Ant-Man: Grade, Review, Discuss, Sequels?...SPOILERS likely

[hux]

Can someone refresh my memory? Did Hydra make it out with Cross's version of Pym particles? I seem to remember someone trying.

Wasn't it the guy who got a broken nose by young Pym at the start of the film.

I'm intrigued by the idea of the subatomic stuff. Pym makes it clear that this takes you out of time & space or something. My guess is that Ant-Man will be traveling in time at some point in the franchise (maybe saving a dead Avenger) and possibly through space too (maybe turning up in the next Guardians film?)

 

[JD]

I'm not sure but I thought Cross killed all of the Hydra guys in the helicopter when he was trying to blast Scott with those laser stinger things? Or were those just his guys?

 

[DWF]

I thought it was a great movie, I loved the ant visual effects, Stan Lee and Garett Morris' cameos, Scott's fight with the Falcon, the father/daughter parallel storyline Scott/Cassie and Hank/Hope, Michael Pena's narriation. Though Darren Cross did remind me of Stane in the first Iron Man movie, but I did like their final fight and the super sized Thomas the train. Michael Douglas joins a growing list of fine actors appearing MCU movie, although at times he reminded me of his father Kirk in many of the scenes.

 

[Star Wolf]

I had a great time coming off with the immediate post movie high I would place it second in the MCU behind The Winter Soldier. As an origin story it does not hold the universe's importance of Iron Man but Ant-Man was more fun and I would place it ahead of X-Men First Class for the recent all comic universes origin stories.

 

[Noname Given]

I thought it was nicely done and enjoyed it myself. Liked it better then Iron Man 2 and 3 and actually liked it more than Guardians of the Galaxy. The part with the Falcon was a COMPLETE (and well done) surprise for me; and I loved the second Easter egg ending scene "I know a guy..." - I actually laughed hard in spite of the fact it was honestly telegraphed way earlier.

I hope it has enough legs and word of mouth that it does well enough at the box office to get a sequel and doesn't end off just being a one off like the 2008 'Incredible Hulk'.

 

[Turtletrekker]

Yeah I assume (hope) that the final post credit scene actually is a just scene from Civil War, as it seems to important to just leave for the hardcore fans to see.

You assume correctly...

Kevin Feige said...

I won’t tell you exactly where it is, but that’s photography from Civil War. That is a part of the movie - it’s dailies from a part of the movie. Whether it will look exactly like that in the movie I think will shift a little bit, in terms of how we cut it, but that was footage shot for Civil War.

 

[acappellasaurus]

I had this thought throughout the movie...especially with this MCU version being more of a fusion of the Ant-Man origin storyline and all...everyone assumes that we'll be seeing Hope evolve into Wasp 2.0 following in her mom's footsteps...but the necklace she wore in every scene, the golden acorn and leaf...to me it was VERY intentionally shown, and I cant help but wonder if, with the way they set up how the ants were controlled....could this be a possible hint to Squirrel Girl? I can't see any other reason why we'd be shown this necklace so heavily, and we all know that Marvel doesn't do ANYTHING in-universe without intention. Thoughts?

 

[Guy Gardener]

Janet Van Dyne-Pym, Mom, is alive and well in Subatomica fighting centaurs.

We're probably not going to see Jan until the Micronauts movie in 2026, but they laid the ground work well.

Q: Do humans age at an ordinary rate when compressed to microscopic size?

Jan might be younger than her daughter when she leaps out of that pendant, from the microverse.

 

[Captain Craig]

B+

I was very pleased with the film. I had high expectations going in though, the director shifts didn't phase me. I'm not attached to Edgar Wright as some great film auteur that some place upon him. I've seen the whole Cornetto trilogy and while fun stuff they aren't something so unique as to place Wright in an esteemed place for me.

I really enjoy the origin type film for a character never given one. Here I thought they did a good job with Scott as well as Hank. Reed/Feige etc all did a good job of getting a good mix of emotional depth out of those first two acts. It pays off in the final act. Someone said,"like IM it won't have much re-watchability".
I agree with the reply by another, "I love rewatching the first IM", so I feel this will hold true for Ant-Man as well.

The de-aged Michael Douglas looked incredibly well done. It was like they yanked imagery from Wall Street it was so seamless. Ditto on the aged up Agent Carter. I liked that we were seeing the construction of the Triskellion(sp). Seeing Howard Stark as well is another one of those nice world building moments the MCU does so well.
Knowing that Hank and Janet were active up till '87 bodes interestingly for future "Tales to Astonish" of lost heroics.

My wife finally figured out where she'd seen Cassie, she's the creepy girl in the summer TV series The Whispers. She was IMDB'ing the film as we left the theater, she had to know. The ads for that alone gave my wife the jeepers.

I liked that Darren Cross was selling his tech to Hydra. It essentially tells us that while Ward was one "head" on the TV show, filling the void by Whitehall that somewhere else another "head" was doing the same thing. The two heads likely don't even know about the other at this point. I also feel that the Mitchell character did manage to get away with one of the vials Darren had, so Hydra now has a sample to test.

The thing that seems well teased in this film as part of the Pym legacy were the weapons that "grew" things larger than normal size. For those that don't know Pym has had several costumed identities(including Yellowjacket in the comic). Pym used the growth version of his particles to take the names Giant Man & Goliath. I think it would be great if in a sequel Pym expands his roster of friends and enlists a new scientist protege, Bill Foster and he becomes Goliath.

