Face-Off: Ant-Man vs. Ant-Man and the Wasp

Paul Rudd as Scott Lang/Ant-Man
Evangeline Lilly as Hope Van Dyne
Corey Stoll as Darren Cross/Yellowjacket
Michael Pena as Luis
Bobby Canavale as Paxton
Tip "T.I." Harris as Dave
Judy Greer as Maggie
Abby Ryder Fortson as Cassie
David Dastmalchian as Kurt
with Anthony Mackie as Sam Wilson/Falcon
and Michael Douglas as Dr. Hank Pym

Okay, we all know the story of Ant-Man and the directing hubub, but here's a very brief recap nonetheless. So, SHAUN OF THE DEAD and HOT FUZZ director Edgar Wright had been involved in developing an Ant-Man movie for, well, before the MCU was even a thing. After the MCU became a *huge* deal the movie was intending to make needed to be tweaked a bit, and that didn't sit so well with Wright. After amicably splitting, director Peyton Reed was brought in to direct along with Adam McKay and Paul Rudd to help with scripting changes, thus giving us the ANT-MAN we know and love. For this, Reed was perfectly capable of bringing out the comedy and blue-collar approach of the Marvel's most low-key movie to date. His background in comedies like BRING IT ON, YES MAN and shows like NEW GIRL was put to use with ANT-MAN's accessible, sweet and often off-kilter sense of humor that kept the movie moving at a brisk pace when shrinking action isn't taking place. But Reed also has a quirkier side to him that is all but necessary to make a movie starring a hero who can shrink down to the size of an insect stand out. Where his skills also shine is in delivering on the unique action the character needs to be involved in and lacing it with an accessible story and leading hero that will make audiences flock to a movie called ANT-MAN rather than walk by the poster and say "Are they f**iking joking with this?" Reed had a difficult task with this one, especially after coming in under such circumstances, and he deserves a lot of credit for taking the character with the weirdest superpowers and making him a total legit.

While Reed added his own flair to the directing side of things the script and story were, for the most part, left intact by original scribes Wright and Joe Cornish. They had the concept of including both Pym and Lang and having a heist story years and years before it was released, and that stayed in there permanently. Where the story gets its more fleshed out elements and connections to the MCU come from McKay and Rudd, who locked themselves in a room for weeks fleshing out other scenes, adding characters, etc. While their work linked ANT-MAN to the greater connectivity of the series, the framework that Wright and Cornish established made the movie feel like it's own beast compared to the other Marvel movies, going beyond the typical origin story and nestling it within a rousing heist action-comedy. Mixing that all into the pot could've made for a toxic concoction of shifting tones and random elements, but what came out is one of the better origin stories in the MCU, and one that establishes Scott as an everyman whose daughter's well-being is at the center of everything he does. He has no powers and no strong skills other than a smart mind, so his growth into becoming a superhero feels genuinely earned and accessible. The story beats themselves – especially as they plan the heist – don't venture too far off from a bare-bones heist movie, but for the most part it's nicely woven into the origin of the hero angle with the other supporting players getting just enough development to flesh out the story, but not rob Lang of his stage. Again, as far as solo origin stories the MCU goes it's one of the best out there, up there with IRON MAN and THE FIRST AVENGER.

Bits:

Pym, Stark and Carter
Scott and Luis
Baskin Robbins
The Yellow Jacket
Turned into Goo!
Luis’ Recap
Scott Lang: Science Genius Cat Burglar
Bye, Bye Lamb
Testing Out the Suit
A Big, Big, Big World
Break Out
Taking Flight
Pym’s Lair
Ant-Man Training
Pym’s Story
Avengers Compound
Ant-Man vs. Falcon
Scaring Luis
Ant-Surfing
Cross’ True Nature
Ant-Man Taking Down Thugs
Ant-Man vs. Yellow Jacket
Fight in the Suitcase
Train Set Fight!
A New Reality

Lines:

Dale: “Baskin-Robbins always find out.”

—–

Scott: "I'm Ant-Man."
Sam: "Ant-Man?"
Scott: "What, you haven't heard of me?"

—–

Scott: “My days of breaking into places and stealing shit are over! What do you need me to do?”

Hank: “I want you to break into a place and steal some shit.”

—–

Scott: “Wait I didn't steal anything! I was returning something I stole!”
—–
Luis: “Get if off! Get it off!”
Scott: “I thought Daddy didn't get scared!”
—–
Hank: “It's not about saving our world. It's about saving theirs.”
—–
Scott: “I think our first move should be calling the Avengers.”
Hank: “I spent thirty years protecting that technology from a Stark, I sure as hell don't intend to give it to another! This isn't cute technology like the Iron Man suit!”
—–
Luis: “Thank you for the coffee ma'am. It's not too often that you rob a place, and then get welcomed back. Because we just robbed you!”
Hope: “You know that he was arrested for stealing a smoothie machine, right?”
Luis: “Two smoothie machines.”
—–
Scott: “Hey, how's your girl, man?”
Luis: “Ah, she left me.”
Scott: “Oh.”
Luis: “And my mom died too. And my dad got deported…But I got the van!”
—–
Scott: This is awesome. It's awesome. You know, you guys are breaking down walls, you're healing, it's important.

