Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018) review

Marvel Studios’ 2015 release Ant-Man went through what is easily one of the most publicized productions of any film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. For starters, the film had been in the works since 2006 before the MCU was even a thing… and yet ultimately ended up being released more than a decade later as the final installment of Phase Two of the franchise. But, of course, the biggest news story surrounding the film occurred in May of 2014, when it was announced that the film’s director was backing out of the project due to creative differences with the studio. And while the development of ‘directors leaving projects’ has always been commonplace in the film industry, the fact that the director in question was film fan favorite Edgar Wright, who had been working on it since the beginning, effectively cast a dark shadow over the film that sadly hasn’t left it even after its release. Thankfully, though, director Peyton Reed managed to fill in Wright’s spot with ease, delivering another fun entry in this legendary franchise that reveled in the endless possibilities that came from a plot about a superhero who could shrink in size. Cut to three years later and the titular superhero is back after his cameo appearance in 2016’s Captain America: Civil War with Ant-Man and the Wasp. As the title suggests, this film sees Ant-Man team up with his most famous superhero partner from the comics, the Wasp. And without the shadow of Edgar Wright’s ties to the project bearing down on him this time, Peyton Reed succeeds in crafting a superior sequel.  

During the events of Captain America: Civil War, ex-criminal turned superhero Scott Lang AKA Ant-Man (Paul Rudd) allied with Captain America in the feud that the Avengers had gotten into over the creation of the Sokovia Accords. Cut to two years later and Scott is now stuck under house arrest because of his participation in the incident. However, just a few days before his house arrest is over, Scott is approached once more by his colleagues Hope Van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly), who has now taken on the superhero identity of ‘the Wasp’, and her father Hank Pym (Michael Douglas), the creator of the Ant-Man technology and its original user. Since Scott managed to escape from the microverse known as the Quantum Realm during the finale of the previous film, Hank and Hope are now optimistic about the possibility of finding Hank’s wife (and Hope’s mother) Janet Van Dyne AKA the original Wasp (Michelle Pfeiffer), who disappeared into it in 1987. This plan of theirs is furthered strengthened when it’s revealed that Scott is beginning to become ‘connected’ to Janet on a mental level, thus allowing them the opportunity to figure out where she is. Unfortunately for the trio, the process ends up getting complicated by a mysterious woman named Ava Starr AKA Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), who’s capable of phasing through objects due to an incident from her past where she was exposed to the Quantum Realm. After learning that Ava intends to use Janet to cure her condition, Scott, Hope, and Hank find themselves in a race against time to rescue Janet first when it becomes clear that Ava’s plan would result in her death.

So… seeing how we’re twenty films into the MCU at this point, I’m not going to bore you with the same points about this franchise that I’ve brought up in almost every single MCU film review that I’ve done. Thus, let’s just get it out of the way now… great action sequences, awesome visual effects, plenty of great humor while still finding enough time for some highly effective emotional moments for its characters, yadda yadda yadda, moving on. The main thing to note about this sequel is how it showcases a greater sense of confidence from Peyton Reed as a director. Obviously, in the case of the first film, he was brought on to fix the situation that Marvel Studios had gotten themselves into after the rather scandalous departure of Edgar Wright. And while Reed certainly managed to deliver an entertaining superhero film against all the pressure that he was clearly being put through by those who weren’t too happy about Wright’s departure, this film shows that he has improved on practically everything that he did with the first film. The action sequences are more kinetic, the humor and writing are both sharper, and the film in general benefits from stronger pacing whereas the first film admittedly took a while before it truly got going. But just like the first film, this film spends plenty of time having fun with all the various situations that Scott and Hope get into with their shrinking abilities, like whenever they blow up a tiny object to gigantic size (e.g. a PEZ dispenser). And, of course, we can’t forget about Ant-Man’s new ability to grow large himself (as previously witnessed during what is arguably the most iconic moment from the airport battle in Captain America: Civil War), which is also utilized perfectly here. Simply put, the Ant-Man films have boasted some of the MCU’s most creative action sequences which, given this franchise, is saying a lot.

Paul Rudd is phenomenal once again in the lead role of Scott Lang AKA Ant-Man, with arguably some of the best comedic timing of any lead in the MCU while also continuing to maintain Scott’s general likability as a well-meaning family man who tends to screw up a lot. But, of course, the most hyped member of this film’s cast is Evangeline Lilly, who finally gets the chance to get into all that great superhero action as the Wasp after it was built up in the first film’s mid-credits scene in which Hank gives Hope a new prototype of Janet’s old Wasp suit. And simply put, she kills it in the role; in fact, it could very well be argued that she even outshines Rudd. Still, the film does do a nice job of balancing out their roles in the story and the two do sport excellent chemistry, something that was only briefly covered in the first film. Speaking of the first film, all the major returning players who return for this film are great once again. As Hank Pym, Michael Douglas continues to be an absolute pro when it comes to delivering snarky quips, especially whenever he’s paired with Rudd. There’s also the returning trio of Scott Lang’s ex-thief pals (or as Hank calls them, ‘those three wombats’), who ironically now run their own security company. While T.I. and David Dastmalchian don’t get as much to do this time around, they still have their moments as Dave and Kurt, respectively. And, of course, we can’t forget about Michael Pena as the always-hilarious, happy-go-lucky Luis, the first film’s biggest scene-stealer. Sure enough, Pena once again gets a lot of this film’s best lines.  

