Marvel has a problem on their hands with the MCU. They’ve got a cohesive style that can make all the Marvel films feel very similar. The way they’ve attempted to address this is to deliver movies that are stylistically similar, but are couched in different genres. Yes, they all involve superheroes, but they inhabit other genres like space opera (Guardians of the Galaxy), buddy cop (Iron Man 3), fantasy (Thor: The Dark World) and even a war movie. (Captain America: The First Avenger).
With Ant-Man (Who?) they’re tackling a new genre: the heist movie.
Ant-Man
Director: Peyton Reed
Release Date: July 17, 2015
Rated: PG-13
Ant-Man might be the most divergent from the original Marvel comic yet. Instead of focusing on the original Ant-Man, Hank Pym (Michael Douglas), the movie skips over to the modern iteration: Scott Lang (Paul Rudd). As Pym, and his then wife The Wasp, were two founding members of the Avengers in the comics this is kind of a big deal, but it’s what you get when you can’t roll out a movie based on a shrinking superhero until you’ve established everything you do is going to be a hit. Marvel has done that and so we get an up-to-date Ant-Man, and Pym’s daughter Hope van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly), instead of Pym.
That doesn’t mean Pym was never Ant-Man nor that there was no Wasp. The movie picks up in the past as Pym quits his superhero heroics for the then new S.H.I.E.L.D. after the death of his wife and vows to hide the technologies that allow him to shrink and control ants. Jump forward to modern day and we find Lang just getting out of prison and unable to find a job so he goes on one more heist… and steals the Ant-Man suit. Meanwhile, Pym has been forced out of the technology company he runs and his predecessor Darren Cross (Corey Stoll) has finally, after years of denial from Pym, discovered how to shrink people. He’s built a suit called the Yellowjacket. The only way to stop him from misusing this power? Steal it.
There, my friends, you have a set up for a heist movie, and for the most part this heist works. It’s a fun and enjoyable romp highlighted by the great use of Ant-Man’s powers throughout. Though his powers cause some of the movie’s problems. Any good heist movie is pretty complex, but with Ant-Man’s abilities it kind of simplifies things down. The rest of the gang (including T.I. and Michael Peña) seem to be there more for comic relief and to fill a heist movie quota than anything else. The heist itself isn’t that clever either as it plays out in a very straight forward manner that you don’t see very often in modern heist films. There’s no Now You See Me twist coming with this one.
The movie does feature a heavier dose of comedy than other Marvel films. This one is very in line with modern heist films that incorporate a humorous gang into the proceedings to liven things up. Plus, you’ve got Rudd, who delivers his normal comedic talents to the proceedings. This makes Ant-Man easily the lightest of the Marvel films and probably the funniest, though Guardians is right there with it. The problem with the film’s focus on traditional heist film tactics is that it trips into cliche constantly. There’s a training montage, and a planning montage and a group of stereotypical teammates. Ironically by differentiating itself from other Marvel films it becomes more generic as a whole.
What’s great is that it doesn’t especially matter because the fun comes straight from the superpowers. Ant-Man’s abilities are so unique in comparison to the rest of the heroes out there that it gives a new spin to things. The action is impressively done and uses the shrinking/growing dynamic in some really awesome ways. The final fight between Ant-Man and Yellowjacket is especially well done as they shrink and grow in and out of a variety of locations. Director Peyton Reed did a really admirable job putting the scenes together with just the right amount of comedy mixed into the fight. I’d still rather see what Edgar Wright could have done (he does get screenwriting credit), but Reed does some very cool things here that turn a very straightforward heist into something awesome.
One of the possible holdovers from Wright’s time is just how referential this movie is to the history of heist films. It is often an homage to the classics of the genre. There’s a train fight sequence hearkening back to train robbery westerns, a little Mission: Impossible thrown in, some subtle references to Ocean’s Eleven and plenty more for those who know their heist movie history. While other Marvel films have given nods to their respective genres, Ant-Man is by far the most meta of them all. I half expected Rudd to pull a Deadpool and talk to the camera at some point.
Sadly, one of the other effects of Wright leaving is that the story isn’t as fleshed out as it should be. At points it feels rushed, as a condensed production schedule would make it. This is especially true of the character Hope, who was created specifically for the film, and creates one of the film’s most blatant plot holes. She’s a trained fighter who knows how to use the suit thanks to her dad, but we can’t have her using it because Lang needs to be Ant-Man. They wrote themselves into a corner with the issue and use the excuse that her father doesn’t want her using it to make sure she doesn’t. It feels even more forced thanks to the first end credit sequence in which (spoilers) her father shows her the Wasp suit he was working on with her mother (end spoilers). One wonders if Wright had been allowed to finish his version if this pretty sexist problem would still be around.
What really works about Ant-Man, and what keeps its problems at bay is that it’s small and and practically immaterial. Much like the hero himself, the film is incredibly micro. It, for the most part, ditches the wider Marvel universes and focuses on fun and adventure. It’s not the bloated, overwhelming Age of Ultron and its not the completely disconnected Iron Man 3. It’s exactly what the MCU needs right now: a creative dose of fun.