[beat]

Scott: "I ruined the moment, didn't I?"
Hank: "Yes, you did, yes."

Iron Man is a billionaire genius playboy philanthropist, Captain America is the super soldier, Thor is the god of thunder, and even Black Widow and Hawkeye are some master assassins. Scott Lang is an ex-con, thrown in jail for sticking it to the man (and getting his ass caught), and is now just trying to do right by his family. In a world filled with mighty heroes (or at least deadly ones), Lang stands apart by being your ordinary guy who wants nothing more than to, in the words of Hank Pym, "earn that look" in his daughter's eyes. That makes Lang the most grounded and relatable hero in the MCU, and that everyman quality is emphasized in this first story and brought perfectly to life by the ageless Paul Rudd. He's got charm, heart, a quick mind, a bit of braggadocio and looks totally out of his league when starting to work with Hope and Hank. Together, they make an unlikely trio with well-realized personalities that clash and mold like a combustible mixture, which makes their dysfunction engaging. This first movie explored these characters with nuance and through a family dynamic lens, like Hank knowing his daughter's potential but fearing to lose her, and the ambitious Hope eager to fight the fight and angry with Scott for getting the gig. There are firm foundations set here that explored these characters with depth, solidifying them as figures we can root for in many movies to come.

ANT-MAN is perhaps the most visually-arresting Marvel movie (up to that point) that didn't involve cities being destroyed, other-worldly realms or spaceships. The effects are pretty extraordinary, and that alone can be applied to the VFX being able to shrink Paul Rudd to the size of a smaller-than-usual TicTac. When he's shrunk you feel like you're in another world, seeing how things look for the first time from such a different perspective. As Lang finds out, that world is f**king terrifying. Feet are stomping, rats are chasing you down, etc. But it's also wildly fun. Who wouldn't want to lead an ant army into battle? What makes ANT-MAN such an enjoyable revisit is seeing how they took the action sequences and made them both exhilarating and completely ridiculous. I mean, he and Cross fight each other in a plummeting suitcase as The Cure plays, with all sorts of random items floating around them. Then they take to a Thomas the Train set, which is epic and then hilarious when taken out to a normal person's perspective, and the train just sort of tips over as it runs into Cross. It's all crazy, exciting and funny as hell, and just goes to show you how much thought they put into bringing this character to life.

With a character like Ant-Man who can change sizes at any time, you can't really expect audiences to buy into the premise with total seriousness. There needs to be a bit of levity, and at the time it came out ANT-MAN was easily one of the funniest movies in the series. Much of that is thanks to the likes of Rudd and Pena, with the former bringing his natural charm and comedic timing to the character, which worked well when some of the stranger aspects kicked in, like when he's starting to train with the ants. The writers and filmmakers simply embraced the absurdity of everything while not going leaning into some of the more extreme aspects, and it plays like a solid ensemble comedy that happens to have some surreal action and visuals. As for the movie's emotional core, much of that comes from Scott's desire to make his daughter proud, an especially tender moment happening when he stops by to wish her goodnight while wearing the suit. It's a dynamic that would be developed further and in greater detail in the sequel, though, but is a nice, sweet start here.

For the Ant-Man score, composer Christophe Beck set out to create a score with lots of big orchestration pieces meant for a superhero adventure story. Certainly, tracks like the title theme have a big and colorful feel, and there are plenty of others like it across the movie. But one musical style I happen to love are the ones that recall to the kinds of fun, espionage movies, infusing a quick bongo sound with the larger orchestrations. Two great examples of this on the score are "I'll Call Him Antony" and "Scott Surfs on Ants," the latter of which when their infiltrating Cross' lab. There a lot of fun pieces here and a lot of ones typical to blockbuster movies, but overall it's an adventureous score that adds a bit of spectacle to this rather simple MCU outing.

Awards:

Golden Schmoes:

Nominee:

• Biggest Surprise
• Favorite Movie Poster
• Best Line of the Year: "Baskin Robbins always finds out."

**Another 3 Wins & 29 Nominations per IMDb**

Praise:

Rotten Tomatoes: 82% (86% Audience Score)

Metacritic: 64 (8.0 Audience)

IMDb: 7.3

Money:

$180 million ($519 million globally)

A blue-collar superhero needs a blue-collar baddie, and you really can't get much better than Darren Cross in that regard. After seeing Loki and Ultron try to destroy civilization its nice to see a villain with nefarious goals of becoming super rich and almost nothing more. He greedy, sadistic and smarmy and Corey Stoll seems to be having the best time chewing the scenery. He doesn't always get to be zapping people into goo or flying around blowing stuff up in the Yellowjacket suit, but he's always got this evil, unsettling look in his eyes and is even deceptively charming. He's exactly what a corporate villain would look like in the Marvel universe, and a perfect pairing to Lang, who has already been established as a guy who has a passion for taking down rich dicks. It's a shame he's gone because he could've made an excellent Lex Luthor figure, someone who has the technical means to take down his enemies with force but instead uses his mind and cunning. Because he won't ever get the chance to develop more we will have to stick with that we got, which is not one of the best villains of the MCU, but a perfect one for this movie. Oh well, at least Yellowjacket was dope.