Hello and welcome to another of my film reviews; it’s a small world! I will be reviewing Ant-man and talking about previous and future MCU films like Avengers: Age of Ultron and Captain America: Civil War, so SPOILERS will be immanent! Fair warning!
The not so intimidatingly named ANT-MAN! …Ant-man: a man who wears a suit that enables him to shrink and control ants…but he’s going to be an Avenger! Woo-hoo!! Scott Lang (Paul Rudd), is a con-man/burglar chosen by Hank Pym (who invented and previously was thee Ant-man) to wear the Ant-man suit, and help him stop Darren Cross, (Hank’s protégé) from mass-producing his own copy of the Pym particle and suit, which he calls Yellowjacket…seriously, who thinks of these names! So they decide to call for the assistance of Anthony the Ant and his ant friends (instead the Avengers) to destroy the Yellowjacket suit. …Yeah. And the moral of this film is you don’t have to be big to be a hero; did you see what I did there?
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My friends Alan, Ethan and Matt were originally planning to go to the new Cineworld at Glasgow Silverburn, but because of the distance and a free poster available with the Kilmarnock Odeon viewing, we decided to go there instead. We were given the cool Ant-man/Iron Man poster that is part of three posters featuring Ant-man in comparison to an Avenger (the other posters being Thor and Captain America). We went to the very first viewing of it and there was hardly anyone there apart from the Pics Prick; it’s been a while since I’ve encountered one of them! I don’t seem to get recurring pricks, so here’s another common one – the one who is sitting in your seat! But because the rest of the cinema was empty and it was just this one guy, we didn’t want to be nit-picky and say he was in our seat, so we felt obligated to sit in the premiere seats instead. We were in the very centre of the cinema so had the perfect view, but I really don’t see much difference with the comfort or space compared to the standard seats; it’s a bit of a rip off (when you’re paying for them, he-he-he).
I read the prelude comic again for this film like Age of Ultron; it features Hank Pym fighting as the Ant-man for the first time in the Peggy Carter days and also has Scott Lang in the present date doing a burglary which ends him up in jail at the start of the movie. Once again like Age of Ultron, the prelude parts themselves are quite short but with this book you get original older comics that influenced the film and are good to read through. I’ll be honest and say I wasn’t particularly bothered about Ant-man. After watching Age of Ultron and independent films like Iron Man or The Winter Soldier, I just didn’t think this was going to be better than them. To be fair to Ant-man, I was pessimistic about Guardians of the Galaxy before I went to see it thinking it was just another sci-fi film and turned out to be one of favourite Marvel films, so there was hope. When it was first announced, I was so excited for it because it was Edgar Wright who was writing and directing it. Unfortunately because of “creative differences” with Marvel, he was replaced as director by Peyton Reed (Yes Man). I just wish Marvel could have let him do his own thing since his filming style is brilliantly clever and witty as shown in the Cornetto trilogy and Scott Pilgrim; if you’re going to do something Wright, do it Wright!
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From the Ant-man trailers it looked as though it was using comedy as it’s main genre. There were funny parts like the Thomas the Tank engine moments, Scott introducing his gang to Hank Pym, but Luis’ parts were hilarious; his personality/attitude, recollecting on his conversations and then whistling that infernal tune we’ve heard a million times, “It’s a small world”. I don’t know how but I completely forgot about Stan Lee’s appearance so it surprised me again during Luis’ second recollection at the end. The recollections with the actors miming Luis’ voice were done brilliantly and seeing Stan Lee miming as well was unexpected and a great way to include him! Unlike the other Avengers, Scott is an average Joe with everyday worries especially for his daughter; all the other heroes of course worry about everyone’s safety, but mainly worry about their girlfriends or best buds so it was good having something different. Like Iron Man, I can see this character developing as the films go on with his attitude, abilities and contribution to the Avengers; it would definitely be interesting to see Ant-man take advantage of the weapon (that enlarges things) to become the Giant-man in future films. The Thomas the Tank Engine enlarging and destroying half of the house was probably the coolest moment; it literally tore the roof off.
