Despite my opinions on Ant-Man, I viewed this film as an iTunes rental on a flight from Chicago to Baton Rouge on December 18th. This film was released in July of this year to a weekend opening of $57.2 million and had grossed over $180 million domestically so far and it got on 80% on Rotten Tomatoes. A lot of the witty things I would like to say have pretty much been covered already,
Yep, it's a shot by shot remake of Iron Man, but with more jokes and more racism. The film isn't bad but it's redundant and silly. I didn't like it but considering the production problems the film had it was ok. The problem I'm having with the MCU is that you're getting the same film over and over. The same training montages, the same sexual tension, good guys fight each other and everything. Only the characters change. Heck, the Avengers sequel was essentially the same as the 1st Avengers film. Why should this picture be any different. That doesn't seem to matter much since people like myself are going to see the films anyway.They're also shoehorning everything together haphazardly. The film opens up in 1989 with Hank Pym (creator of the "Pym Particles" which allows him to shrink) at a meeting with Howard Stark and Peggy Carter about SHIED wanting to weaponize Hank's discovery. Hank doesn't like the idea, beats a guy up and storms off. Which is just another way to get me to watch Agent Carter or Agents of SHIELD. Which I'm not going to do.
Here's what the cast looks like...
- Michael Peña as Luis
- Tip "T.I." Harris as Dave
- Judy Greer as Maggie: Lang's estranged former wife.
The film is silly and makes little sense sometimes (I'm not even talking about the science fiction stuff). Scott Lang has a masters in electrical engineering but was arrested for hacking into his employers files to show what as*holes they were. This put him in jail yet he's somehow a master thief despite being thrown in jail after only one job (he's also a parkour expert as well, where do electrical engineers go to do that?). He gets released from prison and moves in with Luis into a flophouse more or less (though there's an apartment that's also a techno dance club?). I just didn't believe that the 4 guys living in the place (all ex-cons) could afford the rent in a downtown Sn Francisco flophouse. Or that there is currently an affordable flophouse in San Francisco. Lang admittedly hates violence and appears to have been a model prisoner. He spent 3 years in the stir and was released. He never once has to worry about his parole officer or anything.
The other major flaw I have is that the film is predictable. When Pym is training Lang with the suit, he tells Lang to never use the regulator or the suit will go "sub-atomic," which is science for extraordinarily small. Much like crossing the streams, this is bad (though in the DC Universe, The Atom does it all the time, take that Marvel!). Pym later gives exposition about his wife Janet (Hope's mom) died. Hank and Janet were on a mission when Janet went "sub-atomic" in order disarm a nuclear warhead streaking toward the U.S. Janet never came back and that's of course why he never allowed Hope to don a costume. Guess what happens in Scott's climactic battle with Yellowjacket a the end of the film? If you guessed he went "sub-atomic" in order to destroy Yellowjacket from with his own suit, you're correct! Naturally he comes back. Because they need him for next year's Captain America: Civil War and Ant-Man and the Wasp in 2018 (which are both revealed in the end credit scenes). The climactic final battle between Ant-Man and Yellowjacket also takes place inside the bedroom of Scott's 5 year-old daughter, because where else would it take place.
Again, the film isn't bad it just wasn't for me. Ant-Man didn't last in the comics back in the 60s but he somehow got his own film franchise? Ant-Man enters the Marvel Universe in 1962 in issue #35 of Tales to Astonish by issue #49, Pym is now Giant-Man. When the Avengers came out in 1963, Pym was Ant-Man in the 1st issue but by issue # 2 he was Giant-Man. Ant-Man wouldn't be seen again until 1979 when Scott Lang was introduced. Of course the Guardians of the Galaxy was a pretty obscure title that will become a film franchise as well. I guess that's why I don't work for Marvel.
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