Today, I look at the film no one wanted to make, and fewer wanted to see.
Ant-Man:
Scott Lang is an expert thief who has just gotten out of San Quentin. He wants to reconnect with his young daughter, but his wife and her new SFPD husband don't trust him. Scott is roped into one final job by his friends so he can pay child support and see his daughter again. Unfortunately the mark is the home of elderly scientist and former superhero Hank Pym, who then enlists Scott's help to steal back his old "Ant-Man" tech from his former protege and head of Pym Technologies Darren Cross, who plans to sell it as a military weapon.
Despite being initially excited for this film, I was troubled recently by news of its' production. Edgar Wright, one of the most talented comedy writers and visually striking directors of this generation (and one of the few comedy filmmakers who uses the medium of film effectively), wrote the script for this film and was slated to direct, considering this was a passion project of his for some time. Suddenly, months into production, he dropped out for unknown reasons. Joss Whedon (
The Avengers, Firefly, The Cabin in the Woods, Buffy the Vampire Slayer) then went on to say that Wright and Joe Cornish's script was the best Marvel script he had ever read. Marvel stated this was due to creative differences, which really means Marvel wanted to make a whorish cash cow full of references to other Marvel films which would most likely function as a two-hour ad for the next film, and Wright wanted to make a relatively stand-alone film (much like the first
Iron Man), that felt too unique from the other Marvel films (which worried Marvel/Disney, because originality and having a personality is risky). Wright's script went under several re-writes, with the film now have two more writers, Adam McKay and star Paul Rudd. Whedon expressed sadness over this change, as he felt the original script was such a perfect one. During this clusterfuck of changes, Patrick Wilson and Matt Gerald (from Marvel's
Daredevil) were also cut from their roles in the film.
Paul Rudd does play an effective Ant-Man, and Evangeline Lilly and Michael Douglas are good leads as well. Judy Greer, Bobby Cannavale, Wood Harris, Michael Pena, T.I., and David Dastmalchian make up the supporting cast, and with the latter three providing some nice comic relief. Corey Stoll plays Yellowjacket, the film's main antagonist, who is everything that is wrong with Marvel villains as of late: no subtlety to the role and no real origin (he's Saturday morning cartoon levels of evil from his first scene), no payoff to his character, no discerning characteristics other than his costume, hammed up to the extreme, more emphasis on looking awesome than developing the character, and (SPOILER alert) he is killed off so he cannot appear in any sequels. And the worst part: Stoll, much like all the villainous actors in the MCU, is underutilized and is not well-cast. Despite being a fine actor, Stoll was obviously miscast in this role. He's pretty good at playing gruff or stoic villains, not Lex Luthor-type machiavellian manipulators. Better suited for this role would have been someone like Aidan Gillen or Mads Mikkelsen (I would've also suggested Idris Elba, if he was not already in the MCU), but Stoll was cast because he's in two successful TV series. John Slattery and Hayley Atwell make cameos in the film, as do Gregg Turkington and Martin Donovan. Stan Lee also appears for his obligatory cameo.
I was actually surprised with this film's ability to restrain from constantly shoving Marvel references down my throat... for about the first third. Then, it was a constant flurry of Marvel references and winks at the audience until it made me want to throw up in my mouth. The time when Yellowjacket cheesily title drops not only
Ant-Man, but also
Tales to Astonish in about thirty seconds of each other at the start of the film is when I knew this was going to be bad.
The action sequences are blandly shot and loaded with cartoonish CGI, and while these sequences are entertaining, they push the boundaries of even the Marvel universe, to the point of laughability. In fact, many times I was howling with laughter, not because of any of the actual jokes in the film, but because of the campiness and silliness of the entire film. I mean, I know it's
Ant-Man, but I think Wright would have handled the material with more maturity and subtlety. Peyton Reed, the director Marvel replaced Wright with, is known for his films
Bring It On, The Break-Up, and
Yes Man, so basically he's a director-for-hire with no visual flair or personality, much unlike Wright; also unlike Wright, he has no experience directing an action film. I don't hate Reed's films, I just find them bland and it angers me that he was replacing such a talented filmmaker. And just like with this film, Reed was told by the studio to edit down the content of his successful
Bring It On to appeal to a wider audience and avoid an R-rating.
Ant-Man has its' moments, but is ultimately a cheesy, cartoonish example of when a studio has too much creative control over a film or franchise. I know Marvel has their next thirty-or-so films planned out, but I think they won't make it that far if they continue this trend, because I think fans will just stop going if they continue making bland products like this. I have ceased calling it a film because Marvel doesn't treat it like one. Film is an art form, but Marvel treats it like a product, something that only exists to finance their next line of products. Or maybe I'm wrong, considering the amount of fanboy praise this has been getting, I think people are so blinded by their love of Disney and Marvel and Pixar and all this other stuff that they won't admit to themselves when these studios fuck up, so they just say they love it. Regardless, I'd one day like to see Edgar Wright's untampered script, just to maybe get a glimpse of what he had envisioned for this film. 2/5 stars.
(Image: Wikipedia)
Even the poster looks bland, like something a teenager could put together in a weekend.
SPOILERS:
So Falcon (Anthony Mackie) appears in the film as a way to tie
The Avengers into this yet again. One thing I did enjoy was Lang mentioning how if Pym just called the team everything would be solved. The mid-credits sequence has Hank giving daughter Hope his wife's old Wasp suit, teasing her as the superheroine (also, it irked me how Pym tells Hope that her mother died a hero, when the correct word would be heroine; I know that's like me being a grammar Nazi, but it still bothered me). The end credits scene has the Winter Soldier held by Captain American and the Falcon, who says that if Tony Stark won't help them, then maybe "a guy" will. The end-credits scene is in Widescreen, unlike the rest of the film, which makes me suspect it's really more like a scene lifted from
Captain America: Civil War, which would be insanely lazy.
(Image: Wikipedia)
(Image: Wikipedia)
(Image: Wikipedia)