As for this film’s newcomers, quite arguably the most prominent is the official debut of the original Wasp, Janet Van Dyne (not counting her cameo appearance in the first Ant-Man during a flashback). And without spoiling anything, the term ‘cameo’ applies to her role here as well as she’s only in it for about ten minutes. Still, for what it’s worth, Michelle Pfeiffer makes the most out of her limited screen-time and I’m confident that we’ll be seeing more of her in future films. DC Extended Universe transplant Laurence Fishburne also makes the most out of a rather small supporting role as Hank’s old partner Bill Foster, who fans of the comics will recognize as one of several who took on the superhero mantle of ‘Goliath’. Finally, when it comes to this film’s villains, there are two major threats who clash with Scott and Hope. While this does mean that they don’t necessarily stand out as much as other recent MCU villains, they’re still both solid enough in the context of this film’s story. First, there’s Walton Goggins as Sonny Burch, a black-market criminal who tries to steal Hank’s technology. It’s a minor role, for sure, but Goggins’ Southern charm helps a lot in the long run. And then there’s Hannah John-Kamen as Ava/Ghost, one of the MCU’s more ‘sympathetic’ villains given her tragic backstory. Thus, instead of just being a typical villain trying to take over the world, she’s just trying to find a cure for her condition, unaware that her plan to fix it would negatively affect several people. John-Kamen (who’s been having a breakout year after appearing in other blockbuster projects like Tomb Raider and Ready Player One) handles the role excellently and the effects used to create her phasing ability pave the way for some awesome visuals and action sequences.   

While some felt that the first Ant-Man didn’t add much to the larger world of the MCU, I’d argue that it had a different goal in mind; to serve as a much-needed change of pace after the large-scaled (no pun intended) affairs of Avengers: Age of Ultron, which came out just a few months prior. Sure enough, Ant-Man and the Wasp fulfills that same purpose in arguably an even greater fashion. I mean, let’s face it, after all the craziness that we went through with Avengers: Infinity War, it’s great that this film scales things back for a much more light-hearted adventure that once again highlights how solo films are still vital to the growth of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (though, for the record, without spoiling anything… this does address Infinity War). At the same time, the film also manages to be a superior sequel to what was already a solid entry in this franchise. No longer undermined by the question of ‘What would Edgar Wright have done?’, this film gives Peyton Reed the chance to make an Ant-Man film all his own, resulting in a sequel that boasts a sharper screenplay and more elaborate visuals and action sequences that don’t lose sight of the best parts of the first film. Plus, there’s also the immense satisfaction of getting to see Evangeline Lilly’s Hope Van Dyne finally get the chance to shine as one of the MCU’s greatest female heroines yet, something that Lilly undeniably revels in. Because of all this, Ant-Man and the Wasp is yet another success for Marvel Studios, who have now reached the unparalleled milestone of having 20 feature films that have all been positively reviewed by most critics and audiences. Admittedly, I wouldn’t call this the best MCU film to date (or even the best MCU film that came out this year, for that matter), but it’s still loads of fun to watch.

Rating: 4.5/5

Ant-Man: SPOILER POST

WARNING!!!

The following post contains spoilers for the film ‘Ant-Man’. If you have not yet seen the film, please instead refer to my Spoiler-Free review (the link will be provided below) as I will be talking about some of the major points of this film in spoiler-y detail.

(http://rimoviecorner.blogspot.com/2015/07/ant-man-2015-review.html)

In the days leading up to the release of ‘Ant-Man’, I’ll admit that I wasn’t really sure if I was going to do a Spoiler Post for this particular installment of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. This is because at the time I figured that after the epic events of ‘The Avengers: Age of Ultron’, there probably wouldn’t really be that much to talk about in regards to this film, sort of like 2013’s ‘Thor: The Dark World’ compared to the other MCU film of that year, ‘Iron Man 3’. But, in the end, there actually is quite a few noteworthy things to talk about in this, the final installment of the MCU’s Phase Two. Namely this is in regards to some major implications towards the future of the franchise. And of course I’m happy to see that ‘Ant-Man’ turned out as successful as it did with critics and audiences given all of the unfortunate bad publicity that it got following the whole Edgar Wright incident when he dropped out of directing the film, which he had worked on since 2006, due to creative differences with Marvel. Hopefully at the end of the day this film managed to make a good chunk of its biggest critics eat their words because it turned out just fine even without the fan-favorite Wright directing it. So now that I got that intro out of the way, let’s start talking about some of the biggest elements to Marvel Studios’ latest superhero adventure that I just couldn’t delve into that much in my original spoiler-free review.

