It's Friday again, and this week, we're revisiting the end of Phase 2: Ant-Man. Time sure flies fast, doesn't it? It only feels like it was just recently when I watched the first Avengers movie. BACKGROUND:
Ant-Man was one of those movies that was on the rumor mill for a while. I remember a few years back when that test footage from SDCC 2012 ended up leaking and everyone lost their minds. After the mainstream success of Guardians of the Galaxy, I was confident that Marvel Studios can make an inherently weird hero like Ant-Man a huge hit. But then, production drama started dominating the airwaves. Edgar Wright left the director's chair, was promptly replaced, and everyone lost their minds (again). The doomsayers started popping out, prophesizing the MCU's first failure, and the pretentious hacks started ragging on Marvel Studios for not giving directors more creative freedom (which, during this point, was a dumbass hot take). It kind of soured the hype for some people, but I like Ant-Man in the comics, and I was blown away by the test footage, so I didn't give a shit. COMICS TO READ:
MY FAVORITE MOMENTS:
THE EASTER EGGS:
THE HERO: Scott is a former crook who now wants to be better in order to be with his daughter Cassie, whom he loves very much. The combo of being a person trying to be a family man and striving to be better than they were is more than enough to get me to root for the guy. It helps that Paul Rudd gives us an endearing and funny performance. It also helps that Cassie was a charming kid, and that her interactions with her dad were nice and wholesome, which got me to care more about Scott's motivations. Scott also serves as a sort of a counterpart to Hank Pym, our resident grumpy old man who hasn't won a lot of "dad of the year" awards. I was already excited to see Pym in the MCU and to see more of his past, and the added dynamic of his tumultuous relationship with Hope (and how that contrasts with Scott's relationship with Cassie) made me glad that his role is a little deeper than "disgruntled mentor". THE VILLAIN: Darren Cross is generic businessman #102 who turns out to be evil and completely off his rocker. He also suffers from "same powers as the hero" syndrome. Such a shame. While I can't really say much about the first point (other than the actor portrays "slowly going psycho" quite well), I will defend the second point to the death, because it at least gave us creative action sequences. OTHER THINGS:
THE AFTER-CREDITS: There are two stingers. The first one comes at the middle of the credits, and it's Hank revealing the new Wasp suit to Hope. I was kinda miffed that Hope didn't get to do a lot overall (even if the in-universe reasoning was sound), but seeing this renewed my hopes of seeing more Wasp in the MCU. The post-credits scene would turn out to be a scene from Civil War. Cap and Falcon have Bucky captive, and they're discussing some serious stuff. Falcon talks about how he "knows a guy", tying into the last moments of the movie. It was exciting just for the Civil War implications, but what made it more exciting was the prospect of Ant-Man interacting with the rest of the Avengers. VERDICT: People thought Ant-Man would be the downfall of the MCU, and that it would be a disaster. Instead of a horrific dumpster fire, though, we got a really fun movie with a heist film vibe (though at the cost of more traditional superhero fisticuffs, which honestly isn't much of a loss here), yet another charming MCU hero, creative set pieces with all the shrinking, and the legend known as Luis. Though the stakes were rather low (especially considering the movie that preceded it), I still enjoyed it, especially with the surprising amount of tie-ins to the greater MCU. If this is what a flop looks like, I would like some more flops, please. The rewatch continues next Friday. Come back then for some Captain America: Civil War. That's gonna be exciting. - end -
0 Comments
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |
Categories
All
Archives
June 2024
Derryck
|