During the premiere of Marvel’s ‘Agent Carter’ a few weeks
ago, the first trailer debuted for Marvel Studios’ upcoming finale to Phase Two
of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, ‘Ant-Man’, a film that’s had a fairly rough
production primarily because of a crucial moment that happened during
pre-production where its original director left the project. And because this
director is so popular with a lot of people given his resume, pretty much
almost everyone is now incredibly doubtful about this film. The Marvel
character Ant-Man may not be the most popular comic book superhero in the world
but a lot of people were very excited about the character’s film adaptation
when it was first announced because it was going to be directed by Edgar
Wright, the same man who brought us the modern comedy classics that form The
Cornetto Trilogy; ‘Shaun of the Dead’, ‘Hot Fuzz’, and ‘The World’s End’. But,
as we all know, everything changed in May of last year when Wright suddenly
left the project due to creative differences with Marvel over the screenplay. I
tell you, folks, in all my years as a film fan, I have never seen a more
drastic change in opinion towards a film than from what I saw from the
aftermath of Wright’s departure with almost everyone now predicting that the
film was going to be a major disappointment. Even now after the release of the
first trailer for the film, there are still some people who are still mad about
the whole Wright situation and I’m sorry, I hate to be rude here but people…
GET THE F*** OVER IT ALREADY!!!! Seriously!
Yes, it sucks that Edgar Wright is no longer working on the
film and it’s even sadder given the fact that he worked on this project for
years (as far back as the early days of the MCU before the first ‘Iron Man’
film was even released) only to back out at the last minute because Marvel
rewrote the screenplay behind his back. I’m certain that his take on the film
would’ve been amazing because he is a great director as proven by the Cornetto
Trilogy. But really, the whole idea of a director having an unrealized project
has happened a lot in Hollywood over the years. The same can be said for
Stanley Kubrick’s planned Napoleon film or Terry Gilliam’s Don Quixote film
(and yes I’m aware that that film is apparently back in production; I’m just
highlighting the fact that Gilliam has had a hard time getting it made). And
from what I can tell, the main reason why Marvel had to do rewrites is because Wright’s
version of the story wouldn’t have gelled well with the official timeline of
the MCU and if you ask me, it’s arguably extremely beneficial for the film as a
whole because it keeps continuity in order. And besides, it’s not like Wright’s
career is going to fade now because he left the film. He’s got that action crime
comedy ‘Baby Driver’ in the works so he’s fine and if you ask me, it’s probably
better for him to do a movie of his own where he has full creative control over
it rather than working on a Marvel movie where he wouldn’t have as much control
and while some may argue that this is always the case with the MCU films, ‘The
Avengers’ and ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ have proven that this isn’t always the
case.
Also, can we stop giving Peyton Reed, Wright’s replacement
for the film, such a bad rep about this whole situation? I’m serious, the poor
guy has quite the shoes to fill when it comes to taking over this film and yet
we’re still giving him s*** about it just because his film resume isn’t as
renowned as Wright’s. No, I’m not saying that he’s as good as a director as
Wright but you know what? The same could be said for the Russo brothers and
James Gunn before they did their own Marvel films, and of course, look how they
turned out. Ultimately, at this point, why are we even doubting Marvel Studios
given all that they’ve done these past few years? This is the studio that made
a superhero cinematic universe actually work. They managed to take characters
like Thor and Iron Man that weren’t as popular as characters like Spider-Man or
the X-Men and do them justice on the big screen to the point where they don’t
even need those other characters to make great films. They made a movie where
we cared a lot about a frigging raccoon and a tree creature. I’ve said it
before and I’ll say it again; after seeing ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’, I now
have complete faith in Marvel Studios and whatever they do from now on because
they’ve managed to prove their critics wrong time and time again. And while I’m
not saying that ‘Ant-Man’ is probably going to be the absolute best film in the
Marvel Cinematic Universe, I’m confident that it will at least be better than
what the cynics are putting it out to be.
Now that I got my necessary rant out of the way, let’s move
onto the trailer itself. Now I’m not saying it’s an absolutely ‘perfect’
trailer but from what has been shown so far, it does look promising. One of the
biggest things that I like about the trailer is that it shows that this film is
doing something that we really haven’t seen from either the MCU or any major
superhero film for that matter and that is exploring the concept of a superhero
film primarily focusing on a superhero father. In this film, Scott Lang (Paul
Rudd) is a petty criminal who we see has a kid and, according to Hank Pym
(Michael Douglas), he now has the chance to prove that he’s the hero that his
daughter already thinks he is. I really like this plot point as I feel that it’ll
add some heart to the story a la ‘Guardians’. Sure, there might not be a lot of
humor in the trailer (save for the excellent closing line where Scott asks ‘if
it’s too late to change the name’), which I know many were expecting given Rudd’s
background in comedy and the fact that the screenplay was co-written by Rudd’s ‘Anchorman’
director Adam McKay, but I’m certain that we’ll see more of the humor in future
marketing. Marvel’s already had some fun with the marketing for this movie,
including the first poster where Ant-Man is so tiny you can barely see him as
well as an ‘ant-sized’ trailer teaser and I don’t ‘ant-sized’ in the fact that
it’s a short teaser; I mean literally it’s a super tiny trailer that thankfully
got a full-sized version the following day… though seriously, Hollywood, enough
of these teasers for the trailer, okay? Anyway…
So in short, I’m still supportive of ‘Ant-Man’ even after
all that has happened during its production and I feel that it’s about damn
time that everyone stop giving the movie crap just because Edgar Wright’s no
longer working on it. Again, it sucks but it’s clear that everyone’s moved on
from it. Wright’s moved on and is developing a new film of his own while Marvel
has also clearly moved on from the whole Wright controversy as the film has now
been shot and is now being prepped for its July 15th release this
year. Could it end up being the studio’s first critical failure (I’m 100%
positive it won’t be a commercial failure given the success that Marvel Studios
has had)? I’m not going to lie, it could still end up getting a mixed reaction
from both critics and audiences. But at this point, it’s unfair and, if you ask
me, incredibly biased to still be miffed at Marvel for this whole controversy
surrounding Wright’s departure. The film isn’t even out yet so I suggest you
all stop worrying about it and just wait and see how the final product turns
out. And as someone who is highly supportive of Marvel Studios given all of the
great films that they have made, I’m super excited to see this film, and for
those who still can’t get over it, all I got to say is…
Don’t look at me, you
made me do it!
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