Ah, Ant-Man. A year ago you were looking to be my most anticipated movie of 2015, being directed by my favourite working director, Edgar Wright. And then Wright left, and was replaced by Peyton Reed, a man known for directing movies that probably wouldn’t be any different if they didn’t have a director. Any developments with this film can’t help but make me lament what could have been, but there’s a glimmer of hope in the knowledge that elements from Wright’s script are still being used, so I’m still trying not to write this thing off completely. Anyway, a new trailer dropped yesterday, with lots to discuss, so how about we get on with it?
Pretty standard opening shot of a city, and a bridge. If a movie takes place anywhere near these kinds of locations, you can bet they’ll be the opening shot of the trailer and/or film. Starting to annoy me.
Corey Stoll, aka Ernest Hemingway in Midnight in Paris, the cop from Non-Stop and apparently some guy from that House of Cards show I keep meaning to watch, is here playing Ant-Man’s Ant-agonist, Darren Cross. Here he’s walking into a room with bright lights all around it, which in a movie means that science is going to happen. Also, you know he’s the villain because it’s a Marvel trailer and he’s doing the opening narration.
First legitimately good thing I like about this movie, the forced focus used to make little Ant-Man look tiny. They showcase it a lot in the trailer, and I’m on board with the effect.
“Imagine a soldier, the size of an insect; the ultimate secret weapon.” Gotta admit, if that’s the entirety of Cross’ selling pitch, it sounds a bit pathetic, even with the ability to break lightbulbs.
These people disagree.
“You give God-like powers to everyone, it’s gonna be chaos.” Agreed. Although I’d like to see that mess of a movie. Evangeline Lilly is here, still looking annoyed that Edgar Wright left, or maybe that’s just a reaction to her haircut? She plays Hope van Dyne, potential romantic interest for the hero, and daughter of the hero’s mentor, both of whom we’ll get to shortly.
Here we go. Michael Douglas, complete with mandible-like goatee, is Hank Pym, the original creator of the Ant-Man suit. He knows a guy who can help with the problem of Darren Cross making the Ant-suit more widely used (I think). 
Argh! They’re everywhere! Get them off me! They’re in my ears! Aaaaaaaaaargh!
Turns out the guy Hank knows is Scott Lang, played by Paul Rudd, a con-man and burglar, currently in prison. I’m hoping this means there’ll be some kid of prison escape scene, because I like them. As for Rudd’s casting, I’m on board. He’s different to what we’ve seen from Marvel so far, and I’ve got no connection to any of these characters, so as far as I’m concerned he’ll do well. Plus, Rudd can be pretty funny at time.
Hank Pym’s lair. He tells Scott that he’s been watching him for a while, which is more than a little creepy. Does he have a camera set up in his prison cell?
More science! More lairs! Lights and knobs and whistles and stuff.
“My days of breaking into places and stealing stuff are over, what do you want me to do?” “I want you to break into a place and steal some stuff.” “Makes sense.” OK, I absolutely saw this line coming, from the timing down to the exact wording, but there’s enough comic timing and chemistry between Rudd and Douglas that it still made me smile.
The suit. Doesn’t look terribly high-tech, more like if Kick-Ass started out his home-made costume with motorcycle leathers instead of diving gear, but it looks functional, so fine. Sweaty, though. Very sweaty.
So, what powers are we talking about here? Well, when shrunk down to itty-bitty Paul Rudd, he’ll be super-strong, and have the ability to control ants, as shown here by them spinning a coin. I’ll be honest, I’m not sure how helpful the pest control aspect will be, but I’m at least intrigued, so you’ve got me there.
Min-Ant-Man meets one of his slave army.
I hope there’s a scene in Jurassic World where Chris Pratt masses an army of this many raptors.
Just to give you an idea of scale, that blip in the middle is Ant-Man jumping, and the stuff around him is a fairly small gun. So he’s tiny, basically. Alas, we don’t see him just missing the dodge and riding a bullet through the air, because that’s probably being saved for Ant-Man 2: The Swarm.
Seriously, what would you do if there was a teeny-tiny little man running along your should coming to punch you? And if I was Rudd in this scenario, I’d grow huge now and dislocate the guy’s arm.
Learning how to punch from Evangeline Lilly. I can think of worse ways to spend an afternoon. We’re still missing a few key cast members though, such as Judy Greer (playing Lang’s ex-wife), Michael Peña as his cell mate and a particular favourite of mine, Bobby Cannavale as Lang’s friend and his wife’s new husband.
Here’s Darren Cross’ next generation Ant-Man suit, which he gives the moniker Yellow Jacket. Apparently, that’s a name for wasps that we don’t have in the UK, so that name sounds damn stupid to me, like someone’s doing a parody of the redcoat army. Here’s the villain, he’s called Puce Dungarees.
Cross’ suit is better than Lang’s, because it has lasers, and they improve everything.
There’s something about this image (I apologise for the blurriness) that makes me smile. A normal-sized man swinging up for a punch against something the size of a pin. Love it.
Two tiny men, fighting. Love the open space, to really highlight how mini they are.
I’m pretty sure this is Lang riding down a pipe on a raft made from ants. Like I said, not sure how useful the ant control is going to be, hopefully more useful than just this kind of thing.
“You’re just a thief!” “No, I’m Ant-Man…. I know, it wasn’t my idea.” If Rudd plays the whole film as though he doesn’t want to be Ant-Man, I think it’ll get old pretty fast.
Another effect I liked was the shrinking, kind of creating little ghosts of the guy as he shrinks down. Not sure here all that extra mass goes, because it has to go somewhere, so I’m looking forward to an explanation to that.
Lasers are cool, but they don’t appear to be terribly accurate.
Then again, the target is tiny, and surprisingly sprightly.
TITLE SCREEN!
And this was the moment when I was fully on board. Yellow Jacket faces his mortal enemy – Thomas the Tank Engine!
The pathetic whining of the Choo-choo noise as it hits Cross and falls off the track is perfect. I have to think this is the biggest influence Wright had on the script, and I love it.
Just the notion of setting a possibly-climactic fight in the setting of a child’s playroom makes me think Marvel have seen the error of their ways in making all their movies end the same way, with giant ships falling from the sky, normally into London. This is about as different as you can get. Well done everyone. Also, the fact that they still use action movie tropes like hurling cars at one another and exploding them in mid air, but this time using toy cars? Seriously, I’m back on board with this movie.
Are you getting bug-eyed looking forward to Ant-Man? Or are your hopes for a good movie still shrunken down to tiny form after the events of last year? Let us know in the comments! Ant-Man is released in theatres across the world on 17th July 2015.