Loved the final act with all the shrinking/growing scenes. The cuts were perhaps a bit fast at times would be a minor complaint. The 3rd person shots were also great, especially when Cassie looks out from her closet hiding place a few times to view the Thomas train sequences!

Like Janet is it possible that Darren has shrunk into the micro verse or are we to assume he's dead? A sequel set where that's part of the plot has some potential.

 

[Gryffindorian]

There are two types of Marvel movies, and this one falls under the "comedic" category (the other one being more "dramatic," like Captain America: TWS). I would rate Guardians of the Galaxy as one notch above this one, but I still give this movie a B+.

Michael Douglas and Paul Rudd nailed their roles as Hank Pym and Scott Lang/Ant-Man, respectively. Evangeline Lily was a great supporting character in the way she portrayed Hope, Pym's daughter who was spying on the sinister Darren Cross/Yellowjacket, whom I thought was a typical two-dimensional villain.

It would be interesting to see Hope transform into the new Wasp. Sadly, I've never stayed through the very end of the credits to view the second post-credit scene.

 

[Turtletrekker]

A friend of mine saw the post credit scene and realised that Captain America was in a room with Captain America and Captain America.

 

[davejames]

B+

I was very pleased with the film. I had high expectations going in though, the director shifts didn't phase me. I'm not attached to Edgar Wright as some great film auteur that some place upon him. I've seen the whole Cornetto trilogy and while fun stuff they aren't something so unique as to place Wright in an esteemed place for me.

Yeah I thought the director did a really good job as well. And don't think the movie really needed to be any lighter or "wackier" or whatever quality Wright was originally planning to bring to it.

I've had a problem with a lot of recent Marvel movies feeling formulaic and factory-made (which even included Guardians to an extent), but I didn't really feel that at all with this movie. Even if the basic plot was nothing original, it was still presented in a really fresh and fun kind of way.

 

[lurok]

A.

Or F for f-ant-astic .

 

[Guy Gardener]

Result!

I am the most negativist Nelly about this movie in the poll!

And I only scored it so low because I was comparing it to Avengers I as an A grade movie.

 

[Captain Craig]

It seems Ant-Man has settled in at an 80% RT score and 92% audience score.
Positive WOM seems likely going into it's second weekend.
Variety seems to think both new openers, Pixels & PaperTown will open in the $20m range each, leaving it likely for Ant-Man to repeat. Even if it only wins the weekend marginally.

Competition among the trio of new releases could allow “Ant-Man” to retain its box office crown. The film debuted to $57.2 million and could be headed to a sophomore weekend of roughly $30 million.

It would be a good win for the film. The marketing TV spots write themselves. Not many films have repeated as #1 this summer. I think only Age of Ultron and Jurassic World have thus far.

 

[shapeshifter]

B

Better than Avengers2 but below GotG and CA:TWS.

3D IMAX was spectacular!

Can't wait for the sequel, and to see what, if any, repercussions this tech has on all upcoming incarnations of the MCU.

 

[Corran Horn]

I saw it twice - once Friday in 3D to give it a viewing before I took my kids (and get the AMC poster) and then again with my family on Sunday.

 

[Captaindemotion]

I gave it a miserly B but only because I didn't feel it was quite top notch material. Had there been an A- or B+ option, I'd have given it one of those, probably the A-.

Rudd was great fun, as always, ably supported by Pena and others. Douglas added gravitas and Lilly was lovely but spunky. If Carey Stoll didn't get a lot to do, he did what he could do with aplomb, even if Cross is the least memorable Marvel villain since Mickey Rourke in IM2. I do think that the penchant for giving Marvel heroes villains with identical powers is a little repetitive and something the studio needs to move away from.

I'm glad that Peyton Reed directed and that Rudd and McKay script-doctored it. It felt like more a Marvel movie than I'd imagine an Edgar Wright and Joe Cornish one would have. I have to say, I found Scott Pilgrim self-indulgent for a long part and all of Wright's movies since Hot Fuzz have been overlong IMHO.

The sub-plot with Lang's wife's new partner as the cop chasing Scott was tiresome in places. Couldn't Pym just have contacted police to withdraw his complaint re the burglary and bring the criminal proceedings to an end? And would the police really have to wait outside the factory to get a chance to speak to Pym? Wouldn't they just, you know, go back to the burgled premises? Is it likely that they'd just try to arrest a rich and powerful man in that setting? Okay, I know that it wasn't setting out for David Simon-esque gritty reality (despite Avon Barksdale as Bobby Cannavale's partner) but still.

I wasn't overly bothered about the post/mid credits scene; the one with the Wasp suot could've fitted into the substantive film and I must admit that I didn't actually realise that the subsequent one came from Civil War. It just seemed to come out of the blue and too rushed for me to figure out what was going on. As against that, I loved the Falcon scene and the reference to Spider-man. Perhaps my hopes were too high - I was hoping to see Spidey or Doc Strange in the credits.

That said, those are small gripes about a movie that was consistently entertaining and witty - especially where Rudd and co would deliberately mock or puncture the usual clichés and tropes (like the Hank and daughter rapprochement scene). It's a shame the box-office is well down on GOTG and other MCU movies. I hope it does well enough to get a sequel. I'd like to think that word of mouth will help.

 

[CaptainCanada]

Couldn't Pym just have contacted police to withdraw his complaint re the burglary and bring the criminal proceedings to an end?

Given that Scott is on parole, I doubt it.

 

[Captaindemotion]

^ Surely if the householder goes to policies and says 'that was my property and the guy was acting on my instructions', there is no evidence of a criminal offence? Certainly that's how it would work here, though I guess American parole laws differ from ours.