Now onto the downside with this film: I didn’t love it. It’s a sad thing to admit since I’ve loved the last three MCU films, but I just didn’t enjoy this film as much. It’s almost as if Marvel had lost confidence with this film (like they couldn’t take it seriously) so retreated to humour and Avengers references to make it entertaining. I do like the odd Marvel Easter egg and I know the Avengers should at least be acknowledged by now, but I felt it was too much and he should have been given his own space to show us what he’s made of. I liked how Falcon was the only Avenger included since he didn’t feature greatly in Age of Ultron, but the fight between Falcon and Ant-man did seem a bit silly. Overall it just seemed rushed; the film just acted as a way for Ant-man to get introduced to the Avengers rather than being a film independently about him. Talking about rushed: the audience are practically told the problems with Hank, Hope and Darren and are just left to believe it, so there was no emotional attachment is with these characters. I honestly got bored with the melodrama between Hank and Hope, and between Hank and Darren. Hope and Darren just whinge all the time, and Hank just wants peace from them; is that really too much to ask? I wanted bloody peace from them and more focus on Ant-man! Compared to Age of Ultron, which had many brilliant ‘wow’ moments, I felt this film was lacking; apart from the Thomas the Tank Engine destroying the house there are only predictable things like him shrinking, and interacting with the ants. And the death of Anthony the Ant…NOOOO! …Yeah; it was a bit over the top getting emotional over an ant. Even it was emotional, it was inevitable the ant was going to die as soon as Scott gave it a name. Hedwig’s death: now that was sad! If Hank Pym had actually been killed by Darren that would have been emotional, but Marvel suspiciously didn’t want to let him go yet unlike Gwen Stacey. Anyway, even with my moaning I AM looking forward to Ant-man becoming an Avenger and I think he’ll be better with the group than on his own.
After the film, there were two very interesting post-credit clips; usually there’s a humorous one and one that links to a future film, but with Ant-man it was different. The first clip introduces the Wasp costume to Hope (although there has been no mention of when she’ll make an appearance as the Wasp). The second clip right at the end of the credits features Falcon, Captain America and Bucky plotting behind Tony Stark’s back and planning to get Ant-man to help them. It’s uncertain if Bucky/The Winter Soldier will be an enemy or hero as this is quite a leap from the end of Captain America: The Winter Soldier where they’re going off to search for him. And it’s looking likely Ant-man will side with Captain America’s team instead of Iron Man.
I’ve mentioned Captain America: Civil War (April 29, 2016) in many of my reviews and since Ant-man is the last MCU film before it, I’ll recap on what has been revealed about it. Firstly I’ll let you know which of the current Avengers have been confirmed for it: Iron Man and Captain America (obviously), Falcon, Black Widow, Vision, War Machine, Scarlet Witch, Hawkeye…actually it’s probably easier to tell you who’s not in it: Thor. But apparently this film will link directly into Thor’s next film, “Ragnarok”. And the Hulk hasn’t been confirmed yet but there are rumours of Dr Banner making an appearance too. As well as the Avengers we will see new members appearing like Ant-man, Black Panther, but the biggest addition in the MCU films that everyone is talking about is our friendly neighbourhood hero – yep, Spiderman is going to be in Captain America: Civil War! We even had our first small reference at the end of Ant-man; while Luis is saying that Falcon is looking for Ant-man, a woman says to him, “We got guys who jump. We got guys who swing. We got guys who climb walls.” So it’s extremely hard for a Marvel geek like myself to contain their excitement for this film with Spidey’s appearance and the fact that there will be more Avengers than in the two Avengers films themselves! Sorry Batman vs. Superman; still not doing it for me.
Before finishing this review, I thought I’d talk briefly about Agent Carter. The first episode aired in the UK on July 12, whereas in the USA it aired January 8; practically half a year apart! If we did that with the likes of Doctor Who, the American whovians would be enraged! Anyway I’ve been eager to watch this series because Peggy is my favourite leading woman in the MCU. And it didn’t disappoint! Loved the old style of this and Captain America: The First Avenger; it was why I was worried about Captain America: The Winter Soldier keeping the nostalgic theme. As well as the nostalgia, Agent Carter was thrilling, humorous, sad (especially when Peggy’s flat-mate is killed; not even just a graze or struggle, just shot in the forehead) and most importantly is a great way of having a woman as the main hero in the MCU. We’ve still to get a woman lead MCU film; I believe the first one will be Captain Marvel, but it won’t be around until late 2018. Anyway I thought Agent Carter was great and will continue to watch it and I’m hoping to see appearances of familiar faces like Howard again, or maybe even Hank Pym? That could be interesting.
Home-time! I think if you are a hard-core MCU fan you should definitely watch Ant-man especially on the lead up to Ant-man joining the Avengers. Otherwise I wasn’t that bothered about this film on it’s own. Seeing it at the Kilmarnock Odeon was fine; decent seats, screen and sound. Kinda glad now we didn’t go to the IMAX or Glasgow again for this. That’s me for just now; you’ll hopefully be seeing another review from me on an emotional level real soon. Until then that’s all folks!
ANT-MAN – 6/10
KILMARNOCK ODEON – 8/10
AGENT CARTER – 7/10
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