Monday, July 27, 2015

Ant-Man: SPOILER POST

WARNING!!!
The following post contains spoilers for the film ‘Ant-Man’. If you have not yet seen the film, please instead refer to my Spoiler-Free review (the link will be provided below) as I will be talking about some of the major points of this film in spoiler-y detail.



In the days leading up to the release of ‘Ant-Man’, I’ll admit that I wasn’t really sure if I was going to do a Spoiler Post for this particular installment of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. This is because at the time I figured that after the epic events of ‘The Avengers: Age of Ultron’, there probably wouldn’t really be that much to talk about in regards to this film, sort of like 2013’s ‘Thor: The Dark World’ compared to the other MCU film of that year, ‘Iron Man 3’. But, in the end, there actually is quite a few noteworthy things to talk about in this, the final installment of the MCU’s Phase Two. Namely this is in regards to some major implications towards the future of the franchise. And of course I’m happy to see that ‘Ant-Man’ turned out as successful as it did with critics and audiences given all of the unfortunate bad publicity that it got following the whole Edgar Wright incident when he dropped out of directing the film, which he had worked on since 2006, due to creative differences with Marvel. Hopefully at the end of the day this film managed to make a good chunk of its biggest critics eat their words because it turned out just fine even without the fan-favorite Wright directing it. So now that I got that intro out of the way, let’s start talking about some of the biggest elements to Marvel Studios’ latest superhero adventure that I just couldn’t delve into that much in my original spoiler-free review.

FAVORITE MOMENTS

I guess you can say that this is becoming a recurring topic in these MCU Spoiler Posts of mine. I’ve always praised the MCU for perfectly establishing a fun and light-hearted atmosphere while also perfectly balancing the epic action with humor and heart and ‘Ant-Man’ is no exception. So today it’s time to highlight some of my favorite moments from ‘Ant-Man’;


*As noted in my original review, Michael Pena is easily the biggest standout of the entire film as he has many of the best lines in the film. Of course there are the montages where he talks about how he came across major tip-offs in which he provides the dubbing for any major character in those scenes (including good old Stan Lee in his usual cameo). But then you also have some other hilarious moments involving his character Luis, like when he helps save a guard (who he had knocked out earlier) from the Pym Technologies building before it explodes and his first scene in the film where he tells Scott Lang that even though “his girlfriend left him, his mom died, and his dad got deported”, at least he got to “keep the van”. I’ve heard quite a few people now complain that the character is nothing more than a stereotype but I think the character is much more than that. I mentioned the whole ‘dragging a guy out of a building before it explodes’ thing, right? I don't care what anyone says... Luis is awesome!


*Scott’s daughter Cassie (Abby Ryder Fortson) also gets some highly memorable bits of funny dialogue. The first is when her father visits her at her birthday party and she goes to tell her mom, Scott’s ex-wife Maggie (Judy Greer). Cassie then tells her dad that her mom “was so happy, she choked on her drink.” The other funny line from her is when she’s with her mom and her new stepdad Paxton (Bobby Cannavale) after Scott uses the Ant-Man suit to break out of jail. She asks Paxton if “he’s looking for her dad”, to which he responds by saying yes and that he’s just trying to keep Scott safe. She then tells him that she hopes that he doesn’t catch him. Epic Burn!!!


*Of course you can’t go wrong with a training montage and ‘Ant-Man’ has a pretty memorable one, from Scott getting freaked out by ants resulting in him quickly reverting back to normal size and getting stuck in the backyard (this happens twice by the way (“That was much more frightening a few seconds ago”)) to the famous scene from the trailer where Hope van Dyne teaches Scott how to punch… by punching him in the face (“Were you aiming for the hand?”). What else can be said but, “That’s how you punch”?


*When Hope and Hank got out of Pym Technologies with the help of Hank’s ‘keychain’.


*During the first major action sequence between Ant-Man and Yellowjacket in a helicopter, the two of them end up getting stuck in a briefcase as it plummets down to Earth. Yellowjacket declares “I’m going to disintegrate you” but before this, Ant-Man accidentally activates Siri on Darren Cross’ IPhone, who translates that into “Playing ‘Disintegration’ by The Cure”. Cue epic fight scene backed by ‘Plainsong’.