FAVORITE MOMENTS

I guess you can say that this is becoming a recurring topic in these MCU Spoiler Posts of mine. I’ve always praised the MCU for perfectly establishing a fun and light-hearted atmosphere while also perfectly balancing the epic action with humor and heart and ‘Ant-Man’ is no exception. So today it’s time to highlight some of my favorite moments from ‘Ant-Man’;

*As noted in my original review, Michael Pena is easily the biggest standout of the entire film as he has many of the best lines in the film. Of course there are the montages where he talks about how he came across major tip-offs in which he provides the dubbing for any major character in those scenes (including good old Stan Lee in his usual cameo). But then you also have some other hilarious moments involving his character Luis, like when he helps save a guard (who he had knocked out earlier) from the Pym Technologies building before it explodes and his first scene in the film where he tells Scott Lang that even though “his girlfriend left him, his mom died, and his dad got deported”, at least he got to “keep the van”. I’ve heard quite a few people now complain that the character is nothing more than a stereotype but I think the character is much more than that. I mentioned the whole ‘dragging a guy out of a building before it explodes’ thing, right? I don't care what anyone says... Luis is awesome!

*Scott’s daughter Cassie (Abby Ryder Fortson) also gets some highly memorable bits of funny dialogue. The first is when her father visits her at her birthday party and she goes to tell her mom, Scott’s ex-wife Maggie (Judy Greer). Cassie then tells her dad that her mom “was so happy, she choked on her drink.” The other funny line from her is when she’s with her mom and her new stepdad Paxton (Bobby Cannavale) after Scott uses the Ant-Man suit to break out of jail. She asks Paxton if “he’s looking for her dad”, to which he responds by saying yes and that he’s just trying to keep Scott safe. She then tells him that she hopes that he doesn’t catch him. Epic Burn!!!

*Of course you can’t go wrong with a training montage and ‘Ant-Man’ has a pretty memorable one, from Scott getting freaked out by ants resulting in him quickly reverting back to normal size and getting stuck in the backyard (this happens twice by the way (“That was much more frightening a few seconds ago”)) to the famous scene from the trailer where Hope van Dyne teaches Scott how to punch… by punching him in the face (“Were you aiming for the hand?”). What else can be said but, “That’s how you punch”?

*When Hope and Hank got out of Pym Technologies with the help of Hank’s ‘keychain’.

*During the first major action sequence between Ant-Man and Yellowjacket in a helicopter, the two of them end up getting stuck in a briefcase as it plummets down to Earth. Yellowjacket declares “I’m going to disintegrate you” but before this, Ant-Man accidentally activates Siri on Darren Cross’ IPhone, who translates that into “Playing ‘Disintegration’ by The Cure”. Cue epic fight scene backed by ‘Plainsong’.

*Speaking of epic action sequences, the film’s climax is definitely one of the most unique climaxes in the entire MCU… and it takes place within Cassie’s room. This of course leads to many hilarious moments in which the action sequences that look epic at ant-sized scale aren’t really that major when viewed from a distance. This includes the famous shot from the trailer when Yellowjacket is run over by Thomas the Tank Engine. Thomas is then later blown up to gigantic size by one of Ant-Man’s ‘Pym Particle discs’ and crashes through the house. One of Scott’s ant allies also gets hit by one of the discs and by the end of the film, Cassie apparently adopted it as a pet.

There are still a few more moments that I didn’t mention here, but we’ll move on for now so that this doesn’t go on forever…

SCOTT LANG/ANT-MAN

One of the major reasons why I was really looking forward to this film was how it was going to give us a different kind of superhero lead compared to the others that we’ve seen over the years, like Thor or Spider-Man. Scott Lang doesn’t have any special superpowers; he’s just a regular guy who at the beginning of the film is down on his luck having just been released from prison as he now tries to turn his life around so that he can be there for his daughter Cassie, whom he can see only if he can provide child support according to Maggie and Paxton. But obviously, due to his criminal background, he has difficulty keeping any jobs… he even gets fired from Baskin-Robbins (because “Baskin-Robbins always Finds Out!”) This is also the first major MCU film to place emphasis on a ‘father-daughter’ relationship (two in fact… we’ll get to the other one in a second). Sure, Cassie doesn’t actually play that big a role in the film but that doesn’t mean that she isn’t vital to Scott’s character arc. His motivation to be with his daughter again legitimately helps him become better at using the Ant-Man technology, primarily in regards to effectively communicating with his ant allies. Because of all this, Scott ends up being one of the most relatable leads of the MCU to date and Paul Rudd does a terrific job in the lead role.

