Skip to main content

Ant-Man

The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) keeps churning along and now presents it's second most bizarre addition. The first was Guardians of the Galaxy, my favorite Marvel film by a long shot. Now, Ant-Man, which I love despite myself.
 
Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) just wants to leave behind his life of petty crime and make things right with his daughter Cassie (Abby Ryder), who lives with his former wife Maggie (Judy Greer) and her new police officer husband, Paxton (Bobby Cannavale). His life takes a turn for the strange when he's recruited by brilliant scientist Dr. Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) to stop his former protégé Darren Cross (Corey Stoll) from doing something stupid. Hank's daughter Hope (Evangeline Lilly) objects. Superhero hijinks involving tiny superheroes and villains ensues.
 
Originally this was going to be Edgar Wright's contribution to the MCU, but apparently producer Kevin Feige expected the writer/producer/director of, among other things, Scott Pilgrim Versus the World to conform to the MCU formula. Wright declined and left the project.
 
Which is a pity, since you can sense little bits of Wright throughout much of the film, and they are the best parts. Not that director Peyton Reed does a bad job. Indeed, he has a light touch and was smart enough to leave much of Wright's writing alone, or so it seems to me.
 
The premise of the film is silly enough. Sure, let's have a superhero whose super ability is to shrink to the size of an ant while at the same time gaining super strength and the ability to control ants. It's vaguely crazy, and the screenplay goes there. The plot itself is little more than a reimagining of the story from the first Iron Man film. That worked in Iron Man because the roles felt more intimate; our hero was the one personally involved. In Ant-Man, the relationship between Our Hero and Our Villain is a couple of steps removed, so the central conflict is more remote.
 
Indeed, Ant-Man continues the MCU pattern of having terrible villains. The exception to this has been Loki (Tom Hiddleston). The urge is to give full credit to Hiddleston, who is simply wonderful in the role, but the real credit goes to Loki having an actual goal (to rule Asgard while extracting a modicum of revenge) that is easily identified and even, to an extent, relatable. As nice a job as Corey Stoll does, he's just another wacko lusting for power for power's sake, money for money's sake, and oh ho hum let's move along, shall we?
 
The first two acts of the film move along at a decent clip, but I didn't really feel all that engaged. When the nutty action breaks out in the third act, though, I was laughing out loud precisely when the writers and director wanted me to. There are absurd moments in the film where we jump back out of the miniature world where the fight is taking place and back to normal size. Thus, the sounds of battle go away and a little toy train falls off its tracks. Things like this happen a couple of times, and this is where I felt Wright's contribution the strongest. Reed wisely does this only a few times, keeping the humor fresh without letting it wear our its welcome.
 
Which pretty much sums up the entire film. It's outright funny in many places, deliberately so. Thus, you're laughing with it rather than at it, which is always a good thing. The plot is also much more intimate, rather than involving yet another existential threat to the planet. Of course it all wraps up with set ups for sequels and a tie-in with future Marvel films (look to the future and see our tiny hero in next year's Captain America: Civil War).
 
This is probably as strange as Marvel films will get, at least until the Sorcerer Supreme, Doctor Strange, appears in late 2016, but it's great fun and there's nothing wrong with that.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania

Wow, it’s been over a year. What a way to get back to this blog because… Are the films of the MCU getting worse? It’s a serious question because the latest that I’ve seen, Thor: Love and Thunder and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania , are strong arguments that the answer is “yes.” Summary: Ant-Man & Ant-Family get sucked into the quantum realm, where skullduggery is afoot. A load of crap ensues. I’m an Ant-Man fan. I loved the first film despite its flaws. It would have been wonderful to see what Edgar Wright may have wrought. It was clear, though, that replacement director Peyton Reed kept some of Wright’s ideas alive. The result was one of the MCU’s most intimate films, a straight-forward tale of a Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) desperate to remain in his daughter’s life while being “gifted” the life of a superhero. Ant-Man and the Wasp sorta stayed that course, but naturally, because this is the modern MCU, we had to have a female superhero take over, the titular Wasp (Hope van Dyne,

John Wick: Chapter 4

No sense in playing coy, this is a great film. I’ve seen it twice and while I don’t quite love it in the way I love the first, original John Wick , it’s my #2. It’s a little overlong, has some wasted space and time, has one absolutely pointless and useless character, and generally ignores the realities of firefights, falling, getting shot, hit, etc. All that notwithstanding, it’s a great action flick, has a genuine emotional core, and is well worth your time if you’re into that sort of thing. Like I am. Summary: John Wick (Keanu Reeves), last seen saying he was fed up with the High Table, goes to war to obtain his freedom. Some of the most incredible action scenes ever filmed ensue, culminating in a very satisfactory finale and a devastating post-credit scene. The first Wick film was a surprise hit. It was a simple, straight-forward tale of vengeance told in a simple, straight-forward manner. Where it stood out was its devotion to human stunt work, on exploiting long camera shots that

Rogan

The entire Joe Rogan controversy is an example of the kids being left in charge and the adults refusing to teach them any better. I’m not a regular consumer of podcasts. There are a couple I listen to from time to time, but nothing on a regular basis. While I’ve caught a few minutes of the Joe Rogan Experience on YouTube, I’ve never listened to his podcast. One of the primary reasons for that is that you have to subscribe to Spotify to do so, and I prefer Qobuz, Tidal, or even Amazon Music. Rogan is behind Spotify’s paywall and that’s that. But the nature of the fight is about more than who does or does not listen to Rogan. This fight goes to the very nature of the First Amendment and the fundamental concept of the United States. And yes, I understand that cuts both ways. What’s his name and Joni Mitchell are free to yank their creations from Spotify, no ifs, ands, or buts. I’m not denying their right, I’m questioning their reasons. Rogan talks to people. He does so largely unfiltered.