From the Age of Ultron to the guy who originally made him in the comics we have his successor taking on the long overdue role of Ant-Man. As is tradition since it's available here's a link to a more well read comic book aficionado who can tell you all the true origins of Hank Pym, the original Ant-Man.
http://atopthefourthwall.com/tales-to-astonish-27/
This is yet another movie that I thought was going to be a stinker. This was down to two factors, the first was because I was afraid that they were going to use the original Ant-Man Hank Pym who was not only several flavors of crazy but is also a wife beating piece of slimy sewer trash. The second factor was its production history. See apparently this was originally a Phase one movie but several factors, not the least of which including writer/director Edgar Wright dropping out of the project caused this movie to be delayed for at least 10 years, explaining why it was Tony Stark who created Ultron in the MCU instead of Hank. But they managed to pull together under Payton Reeds' direction and made the brilliant choice of making Pym's successor Scott Lang the main hero while Hank was made into his mentor.
Our story begins in 1989 at the soon to be completed Triskelion where Professor Hank Pym (played by Michael Douglas) barges in on a meeting between Howard Stark, Peggy Carter and Mitchel Carson (played by Martin Donovan) and he's none too pleased that Stark is trying to replicate his Pym Particle research. After beating the shit out of Carson for mentioning how he failed to save his wife Janet; Pym swears that for so long as he lives nobody will get his formula and pimps out. Carson tries to stop him but Howard knows that he's no security risk, just so long as they don't make him one.
We cut to then present day as former thief Scott Lang (played by Paul Rudd) is getting out of prison and moves in with his former cell mate Luis (played by Michael Peña). But he first makes a surprise visit to see his daughter Cassy Lang, to the chagrin of his ex wife Maggie (played by Judy Greer) and her new cop husband Paxton (played Bobby Cannavale) who aren't exactly happy with his inability to pay child support. This combined with the fact that he can't get a decent job because he's an ex-con mean that this isn't exactly shaping up to be the best of weeks for Scott. Not to mention Luis and his crew trying to convince Scott to go on one last job. But he has to make ends meet and minimum wage isn't gonna cut it so he begrudgingly agrees.
Hank isn't doing much better these days since his company was bought out years prior by not only his estranged daughter Hope Van Dyne (played by Evangeline Lilly) but also his former protégé Darrin Cross (played by Corey Stoll). On top of that after seeing archival footage of Hank's missions against the U.S.S.R as the Ant-Man or as people dismissed as tales to astonish.
Cross however managed to find Hank's Pym particle research and has perfected his own shrinking suit which he's dubbed Yellowjacket which he now plans to sell to the highest bidder, namely Carson. Hank is of course horrified with this revelation but his pleas fall on deaf ears and he refuses to let Hope wear the Ant-Man suit, but he does have a guy. That being Scott who after successfully stealing the original Ant-Man suit out of his safe (that Hank indirectly told Luis about after the most convoluted yet hilarious game of Chinese-whispers ever) decides to try it out. After some shenanigans at Scott's expense involving a rave, rodents of unusual size and the very first live action Ant-Man; Hank later gives him back the suit after Scott tried to return it and stupidly got caught and offers him a second chance.
Between that or getting his ass sent back to jail and never seeing Cassie again what other choice does Scott have but to accept? So he escapes with an army of ants and meets back up with Pym who tells him what he needs done. Break into Cross' lab, steal the Yellowjacket tech, and destroy his research, once that's done Hank promises that he'll help Scott so can be with Cassie again. But first, training begins now!!! After learning about the suit's capabilities, the powers of his ants, clearing up Hank and Hope's personal history about Janet and fighting The Falcon; Scott's ready for prime time.
But Cross has tripled security so Scott brigs in his crew of Luis, Dave (played by Tip T.I Harris) and Curt (played by David Dastmalchain) to help with the job. It goes smooth, up until Cross reveals that he knew Scott was coming and is ready to sell the Yellowjacket suit to Hydra for twice the price. (Speaking of Hydra still being around I freaking called that one!) Scott manages to grow and attacks Cross who nearly got away in his helicopter but stuck around just long enough to see his life's work get sucked into the portal from Poltergeist. Fully pissed off and more crazy then ever Cross puts on the Yellowjacket suit and gets down on Scotts level for a micro-sized smackdown.