HOPE VAN DYNE AND HANK PYM

The second, and most prominent, ‘father-daughter’ relationship in the film is between Hope van Dyne and her father Hank Pym. Early on, there’s shown to be some major tension between the two, especially after the loss of Hope’s mother (more on her later). Hank reveals to Scott that when he was kicked out of his company by Darren Cross, Hope was ‘the deciding vote’, though she came back to him later on after realizing the sinister intentions of Cross in his effort to re-create her father’s ‘Ant-Man technology’. But the most important aspect of their relationship in this film is how it addresses Hank’s reluctance to have Hope take on the mantle of Ant-Man. In the beginning, it is clearly established that Hope is more than capable, definitely more so than Scott, of being a superhero, having trained in karate (a little while after her mom ‘died’) and being much more familiar with Pym Technologies due to her being Darren Cross’ primary business partner. But as the film progresses, we eventually do learn of the major reason why Hank doesn’t let Hope wear the suit. And it is actually a pretty damn legit reason as Hank doesn’t want ‘the same thing’ that happened to her mother (I’ll delve more into that later on) happening to Hope. As I stated in my original review for the film, Evangeline Lilly may not have gotten that much to do in terms of action but that doesn’t mean that her character is wasted in this film. In fact, from what I’ve heard online, Hope’s role in the film would’ve been much less significant if the film did end up getting directed by Wright. So yes, there’s actually a major positive to Wright not directing ‘Ant-Man’; a much more substantial role for Hope van Dyne.

YELLOWJACKET

Boy those poor MCU villains can never catch a break when it comes to critics and fans negatively comparing them to everyone’s favorite, Loki. Earlier this summer, I did a post in which I ranked the MCU’s first eight major villains and ultimately defended the majority of them as being better than what most critics put them out to be. But as for Darren Cross, the main villain of ‘Ant-Man’, I unfortunately have to side more with the critics on this one. Cross admittedly is a rather one-note villain despite the interesting enough set-up of him looking to enact revenge against his former mentor, Hank Pym, for keeping the Ant-Man technology away from him, leaving him to have to try and recreate it himself. I mainly tribute Cross’ shortcomings as a villain to the fact that he’s not really in the film that much to be that much of a ‘threat’. He’s in the film but most of the runtime is instead focused on the protagonists. But as I’ve stated in the past, I really don’t mind that at all because I do think that one of the biggest strengths of the MCU is that their main characters have always been so well-developed to the point where these films don’t always need a ‘Loki-esque’ villain. But despite all of this, that doesn’t mean that I think that Cross is a ‘terrible’ villain.

Going off of what I said in that previous ‘Ranking the MCU villains’ post, one of the main reasons why I feel that most of the non-Loki MCU villains are better than people give them credit for is because at least the majority of them still manage to have a solid enough screen presence that I feel manages to at least make up for any other shortcomings that they might have. The only instance in which this didn’t work was Malekith from ‘Thor 2’, who was not only a majorly underdeveloped villain but also one that had absolutely no screen presence whatsoever. Despite the fact that Cross ends up being a fairly one-note villain, Corey Stoll at least has a solid villainous screen presence in the role. He does actually manage to be rather intimidating whenever he’s talking to one of the main characters, whether it be Scott, Hope, or Hank. And yes, that Yellowjacket suit is pretty damn badass. Sure, Cross doesn’t put it on until the finale but once he does, that’s definitely one of the film’s biggest highlights. So in conclusion, while Darren Cross AKA Yellowjacket may not be the absolute MCU villain of all-time, he is also by no means the worst. If I had to rank him alongside the other MCU villains based on my original rankings from earlier this year (which would now obviously include Ultron, who would be #2 by the way, following ‘Age of Ultron’), he would be ranked somewhere around 7 or 8.

FALCON

Taking the honor of being one of the best cameos of 2015 is everyone’s favorite ‘wingman’, Falcon (Anthony Mackie). Sam Wilson also made an appearance in ‘Age of Ultron’ but it was a very minor cameo as he only appeared in two scenes, the first being an brief appearance at the Avengers’ party in Stark Tower and the other occurring right at the end as he becomes one of the newest members of the Avengers. Thankfully he gets a much more substantial role in ‘Ant-Man’ as he partakes in one of the best action sequences in the entire film; a fight between him and Scott. Before the big heist on Pym Industries, Hank and Hope have Scott break into an old Stark Industries facility in order to find a Signal Decoy device that will help them out in their mission. But when Scott finally gets there, they all realize that it has since become the new headquarters for the Avengers, which we the audience first saw in ‘Age of Ultron’. Despite Hank and Hope repeatedly telling him to get out of there, Scott sticks to the plan and almost immediately crosses paths with Falcon. The two of them get into a brief fight but Scott manages to beat Falcon by sabotaging his wingsuit. As he leaves, Falcon embarrassingly tells whoever he’s talking to on the radio to not tell Cap about this. But this isn’t the last we see of Falcon in this film, as he later appears at the end of the film as part of one of Luis’ famous ‘tip-off montages’ in which Scott learns that Wilson is offering him a chance to join the Avengers.

