from. He was fired from his job at Vistacorp after discovering that they were stealing money from their customers. He broke into their headquarters and hacked their systems to return the money to the customers. He then broke into his former boss’ mansion and stole some items and then drove his car into a pool.
He served 3 years in prison for his crime. During his time in jail, his wife divorced him and afterward, he vowed to never get involved with a life of crime again so he could be a part of his daughter’s life. His criminal record makes it difficult for him to find work and he resorts to returning to his thieving ways. In the process, he meets Hank Pym and is convinced to take the Ant-Man suit; an advanced suit designed to shrink one down to the size of an ant while increasing their toughness, agility, and strength.
The Hero’s Journey:
The main theme of the film is second chances. Both Scott and Hank fight for second chances in life to make things right with their respective daughters.
Scott cares about his daughter Cassie more than anything. Every choice he makes throughout the film is in service to his goal of being a part of her life. At the beginning of the film, his ex-wife tells him to get his life in order, and then they will talk about giving him visitation rights. She tells him to be the hero that Cassie already thinks he is. After he is released from prison, he is adamant about not returning to a life of crime and turning his life around so he can be with his daughter. He even takes a job at Baskin Robbins to try and make child support. However, his criminal past gets him fired, and with nowhere else to turn he ends up going back to his thieving ways. Scott breaks into Hank’s house and unknowingly steals the Ant-Man suit. When Scott meets Hank, Hank promises to help him get a second chance to be with his daughter again. Ironically, the way of doing so is what Scott had vowed to never do as Hank put it “break into a place and steal some shit”. The plan goes array and Darren Cross ends up going after Cassie. In the climax, Scott risks his own life to save Cassie by going subatomic to defeat Cross. As he roams in the Quantum Realm, he hears Cassie’s cries for him, and it is enough to help him regain his senses and he figures out a way to return.
Hank’s relationship with his daughter Hope is strained. After the loss of his wife, Hank pushed Hope away while trying to figure out a way to bring his wife back. He blamed himself for her loss and became overprotective of Hope and wouldn’t let her be a part of his Ant-Man experiments. This caused a rift in their relationship as Hope felt he cared more about his experiments than consoling her after the loss of her mother.
Through their experience in the film, Scott and Hank do get their second chances and much more. Scott gets to be with his daughter while also gaining a new family in Hank and Hope. Hank gets his daughter back and a glimmer of hope in finding his wife after witnessing Scott return from the Quantum Realm. Both men got their second chances and came out better on the other side than they started.
The Villain
Darren Cross is the former protégé of Hank Pym who usurped him to become CEO of Pym Technologies, with help from Hank’s daughter Hope.
Hank took Cross under his wing, but their relationship deteriorated as Cross became obsessed with Hank’s Pym Particle. His obsession leads him to create his own version with the intent of weaponizing it. He creates his own version of the Ant-Man suit known as the Yellowjacket. He attempts to sell the suit to HYDRA and the Ten Rings but is foiled by Pym, Hope, and Scott Lang. He goes mad after his failure and tries to kill Scott and his family, even going as far as to threaten Scott’s daughter Cassie.
Cross from the beginning of the film has an unstable personality. He comes off confident in his work, yet you can tell as the experiments fail, that his frustrations grow. He’s a man who let his obsession poison his mind to the point that he doesn’t care who he hurts so long as he gets what he wants. He is a subtle mad scientist as he is not as over-the-top as say a Dr. Frankenstein. He is also reminiscent of Obadiah Stane. A man who is driven by greed and profit and is not afraid to stab anyone in the back to get his way.
He serves his role as the antagonist very well and does come off as a threat. However, as a villain, he falls in line with Stane. A good antagonist but not the most interesting villain. While we know his motivation as becoming obsessed with recreating the Pym Particle, we don’t really know why he became so obsessed with it. A little more background on him would have been helpful. What we get is enough to see the film through, but a little more information would have helped make him more interesting.
The Film’s Pros:
A Fun And Creative World
The best thing about the film that makes it stand out is its visuals and how it takes advantage of the ideas it creates. The idea of a shrinking man is nothing new and nothing we haven’t seen before but the way they take that idea and get creative with it makes this film such a joy to watch. When Scott first puts on the suit and falls in the bathtub and then goes between floors taking the mundane everyday items and making them into these grander worlds. Scott running inside the bathtub felt so epic. They do an excellent job of making the regular world seem so much bigger when Ant-Man shrinks down. It’s a great way of reminding the viewer that the world is so much bigger than we think.
The film’s climax takes place in Cassie’s room on a Thomas the Tank Engine train set. They cleverly cut to show the viewer how this epic encounter is taking place on a simple toy train set up in a child’s room. They make a child’s toy set feel as grand as if it were taking place at a real train station. It’s funny to see the dramatic build to the train hitting the Yellowjacket and then we see it just fall over as if a child were playing with it. It’s both funny and very clever.
The concept of Ant-Man opens the door for creative possibilities and Marvel Studios took full advantage of it and had fun with it. Seeing Thomas the Tank Engine involved in an epic superhero fight is something I never thought I would see and am so happy that I got to see. It makes me excited to see what other cool stuff they come up with for later Ant-Man movies. I would love to see how much further they can take this idea.