*Speaking of epic action sequences, the film’s climax is definitely one of the most unique climaxes in the entire MCU… and it takes place within Cassie’s room. This of course leads to many hilarious moments in which the action sequences that look epic at ant-sized scale aren’t really that major when viewed from a distance. This includes the famous shot from the trailer when Yellowjacket is run over by Thomas the Tank Engine. Thomas is then later blown up to gigantic size by one of Ant-Man’s ‘Pym Particle discs’ and crashes through the house. One of Scott’s ant allies also gets hit by one of the discs and by the end of the film, Cassie apparently adopted it as a pet.

There are still a few more moments that I didn’t mention here, but we’ll move on for now so that this doesn’t go on forever…

SCOTT LANG/ANT-MAN


One of the major reasons why I was really looking forward to this film was how it was going to give us a different kind of superhero lead compared to the others that we’ve seen over the years, like Thor or Spider-Man. Scott Lang doesn’t have any special superpowers; he’s just a regular guy who at the beginning of the film is down on his luck having just been released from prison as he now tries to turn his life around so that he can be there for his daughter Cassie, whom he can see only if he can provide child support according to Maggie and Paxton. But obviously, due to his criminal background, he has difficulty keeping any jobs… he even gets fired from Baskin-Robbins (because “Baskin-Robbins always Finds Out!”) This is also the first major MCU film to place emphasis on a ‘father-daughter’ relationship (two in fact… we’ll get to the other one in a second). Sure, Cassie doesn’t actually play that big a role in the film but that doesn’t mean that she isn’t vital to Scott’s character arc. His motivation to be with his daughter again legitimately helps him become better at using the Ant-Man technology, primarily in regards to effectively communicating with his ant allies. Because of all this, Scott ends up being one of the most relatable leads of the MCU to date and Paul Rudd does a terrific job in the lead role.

HOPE VAN DYNE AND HANK PYM


The second, and most prominent, ‘father-daughter’ relationship in the film is between Hope van Dyne and her father Hank Pym. Early on, there’s shown to be some major tension between the two, especially after the loss of Hope’s mother (more on her later). Hank reveals to Scott that when he was kicked out of his company by Darren Cross, Hope was ‘the deciding vote’, though she came back to him later on after realizing the sinister intentions of Cross in his effort to re-create her father’s ‘Ant-Man technology’. But the most important aspect of their relationship in this film is how it addresses Hank’s reluctance to have Hope take on the mantle of Ant-Man. In the beginning, it is clearly established that Hope is more than capable, definitely more so than Scott, of being a superhero, having trained in karate (a little while after her mom ‘died’) and being much more familiar with Pym Technologies due to her being Darren Cross’ primary business partner. But as the film progresses, we eventually do learn of the major reason why Hank doesn’t let Hope wear the suit. And it is actually a pretty damn legit reason as Hank doesn’t want ‘the same thing’ that happened to her mother (I’ll delve more into that later on) happening to Hope. As I stated in my original review for the film, Evangeline Lilly may not have gotten that much to do in terms of action but that doesn’t mean that her character is wasted in this film. In fact, from what I’ve heard online, Hope’s role in the film would’ve been much less significant if the film did end up getting directed by Wright. So yes, there’s actually a major positive to Wright not directing ‘Ant-Man’; a much more substantial role for Hope van Dyne.

YELLOWJACKET


Boy those poor MCU villains can never catch a break when it comes to critics and fans negatively comparing them to everyone’s favorite, Loki. Earlier this summer, I did a post in which I ranked the MCU’s first eight major villains and ultimately defended the majority of them as being better than what most critics put them out to be. But as for Darren Cross, the main villain of ‘Ant-Man’, I unfortunately have to side more with the critics on this one. Cross admittedly is a rather one-note villain despite the interesting enough set-up of him looking to enact revenge against his former mentor, Hank Pym, for keeping the Ant-Man technology away from him, leaving him to have to try and recreate it himself. I mainly tribute Cross’ shortcomings as a villain to the fact that he’s not really in the film that much to be that much of a ‘threat’. He’s in the film but most of the runtime is instead focused on the protagonists. But as I’ve stated in the past, I really don’t mind that at all because I do think that one of the biggest strengths of the MCU is that their main characters have always been so well-developed to the point where these films don’t always need a ‘Loki-esque’ villain. But despite all of this, that doesn’t mean that I think that Cross is a ‘terrible’ villain.