JANET VAN DYNE

One of the major questions brought up by fans in the months leading up to the film’s release is whether or not Hank Pym’s wife Janet van Dyne AKA ‘The Wasp’ would be making an appearance in the film. While she ultimately doesn’t play a major role in the film, the story of what happened to her is a key scene in the film and arguably the most emotionally impactful as well. As stated earlier, this is why Hank doesn’t let Hope take on the mantle of Ant-Man despite the fact that she’s clearly more qualified than Scott. Hank eventually tells both Scott and Hope what really happened to her mother. Back in 1987 when Hank took on missions in the Ant-Man costume alongside his wife, she had sacrificed herself in order to stop a Soviet missile by going subatomic and disappearing into a quantum realm. So obviously, Hank doesn’t want to lose Hope like he lost Janet. It’s definitely a touching moment, allowing both Hank and Hope to reach an emotional catharsis after a considerable amount of time at odds with one another and I’ll even admit that I got a little teary-eyed during this scene… even if Scott ends up ruining the moment a few moments later by remarking how the two of them are re-connecting.

But did Janet van Dyne really die in the Quantum Realm? This is put into question during the film’s finale after Scott also goes subatomic in order to sabotage Yellowjacket’s suit to defeat him. He ends up in the same Quantum Realm and while he doesn’t come across Janet while he’s there, he does manage to get out by reversing his suit’s shrinking mechanism, allowing him to return to normal size. This of course leads to Hank beginning to wonder if Janet may still be alive, which given the fact that Scott managed to survive the Quantum Realm seems very, very possible. And quite frankly, I do think that Janet is still alive and that we’ll be seeing her sometime in the future. I may not be that much of a comic-book reader but I can definitely tell that the Wasp is a fan-favorite character amongst Marvel fans so I know that fans have been eager to see her make an appearance in the MCU. Plus, in the comics, she was also one of the founding members of the Avengers. Obviously the same distinction does not apply in the MCU but Kevin Feige has stated that there are plans to have her appear in future films. But while we may not yet know is Janet is still alive, we do know what will happen next for ‘the Wasp’. This of course leads me to the final topic of today’s Spoiler Post…

THOSE POST-CREDITS SEQUENCES

If we’re talking MCU post-credits scenes, then ‘Ant-Man’ arguably has two of the most important sequences in franchise history as both lay the groundwork for future events in the MCU. Going back to what I just talked about in regards to ‘the Wasp’, the mid-credits scene shows Hank giving Hope a prototype Wasp suit that was developed by both him and Janet, showing that he’s finally able to accept Hope taking on a superhero mantle after showing much hesitation earlier in the film. As stated earlier, Hope did not have much to do in the film in terms of action but that was fine because she was still just as important to the story, primarily in regards to her trying to reconnect with her father. But with that said, it’s definitely very cool that she’s now going to get to be a superhero as well in future MCU films. Though according to Kevin Feige, she won’t be appearing in the next MCU film, ‘Civil War’, because the character was cut from the story so that they “wouldn’t do her a disservice”. Yeah it’s a little disappointing, especially considering that Scott Lang will be in the film, but then again ‘Civil War’ does have a pretty big ensemble cast to the point where it can now pretty much be considered as an ‘Avengers’ film so it’s not really that big of a deal. So now I’m guessing that she’ll at least be in ‘Infinity War’. Either way, to quote Hope in this mid-credits scene, “it’s about damn time”.

Speaking of ‘Civil War’, finally there’s the post-credits scene, which was directed by the Russo brothers and will apparently be seen again in ‘Civil War’. The scene consists of Captain America and Falcon having finally found Bucky, which was their goal at the end of ‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’, and debating what to do next. Both of them point out that they’re unable to contact Tony Stark due to ‘the Accords’, obviously foreshadowing the future conflict between Cap and Iron Man in ‘Civil War’. But of course because Falcon was part of a major action sequence in this film and at the end was shown to be looking for Scott Lang to ‘recruit’ him into the Avengers, he tells Steve that ‘he knows a guy’. So while we don’t yet know when this scene will occur in the next film, it definitely sets the stakes for what will be surely be another epic superhero film when ‘Captain America: Civil War’ hits theaters on May 6, 2016 to kick Phase Three of this grand Marvel Cinematic Universe. But for now, this sequence, and the entire film in general, closes out Phase Two of the MCU. Sure there may have been quite a bit of controversy surrounding this stage of the MCU from the Mandarin fake-out to the whole Edgar Wright incident but ultimately it ended up delivering some of the franchise’s greatest films to date.

