Our Thoughts On Marvel's New Film Ant-Man! ⋆ Brite and Bubbly

Our Thoughts On Marvel’s New Film Ant-Man!

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Written By Jesse Delia

Hey All!

Marvel’s Ant-Man is the twelfth and latest film from the blockbuster studio that just can’t fail. Ant-Man was announced to begin production around the same time as the first Iron Man, so this film has been anxiously anticipated for almost a decade. I imagine that Ant-Man has been important to Marvel, not just because of its long development, but because the original Ant-Man character was one of the founding members of the Avengers in the comics and also has over 50 years of comic book history.

Much like in the comics, The Ant-Man is a mantle that is passed from the original (Hank Pym played by Academy Award Winner Michael Douglas) to Scott Lang (played by Paul Rudd of This is 40 and Knocked Up fame). Though Scott Lang is the one wearing the suit through the film, the story is really about both him and Hank Pym. While Hank Pym is a scientist, businessman, and adventurer, Scott Lang is an ex-con that steals from the rich until he is caught and thrown in jail. What they have in common is their relationship with their family. Both have daughters that idolize their fathers and both want what is best for their daughters and both have difficulties in accomplishing that goal. All of the Marvel films provide us with complex relationships between the character and their parent(s), but Ant-Man is the first Marvel film where the main character is the parent. The arcs with Pym and Lang relating to their daughters are where the real guts of the film lay and thus it is surprising how perfect this film would’ve been for Father’s Day weekend, which was almost exactly one month before Ant-Man’s release.

Just like previous Marvel films, Ant-Man is not just a superhero movie. The Thor films are fantasies, Captain America films are war and espionage dramas, Guardians of the Galaxy was a space opera and now Ant-Man is a heist flick. The driving story is that Hank Pym’s protégé Darren Cross (Corey Stoll from House of Cards) has discovered the formula for shrinking (Pym Particles) and created his own marketable shrinking battle suit. Knowing that the world is not ready for this technology, Pym wants to steal the suit. Pym recruits Scott Lang fresh out of jail to pull off the heist, but no heist flick is complete without a team. The rest of the team is Scott’s roommates/fellow ex-cons Luis (Michael Pena from Cesar Chavez), Dave (rapper T.I.), Kurt (David Dastmaclchian best known for his supporting role in The Dark Knight) and Pym’s daughter Hope Van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly from The Hobbit film franchise). In addition to his human crew, Scott has a device which allows him to communicate with ants as a general would to his troops.

Also like previous Marvel films, the standard of effects has again been raised. In this film we see such techniques as de-aging Michael Douglass for a flashback scene, computer generated ants, making shrinking believable on the screen, and creating a whole new world seen by Ant-Man in his shrunken form. Ant-Man also has some of the most creative fight scenes of any movie. The ability to shrink and grow is not just used as an infiltration device, but also in combat. This fighting technique is displayed in its most glory in the final fight sequence which as shown in the trailers does involve a toy train set. Through Ant-Man is not an Avenger and this is a standalone film which does not require viewing of any previous Marvel films, there are also scenes which clearly place this film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

This film is rated PG-13 for action, scenes involving death, and light use of swear words. That being said, Ant-Man is a family friendly film that every member of the family should be able to enjoy. Important to note is that even though this is a heist film, the good guy ex-cons are goofy, thus displaying that crime is dumb. Also remember to stay to the end as Ant-Man does have a mid-credits sequence and post credits-sequence which both tease big things to come for Marvel.

It’s a Marvel movie! You should no by now to not leave the theater until the lights come back on.