Eventually the fight takes them to Cassy where Yellowjacket is killed and Scott manages to escape the macroscopic world safe and sound. We end with Scott back with his family and Hank presenting Hope with a new prototype Wasp suit. Finally with the post credit scene we see Sam and Steve on the run with Bucky wondering what they're going to do if they call Tony and if they do if the Accords would even let him help. That's when Sam tells Steve that he's got a guy.
Through all the ups and downs that Phase two had in my opinion at least we ended it on a high. I honestly wasn't expecting to like this movie as much as I did but hey I thought the same thing about a lot of my favorite stuff so go figure. It's really amazing to see a movie with so much behind the scenes BS come together in such an apparently seamless way. Again partially why I liked Ant-Man so much is, like Guardians of the Galaxy it's not a straight forward superhero movie. To me Ant-man really comes across more like a heist movie with a special suit.
Though this couldn't be pulled off half as well if the cast wasn't likable but they definitely were. We have Scott who while screwing up in his life genuinely does care for his little peanut and wants desperately to make sure she's safe and happy, even if that means going outside the lines of the law to make ends meet. Even the relationship between Hank and Hope is interesting as we got some good scenes from the fractured family dynamic and didn't overstay its welcome. It even wrapped up nicely with Hank finally trusting Hope enough and knowing that she's more then capable of handling herself by giving her the prototype Wasp suit, probably also signifying him finally starting to move past Janet's death.
Yellowjacket was definitely one of the better MCU bad guys. Cross himself was a crazy, greedy sociopath that was willing to sell very dangerous tech to Hydra if it meant surpassing Hank. For all that he learned under Hank's tutelage he's learned absolutely nothing, though like Ultron said; we do create what destroys us, in this case Cross creating the Yellowjacket meant Hank pulls out the Ant-Man suit and trains Scott to stop him. It was also a good lead in to the theme of the importance of Fatherhood in this movie. Hank failed with Hope and Cross and now he's paying for it big time, while through Scott Hank can not only correct the sins of his past but insure that Scott and Cassy have the life he could never have with Hope.
Now before I wrap this up I just have to say that the designs for both Ant-Man and Yellowjacket are absolutely awesome! Ant-Man was a practical but retro-cool design with a nice way of explaining how he can grow and shrink with the buttons on his gloves. I also really liked how they explained how he was able to control his ants using the , as demonstrated with Hope and Hank beforehand it not only took concentration but clarity of mind to keep the ants under control. Though all Ant-Man was missing was a scarf and a motorcycle and he'd be set, oh wait somebody else thought of that.
https://whistlerx.deviantart.com/art/Antman-Rider-549092844
Give this guy a shout out he more then deserved it. The Yellowjacket suit was really damn cool, with the evil eyes display on the helmet, the honeycomb esc grid on the yellow segments of the suit and helmet and the laser blasters on his back, on top of the added insanity caused by using the shrinking tech made Cross into a real unhinged threat. Overall Ant-Man was just a fun movie with heart where it was needed and a slick heist to give the MCU a nice bit of flavor. And since Ant-Man is the last movie of Phase 2 it's time for me to rank up the Phase 2 movies from best to not as good.
#1 Guardians of the Galaxy (this was the movie that convinced me that the MCU was worth my time, money and attention so of course this was going to top Phase 2 for me.)
#2 Ant-Man ( A movie that's so well written and presented that you completely forget its behind the scenes nightmares.)
#3 Captain America: The Winter Soldier ( A great personal story, wrapped up with poignant social commentary and an intimidating antagonist with a personal connection to our hero.)
#4 Avengers: Age of Ultron ( Not bad but felt like more of an obligation then a promise if you get what I mean.)
#5 Iron Man 3 ( Tony what in the name of Jack Kirby's crown made you think that personally challenging the Mandarin was a good idea!?)
#6 Thor: The Dark World ( This had the worst villain of the MCU and was only saved thanks to Loki.)
Now at long last I've almost caught up with the MCU movies. After this chronologically is Civil War but since we've already tread that ground there's no need to go over it again. Except to say that it's in my top 5 MCU movies surprising absolutely no-one. Then afterwords was Doctor Strange which was a nice psychedelic trip with amazing visuals. So finally we get back on track with the March to Infinity by heading over to our dad's place and listening to Volume 2.
Special thanks to my Patreon backer Jesse for his support.
Ant-Man is owned by Marvel Studios, Walt Disney Studio Motion Pictures. Based off the comic book character created by Stan Lee, Larry Lieber and Jack Kirby.
Marvel's The Avengers is owned by Marvel Studios, Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, Joss Whedon and Kevin Feige. Based off the comic by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.
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