IN CONCLUSION

Whenever I update my rankings list of the MCU, I don’t add in the newest film until after I’ve at least seen it twice. So now, having seen ‘Ant-Man’ twice in theaters, here are my updated rankings for the first twelve films of the Marvel Cinematic Universe;

12. Iron Man 2

11. The Incredible Hulk

10. Thor: The Dark World

9. Thor

8. Iron Man

7. Iron Man 3

6. ANT-MAN

5. Captain America: The First Avenger

4. Captain America: The Winter Soldier

3. The Avengers: Age of Ultron

2. The Avengers

1. Guardians of the Galaxy

Ultimately there are two main reasons why I can’t really put ‘Ant-Man’ in the Top 5. The first, as noted earlier, is that the main villain is rather one-note but as I also noted earlier, this has never bothered me as much as other people and I don’t even think that Yellowjacket is a ‘terrible’ villain. Like I’ve said in the past, I don’t hold the MCU villains to the ridiculously high standards of the internet in the wake of Loki’s turn as the villain in ‘The Avengers’. The only other problem that I have with ‘Ant-Man’ is that it starts off rather slow but thankfully gets moving once Scott first puts on the Ant-Man suit. All in all, ‘Ant-Man’ is another excellent entry in the MCU film. It’s sad that this film had to be overshadowed by the internet’s unwillingness to get over the departure of Edgar Wright, and unfortunately I have seen some people negatively compare the film to ‘what could have been’ with Wright, which is straight-up BS. But at the end of the day, ‘Ant-Man’ did not end up being the disaster that some predicted it to be. Marvel managed to move on from this initial setback and director Peyton Reed more than proves to be a solid enough replacement for Wright. As a result, ‘Ant-Man’ is another highly entertaining installment of this highly entertaining franchise and is definitely one of the most unique MCU films to date. Like I said in my original review, at this point it is foolish to have any sort of doubt about Marvel Studios because they obviously know what they’re doing. 

Ant-Man (2015) review

7 years and 12 films in, it’s ridiculous to think that people are still doubting Marvel Studios even after all they have done in creating the Marvel Cinematic Universe and bringing us into the Golden Age of Superhero films. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Marvel has yet to make a ‘bad’ film and despite all of the talk from Marvel’s biggest critics about how the studio is very strict in terms of forcing their directors to stick to their creative demands, all of their productions have gone by pretty smoothly save for the initial trouble over the search for a director for ‘Thor: The Dark World’. But as for their newest film ‘Ant-Man’, this has easily been the studio’s most difficult production yet. For you see, while ‘Ant-Man’ is now being released as the final installment of Phase Two of the MCU (originally it was going to be the first ‘Phase Three’ film but that honor will instead go to ‘Captain America: Civil War’), it was actually one of the very first projects ever developed for Marvel Studios back in 2006 before the first ‘Iron Man’ film was even released. It was to be written and directed by Edgar Wright, who nowadays is well known as the director behind some of the greatest comedies of the last few years, namely the three films of the ‘Cornetto Trilogy’ in ‘Shaun of the Dead’, ‘Hot Fuzz’, and ‘The World’s End’. Despite the need for some re-writes in order for the film to fit better into the canon of the MCU, everything seemed to be going well for Wright and Marvel Studios as the film began pre-production with filming set to start in the Summer of 2014.

But then, in May of that year, a major bombshell was dropped as it was announced that Wright would be leaving the project due to ‘creative differences’ with Marvel. And let me tell you folks, I have never seen a greater shift in general perception towards any film quite like what occurred with ‘Ant-Man’. Despite the fact that Marvel managed to move on from this fairly quickly and get production back on track, with director Peyton Reed (‘Bring it On’, ‘Yes Man’) taking over for Wright and Adam McKay and lead Paul Rudd both stepping in to help work on the screenplay, Wright’s departure from the project had a highly negative effect on the film in regards to the general reaction amongst film fans across the internet. Now there were many people who were starting to predict that the film would be a disaster, a first for Marvel Studios. It didn’t help that Ant-Man is generally considered to be one of the more odd characters in the Marvel Universe and keep in mind that this was all before ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ came out and proved that Marvel Studios was more than capable of producing top-quality superhero films based around some of their lesser-known characters (which for the record is pretty much what they’ve been doing since the beginning). Well now that this film has finally come out, it’s safe to say that all of that backlash towards this film solely due to Wright’s departure was completely unfounded as ‘Ant-Man’ proves to be yet another fun and exciting installment of this grand Cinematic Universe and arguably its most unique yet.    

Paul Rudd stars as Scott Lang, an ex-con who struggles to find a stable job after he is released from prison in the hopes of providing child support for his daughter Cassie (Abby Ryder Fortson) after his ex-wife Maggie (Judy Greer) re-marries. But because his criminal past continually prevents him from finding a full-time job, Scott ultimately ends up taking on another sting op with his ex-cellmate Luis (Michael Pena) and their new partners Kurt (David Dastmalchian) and Dave (‘T.I.’). However, instead of a ‘proper score’, Scott only ends up finding an ‘old motorcycle suit’ but soon learns that this suit allows him to shrink down to the size of an insect. Scott is then approached by the creator of the suit, scientist Hank Pym (Michael Douglas), who offers him ‘a chance at redemption’. Scott learns that Hank had developed this special technology through the use of subatomic particles but hid it away from the world, even resigning from S.H.I.E.L.D. when he learned that they were trying to replicate his technology, as he feared that it was too dangerous. But when he learns that his former protégé, and current head of his company, Darren Cross (Corey Stoll), is on the verge of developing his own form of the Ant-Man technology in the form of the Yellowjacket suit, Hank, along with his daughter Hope van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly) recruit Scott into their plan to break into Pym Technologies and steal Cross’ technology before it is unleashed upon the world.