Going off of what I said in that previous ‘Ranking the MCU villains’ post, one of the main reasons why I feel that most of the non-Loki MCU villains are better than people give them credit for is because at least the majority of them still manage to have a solid enough screen presence that I feel manages to at least make up for any other shortcomings that they might have. The only instance in which this didn’t work was Malekith from ‘Thor 2’, who was not only a majorly underdeveloped villain but also one that had absolutely no screen presence whatsoever. Despite the fact that Cross ends up being a fairly one-note villain, Corey Stoll at least has a solid villainous screen presence in the role. He does actually manage to be rather intimidating whenever he’s talking to one of the main characters, whether it be Scott, Hope, or Hank. And yes, that Yellowjacket suit is pretty damn badass. Sure, Cross doesn’t put it on until the finale but once he does, that’s definitely one of the film’s biggest highlights. So in conclusion, while Darren Cross AKA Yellowjacket may not be the absolute MCU villain of all-time, he is also by no means the worst. If I had to rank him alongside the other MCU villains based on my original rankings from earlier this year (which would now obviously include Ultron, who would be #2 by the way, following ‘Age of Ultron’), he would be ranked somewhere around 7 or 8.

FALCON


Taking the honor of being one of the best cameos of 2015 is everyone’s favorite ‘wingman’, Falcon (Anthony Mackie). Sam Wilson also made an appearance in ‘Age of Ultron’ but it was a very minor cameo as he only appeared in two scenes, the first being an brief appearance at the Avengers’ party in Stark Tower and the other occurring right at the end as he becomes one of the newest members of the Avengers. Thankfully he gets a much more substantial role in ‘Ant-Man’ as he partakes in one of the best action sequences in the entire film; a fight between him and Scott. Before the big heist on Pym Industries, Hank and Hope have Scott break into an old Stark Industries facility in order to find a Signal Decoy device that will help them out in their mission. But when Scott finally gets there, they all realize that it has since become the new headquarters for the Avengers, which we the audience first saw in ‘Age of Ultron’. Despite Hank and Hope repeatedly telling him to get out of there, Scott sticks to the plan and almost immediately crosses paths with Falcon. The two of them get into a brief fight but Scott manages to beat Falcon by sabotaging his wingsuit. As he leaves, Falcon embarrassingly tells whoever he’s talking to on the radio to not tell Cap about this. But this isn’t the last we see of Falcon in this film, as he later appears at the end of the film as part of one of Luis’ famous ‘tip-off montages’ in which Scott learns that Wilson is offering him a chance to join the Avengers.

JANET VAN DYNE


One of the major questions brought up by fans in the months leading up to the film’s release is whether or not Hank Pym’s wife Janet van Dyne AKA ‘The Wasp’ would be making an appearance in the film. While she ultimately doesn’t play a major role in the film, the story of what happened to her is a key scene in the film and arguably the most emotionally impactful as well. As stated earlier, this is why Hank doesn’t let Hope take on the mantle of Ant-Man despite the fact that she’s clearly more qualified than Scott. Hank eventually tells both Scott and Hope what really happened to her mother. Back in 1987 when Hank took on missions in the Ant-Man costume alongside his wife, she had sacrificed herself in order to stop a Soviet missile by going subatomic and disappearing into a quantum realm. So obviously, Hank doesn’t want to lose Hope like he lost Janet. It’s definitely a touching moment, allowing both Hank and Hope to reach an emotional catharsis after a considerable amount of time at odds with one another and I’ll even admit that I got a little teary-eyed during this scene… even if Scott ends up ruining the moment a few moments later by remarking how the two of them are re-connecting.

But did Janet van Dyne really die in the Quantum Realm? This is put into question during the film’s finale after Scott also goes subatomic in order to sabotage Yellowjacket’s suit to defeat him. He ends up in the same Quantum Realm and while he doesn’t come across Janet while he’s there, he does manage to get out by reversing his suit’s shrinking mechanism, allowing him to return to normal size. This of course leads to Hank beginning to wonder if Janet may still be alive, which given the fact that Scott managed to survive the Quantum Realm seems very, very possible. And quite frankly, I do think that Janet is still alive and that we’ll be seeing her sometime in the future. I may not be that much of a comic-book reader but I can definitely tell that the Wasp is a fan-favorite character amongst Marvel fans so I know that fans have been eager to see her make an appearance in the MCU. Plus, in the comics, she was also one of the founding members of the Avengers. Obviously the same distinction does not apply in the MCU but Kevin Feige has stated that there are plans to have her appear in future films. But while we may not yet know is Janet is still alive, we do know what will happen next for ‘the Wasp’. This of course leads me to the final topic of today’s Spoiler Post…