The Film’s Cons:
Needed More of Yellowjacket
I mentioned before that Darren Cross made for a fine antagonist but not the most interesting villain. As Barney Stinson said, “No one wants to see Bruce Banner, they wanna see the Hulk.” The idea of the Yellowjacket is a cool concept and the suit looked really cool. It would have been nice to get some buildup for it before the climax. We don’t see Cross done with the suit until an hour and a half into the movie with only about a half-hour left.
The use of Yellowjacket is like the use of Iron Monger in the first Iron Man film. The build-up to its reveal and when it’s finally revealed it’s not that much of an improvement on the Ant-Man suit. The only added enhancement is that the suit is made of titanium which forces Scott to go subatomic to take him down. It would have been nice to see a few moments with Cross in the suit to build it up as more of a threat to Ant-Man. Maybe Cross figured out a way to enhance the suit to give him an advantage over Ant-Man. Maybe Cross learned something that Hank didn’t that could be used to improve the Ant-Man suit. If they had just a few scenes of Yellowjacket showing off what he could do, it would have built up the rivalry between him and Ant-Man more and would have added stakes to the climax. While the climax itself did have stakes, an added rivalry would have made it even more epic.
As is, Yellowjacket is more of a physical obstacle for Ant-Man to overcome. Not a bad obstacle, but one that could have been more.
Final Thoughts:
Ant-Man is a fun and funny superhero film. Paul Rudd brings his great acting and comedic talents and made me a believer in him as a Marvel hero. Michael Douglas and Evangeline Lily make for a great supporting cast as well as Michael Peña who brings great laughs. The cast created another group of Marvel characters that I’m excited to see interact with the Avengers. The creativity that they use to make the world Ant-Man explores makes for awesome visuals and a fun experience. It was a pleasant surprise and a sleeper hit. If you’re looking to get a fix of action, cool visuals, and Paul Rudd, this is the film for you.
Written by Christian Garcia
Introduction:
I remember having low expectations for this film when it was first announced. Not in its quality but I feared it would be the Marvel film to bomb at the box office and be the one that no one saw. I didn’t know much about the character and figured not many other people did either. The casting choice of Paul Rudd as the lead also had me scratching my head.
Now before anyone gets the wrong idea, I am a big fan of Paul Rudd and his work. I loved him in The 40-Year-Old Virgin and I Love You, Man, and many other of his films. I met him a few years ago at Comic-Con and he was the nicest and coolest guy ever.
At the time, I just couldn’t picture him as a superhero. All these elements had me worried if the public would actually go see this film. And then when it came out, I was never happier to be wrong in my life. Everyone I asked all had the same reaction: Ant-Man was good. When I saw it myself, I felt the same way. It was a fun and funny comic book movie.
I was excited to look back at this film and show it to my girlfriend who is also a huge Paul Rudd fan. Does this film still hold up? Let’s take a look.
The Hero:
Scott Lang is a former convicted thief who attempts to turn his life around and be a part of his daughter’s life.
He is a highly skilled engineer and thief. He usually stole from criminals and returned the money to the people they stole from. He was fired from his job at Vistacorp after discovering that they were stealing money from their customers. He broke into their headquarters and hacked their systems to return the money to the customers. He then broke into his former boss’ mansion and stole some items and then drove his car into a pool.
He served 3 years in prison for his crime. During his time in jail, his wife divorced him and afterward, he vowed to never get involved with a life of crime again so he could be a part of his daughter’s life. His criminal record makes it difficult for him to find work and he resorts to returning to his thieving ways. In the process, he meets Hank Pym and is convinced to take the Ant-Man suit; an advanced suit designed to shrink one down to the size of an ant while increasing their toughness, agility, and strength.
The Hero’s Journey:
The main theme of the film is second chances. Both Scott and Hank fight for second chances in life to make things right with their respective daughters.
Scott cares about his daughter Cassie more than anything. Every choice he makes throughout the film is in service to his goal of being a part of her life. At the beginning of the film, his ex-wife tells him to get his life in order, and then they will talk about giving him visitation rights. She tells him to be the hero that Cassie already thinks he is. After he is released from prison, he is adamant about not returning to a life of crime and turning his life around so he can be with his daughter. He even takes a job at Baskin Robbins to try and make child support. However, his criminal past gets him fired, and with nowhere else to turn he ends up going back to his thieving ways. Scott breaks into Hank’s house and unknowingly steals the Ant-Man suit. When Scott meets Hank, Hank promises to help him get a second chance to be with his daughter again. Ironically, the way of doing so is what Scott had vowed to never do as Hank put it “break into a place and steal some shit”. The plan goes array and Darren Cross ends up going after Cassie. In the climax, Scott risks his own life to save Cassie by going subatomic to defeat Cross. As he roams in the Quantum Realm, he hears Cassie’s cries for him, and it is enough to help him regain his senses and he figures out a way to return.