By now you’ve probably heard a good chunk of the unfortunately growing backlash against superhero films, with one major argument from these critics being that they’re ‘all the same’. And sure in the grand scheme of things, all of these films are fairly similar in terms of story structure and plot. But I feel that these critics are ignoring the true ‘variety’ of these films in terms of all of the unique characters that Marvel has brought to the big-screen. Ant-Man is no exception as his powers of shrinking and the ability to communicate with ants result in some very cool and unique action sequences, including arguably one of the best finales in any MCU film to date… and it all takes place in Scott’s daughter’s room. At the same time, Marvel once again delivers yet another very fun and entertaining superhero film with everything you can now come to expect from the MCU; excellent visuals (which in the case of this film given Ant-Man’s abilities are very much on display), solid pacing, exciting action sequences, and a screenplay full of hilarious bits of dialogue. And after the bigger-scale exploits of ‘The Avengers: Age of Ultron’, ‘Ant-Man’ proves to be a nice change of pace as a much smaller-scaled superhero flick. Like I’ve said in the past, I disagree with any of the complaints about why the Avengers weren’t called in to deal with some of the incidents that took place in these films or that films like this don’t really matter that much in the grand scheme of the MCU because that’s not true. Not every superhero film needs to be an ‘Avengers’ film. Solo-based superhero films can be just as exciting and epic as team-based superhero films and thanks to Marvel’s reliance on the former, their lead characters have been fleshed out very well because of that.

One of the other great things about the Marvel Cinematic Universe is how they’ve been able to implement different film genres into their films, from 1970s spy thrillers (‘Winter Soldier’) to ‘Star Wars’ esque sci-fi epics (‘Guardians of the Galaxy’). In the case of ‘Ant-Man’, it’s a heist film a la ‘Ocean’s Eleven’ and it’s executed very well. Without saying ANYTHING at all about what this film may have been like under Edgar Wright, Peyton Reed does an excellent job in Wright’s place as he does a great job at handling the film’s humor and action sequences. It just goes to show that nowadays comedy directors can do just as great, and arguably better, jobs than most action directors when it comes to directing films like this. The same occurred last year with the Russo brothers and James Gunn for their respective MCU films. But it’s not all just about the action and visuals; this film also has a lot of heart as well, namely in the two major father-daughter relationships in this particular story, something that hasn’t really been explored that much in the MCU films. Of course there’s the touching relationship between Scott and his daughter Cassie which is the main driving force for Scott in his path of redemption. But the major father-daughter relationship in the film is between Hope and Hank. It’s established very early on that Hope could have easily taken on the mantle of ‘Ant-Man’ but the reasoning for Hank’s objection to this idea, which mainly stems from a tragedy in their lives, makes the arc of their relationship all the more powerful.   

The character of Scott Lang could’ve been a rather tough character to get right on-screen given his criminal background. But thanks to the character’s motive of turning his life around for his daughter and the fact that he’s a superhero without any actual powers compared to someone like Thor or Captain America, he manages to be a very relatable lead and Paul Rudd does a great job in exuding nothing but charisma in the role. Backing him up is Evangeline Lilly, who’s also excellent as Hope Van Dyne. She may not get to do much in terms of action compared to Rudd but that doesn’t mean her role in the film is lessened because of that. Hope’s relationship with her father and the arcs that both of them go through in the film more than make up for it. In fact, I’ve heard that her role was actually expanded on after the whole Wright incident. Speaking of Hank Pym, who better to play the role of the ‘original’ Ant-Man than a Hollywood legend like Michael Douglas? He works excellently alongside Rudd and Lilly and brings a whole bunch of class to this fun superhero adventure. And like with every MCU film, there’s definitely some major scene-stealers in this film’s stellar ensemble cast. In this case, that honor belongs to Scott Lang’s heist partners; David Dastmalchian, T.I., and most notably, Michael Pena, who’s easily the biggest scene-stealer in the entire film. Many of the film’s best comedic moments come from him and I also loved how, in the scenes in which he is talking about how he came across key pieces of information from his acquaintances, all of the characters in that scene talk in his voice.