THOSE POST-CREDITS SEQUENCES


If we’re talking MCU post-credits scenes, then ‘Ant-Man’ arguably has two of the most important sequences in franchise history as both lay the groundwork for future events in the MCU. Going back to what I just talked about in regards to ‘the Wasp’, the mid-credits scene shows Hank giving Hope a prototype Wasp suit that was developed by both him and Janet, showing that he’s finally able to accept Hope taking on a superhero mantle after showing much hesitation earlier in the film. As stated earlier, Hope did not have much to do in the film in terms of action but that was fine because she was still just as important to the story, primarily in regards to her trying to reconnect with her father. But with that said, it’s definitely very cool that she’s now going to get to be a superhero as well in future MCU films. Though according to Kevin Feige, she won’t be appearing in the next MCU film, ‘Civil War’, because the character was cut from the story so that they “wouldn’t do her a disservice”. Yeah it’s a little disappointing, especially considering that Scott Lang will be in the film, but then again ‘Civil War’ does have a pretty big ensemble cast to the point where it can now pretty much be considered as an ‘Avengers’ film so it’s not really that big of a deal. So now I’m guessing that she’ll at least be in ‘Infinity War’. Either way, to quote Hope in this mid-credits scene, “it’s about damn time”.


Speaking of ‘Civil War’, finally there’s the post-credits scene, which was directed by the Russo brothers and will apparently be seen again in ‘Civil War’. The scene consists of Captain America and Falcon having finally found Bucky, which was their goal at the end of ‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’, and debating what to do next. Both of them point out that they’re unable to contact Tony Stark due to ‘the Accords’, obviously foreshadowing the future conflict between Cap and Iron Man in ‘Civil War’. But of course because Falcon was part of a major action sequence in this film and at the end was shown to be looking for Scott Lang to ‘recruit’ him into the Avengers, he tells Steve that ‘he knows a guy’. So while we don’t yet know when this scene will occur in the next film, it definitely sets the stakes for what will be surely be another epic superhero film when ‘Captain America: Civil War’ hits theaters on May 6, 2016 to kick Phase Three of this grand Marvel Cinematic Universe. But for now, this sequence, and the entire film in general, closes out Phase Two of the MCU. Sure there may have been quite a bit of controversy surrounding this stage of the MCU from the Mandarin fake-out to the whole Edgar Wright incident but ultimately it ended up delivering some of the franchise’s greatest films to date.

IN CONCLUSION


Whenever I update my rankings list of the MCU, I don’t add in the newest film until after I’ve at least seen it twice. So now, having seen ‘Ant-Man’ twice in theaters, here are my updated rankings for the first twelve films of the Marvel Cinematic Universe;

12. Iron Man 2

11. The Incredible Hulk

10. Thor: The Dark World

9. Thor

8. Iron Man

7. Iron Man 3

6. ANT-MAN

5. Captain America: The First Avenger

4. Captain America: The Winter Soldier

3. The Avengers: Age of Ultron

2. The Avengers

1. Guardians of the Galaxy


Ultimately there are two main reasons why I can’t really put ‘Ant-Man’ in the Top 5. The first, as noted earlier, is that the main villain is rather one-note but as I also noted earlier, this has never bothered me as much as other people and I don’t even think that Yellowjacket is a ‘terrible’ villain. Like I’ve said in the past, I don’t hold the MCU villains to the ridiculously high standards of the internet in the wake of Loki’s turn as the villain in ‘The Avengers’. The only other problem that I have with ‘Ant-Man’ is that it starts off rather slow but thankfully gets moving once Scott first puts on the Ant-Man suit. All in all, ‘Ant-Man’ is another excellent entry in the MCU film. It’s sad that this film had to be overshadowed by the internet’s unwillingness to get over the departure of Edgar Wright, and unfortunately I have seen some people negatively compare the film to ‘what could have been’ with Wright, which is straight-up BS. But at the end of the day, ‘Ant-Man’ did not end up being the disaster that some predicted it to be. Marvel managed to move on from this initial setback and director Peyton Reed more than proves to be a solid enough replacement for Wright. As a result, ‘Ant-Man’ is another highly entertaining installment of this highly entertaining franchise and is definitely one of the most unique MCU films to date. Like I said in my original review, at this point it is foolish to have any sort of doubt about Marvel Studios because they obviously know what they’re doing. 

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