Hank’s relationship with his daughter Hope is strained. After the loss of his wife, Hank pushed Hope away while trying to figure out a way to bring his wife back. He blamed himself for her loss and became overprotective of Hope and wouldn’t let her be a part of his Ant-Man experiments. This caused a rift in their relationship as Hope felt he cared more about his experiments than consoling her after the loss of her mother.
Through their experience in the film, Scott and Hank do get their second chances and much more. Scott gets to be with his daughter while also gaining a new family in Hank and Hope. Hank gets his daughter back and a glimmer of hope in finding his wife after witnessing Scott return from the Quantum Realm. Both men got their second chances and came out better on the other side than they started.
The Villain
Darren Cross is the former protégé of Hank Pym who usurped him to become CEO of Pym Technologies, with help from Hank’s daughter Hope.
Hank took Cross under his wing, but their relationship deteriorated as Cross became obsessed with Hank’s Pym Particle. His obsession leads him to create his own version with the intent of weaponizing it. He creates his own version of the Ant-Man suit known as the Yellowjacket. He attempts to sell the suit to HYDRA and the Ten Rings but is foiled by Pym, Hope, and Scott Lang. He goes mad after his failure and tries to kill Scott and his family, even going as far as to threaten Scott’s daughter Cassie.
Cross from the beginning of the film has an unstable personality. He comes off confident in his work, yet you can tell as the experiments fail, that his frustrations grow. He’s a man who let his obsession poison his mind to the point that he doesn’t care who he hurts so long as he gets what he wants. He is a subtle mad scientist as he is not as over-the-top as say a Dr. Frankenstein. He is also reminiscent of Obadiah Stane. A man who is driven by greed and profit and is not afraid to stab anyone in the back to get his way.
He serves his role as the antagonist very well and does come off as a threat. However, as a villain, he falls in line with Stane. A good antagonist but not the most interesting villain. While we know his motivation as becoming obsessed with recreating the Pym Particle, we don’t really know why he became so obsessed with it. A little more background on him would have been helpful. What we get is enough to see the film through, but a little more information would have helped make him more interesting.
The Film’s Pros:
A Fun And Creative World
The best thing about the film that makes it stand out is its visuals and how it takes advantage of the ideas it creates. The idea of a shrinking man is nothing new and nothing we haven’t seen before but the way they take that idea and get creative with it makes this film such a joy to watch. When Scott first puts on the suit and falls in the bathtub and then goes between floors taking the mundane everyday items and making them into these grander worlds. Scott running inside the bathtub felt so epic. They do an excellent job of making the regular world seem so much bigger when Ant-Man shrinks down. It’s a great way of reminding the viewer that the world is so much bigger than we think.
The film’s climax takes place in Cassie’s room on a Thomas the Tank Engine train set. They cleverly cut to show the viewer how this epic encounter is taking place on a simple toy train set up in a child’s room. They make a child’s toy set feel as grand as if it were taking place at a real train station. It’s funny to see the dramatic build to the train hitting the Yellowjacket and then we see it just fall over as if a child were playing with it. It’s both funny and very clever.
The concept of Ant-Man opens the door for creative possibilities and Marvel Studios took full advantage of it and had fun with it. Seeing Thomas the Tank Engine involved in an epic superhero fight is something I never thought I would see and am so happy that I got to see. It makes me excited to see what other cool stuff they come up with for later Ant-Man movies. I would love to see how much further they can take this idea.
The Film’s Cons:
Needed More of Yellowjacket
I mentioned before that Darren Cross made for a fine antagonist but not the most interesting villain. As Barney Stinson said, “No one wants to see Bruce Banner, they wanna see the Hulk.” The idea of the Yellowjacket is a cool concept and the suit looked really cool. It would have been nice to get some buildup for it before the climax. We don’t see Cross done with the suit until an hour and a half into the movie with only about a half-hour left.
The use of Yellowjacket is like the use of Iron Monger in the first Iron Man film. The build-up to its reveal and when it’s finally revealed it’s not that much of an improvement on the Ant-Man suit. The only added enhancement is that the suit is made of titanium which forces Scott to go subatomic to take him down. It would have been nice to see a few moments with Cross in the suit to build it up as more of a threat to Ant-Man. Maybe Cross figured out a way to enhance the suit to give him an advantage over Ant-Man. Maybe Cross learned something that Hank didn’t that could be used to improve the Ant-Man suit. If they had just a few scenes of Yellowjacket showing off what he could do, it would have built up the rivalry between him and Ant-Man more and would have added stakes to the climax. While the climax itself did have stakes, an added rivalry would have made it even more epic.
As is, Yellowjacket is more of a physical obstacle for Ant-Man to overcome. Not a bad obstacle, but one that could have been more.
Final Thoughts:
Ant-Man is a fun and funny superhero film. Paul Rudd brings his great acting and comedic talents and made me a believer in him as a Marvel hero. Michael Douglas and Evangeline Lily make for a great supporting cast as well as Michael Peña who brings great laughs. The cast created another group of Marvel characters that I’m excited to see interact with the Avengers. The creativity that they use to make the world Ant-Man explores makes for awesome visuals and a fun experience. It was a pleasant surprise and a sleeper hit. If you’re looking to get a fix of action, cool visuals, and Paul Rudd, this is the film for you.