Now let’s move onto to the one major element of the Marvel Cinematic Universe that always gets the worst rep from critics; the villains. And based on reviews, it doesn’t seem like Darren Cross is going to buck this trend. While I’m usually much more positive about most of the MCU villains than the rest of the internet, unfortunately this is one instance where I’m admittedly a bit more in line with the critics on this one. At the end of the day, Cross is a fairly one-note villain. Heck, he’s not really in the film that much to stand out anyway and he doesn’t even get into the Yellowjacket suit until the film’s finale. But does that mean he’s a ‘terrible’ villain? Actually, the answer is no. Despite his ‘one-note villain’ status, Corey Stoll manages to carry a pretty darn intimidating and villainous presence that, if anything, makes him a much memorable villain than someone like Malekith from ‘Thor: The Dark World’. And that Yellowjacket suit is still a pretty damn cool visual. It’s basically like a much more threatening version of the Iron Man suit. Again, he may not be in the film that much but I’ve always felt that this hasn’t ever been that big of an issue in the MCU films because it allows us to spend more time with our main characters. Not every MCU villain has to be as good as Loki.

At this point in time, it is completely absurd to have any shred of doubt in regards to Marvel Studios because time and time again they have proven their critics wrong and have successfully pulled off projects that many felt were major risks going in. ‘Ant-Man’ is no exception, especially after the whole incident involving Edgar Wright’s departure from the project. Yes it’s sad that Wright ultimately didn’t get the chance to direct this dream project of his and it is even sadder when considering the fact that he spent around eight years working on this film before he left. But while we ultimately didn’t get to see Wright’s take on ‘Ant-Man’, that doesn’t mean that this film is the disaster that some predicted it to be. It’s a MCU film; it’s fun, it’s light-hearted, it’s entertaining, it’s got a great cast, and it’s got awesome visuals and action sequences. It is exactly the kind of top-quality entertainment that you can always expect from Marvel Studios. Is it the absolute best MCU film to date? No, not really but that is by no means a bad thing considering all of the other great superhero films that Marvel Studios has produced since 2008. And with that, ‘Ant-Man’ concludes Phase Two of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Sure, there have been some controversy from time to time but at the end of the day, I’d argue that Phase Two actually managed to outdo Phase One and I can’t wait to see what’s in store for us with Phase Three.

Rating: 4.5/5

Ant-Man: Get over Edgar Wright + Trailer Review

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 15^th 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!

Anchorman 2: 'Super-Sized R-Rated Version' Quick Review

(WARNING: There will be some Spoilers regarding the film)

A few months after the release of the original ‘Anchorman’, DreamWorks released a direct-to-video ‘spiritual sequel’ to the film called ‘Wake Up, Ron Burgundy: The Lost Movie’. This film was actually made by mostly using unused footage that was shot for the first film, including alternate takes and even some unused subplots, the most notable being one about a group of bank robbers that the Channel 4 News Team were following. That was originally what the film was to be centered around until it was replaced with the ‘pregnant panda’ storyline due to poor test reactions. Now, a few months after the release of ‘Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues’, Paramount (the company that basically now owns the rights to the franchise) have done a similar thing but instead of a direct-to-video release full of unused subplots from the film, they are actually releasing an entirely new version of the film in theaters, referred to as the ‘Super-Sized R-Rated Version’, for one week only. Apparently, the upcoming Blu-Ray release will feature 3 separate cuts of the film; the theatrical version, an unrated version (like the previous film), and this new ‘R-rated’ version.

So then, how does this new cut hold up compared to its theatrical counterpart? Well, first off, let me start by talking about what makes this film ‘different’ from that version because for the most part, in many areas, not much is changed. It’s still the same movie as the theatrical version; it has the same plot (Ron Burgundy and the Channel 4 News Team heading to New York to join the first 24-hour news network) as well as the same general plot points, like Ron briefly becoming blind at one point and the scene where he and his family are taking care of a shark (though the latter scenario is sort of truncated in this version). The major difference here is in the writing. According to the marketing, this version features ‘763 new jokes’ and sure enough, pretty much every scene in this cut of the film has different dialogue than in the theatrical version (though there are a few jokes that are carried over from that cut). There are also a few scenes that were cut out from the theatrical release (some of which you’ll remember seeing in the trailer) that are put back into this cut.

Overall, this version is about as funny as the theatrical cut. Like that one though, not all of the jokes hit. In fact, I’d say this version actually suffers at times because some of the new ‘bits’ go on longer than they need to be. Because of this, we can clearly see why a lot of these jokes were cut because some of them do drag on for a while. Then again, I am really impressed at how they managed to actually make an alternate version of the theatrical cut without really making any real changes to the actual plot of the film. I mean yes, there are a few new scenes added in (like a whole new musical number) but if you were to run these films side-by-side on mute, I’m pretty sure that there will only be a few differences between them. So, like I said in my original review of the film’s ‘theatrical cut’, if you loved ‘Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy’ then you’ll really like this film. It’s one of the few comedy sequels that manages to be about as good as the original. If you have seen the original theatrical cut already, I do recommend checking this version out, mostly if you’re interested in seeing what new material is in this version. However, I do think the original theatrical cut is the superior version.