I remember making a post on Facebook about Ant-Man and Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice back in 2015 when the trailers for both dropped within about a week of each other. My exact post was "How could you possibly make the trailer for a film entitled "Batman v Superman" less exciting than one for a film called "Ant-Man"? Zach Snyder everyone! Give him a round of applause!" Ok, so that's probably a little mean, but Ant-Man did turn out to be an exciting, effects-driven tour-de-force Superhero Heist film, whilst Dawn of Justice was... not great, but hey, let's not tread old ground. Ant-Man gets pulled out a lot as a stick with which to beat the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which is always funny to me, as the film is solid, with a decent cast and excellent production, rather than being an "also-ran". As mentioned above, Ant-Man sets itself apart by being a heist film at heart, complete with "getting the plan going" montage and motley crew each with their own area of expertise. Not really sure why people tend to say that Ant-Man is just a retread of Iron Man.
When the plot details started to be released for Ant-Man, I was a little disappointed that the MCU was jumping straight to Scott Lang, but I soon saw the wisdom of avoiding a pill-popping, wife-beating superhero and making the protagonist a failed Robin Hood type trying to get his life back together after a stint in prison. Can my American readers answer something for me? Is Scott's ex wife a reasonable representation? Scott just got out of prison and is struggling to find work, but can't visit Cassie until he pays Child Support for several years? Cassie is already living with her mother and has a Police Officer stepfather, is the demand for money just punitive? I'll admit I'm not up on Californian divorce law, but it really jars with me watching it back. Cassie is clearly healthy, happy and well-fed, she just misses her father, which could be resolved with a call to a lawyer. Having Falcon and Agent Carter appear helps round the world of the MCU and tie Ant-Man in to the more veteran franchises.
Watching Ant-Man again for the first time in a few years, I picked up on some things I hadn't noticed before. For example, the "Ant-Man Theme" (on the soundtrack) is in Minor key, a composing trick usually reserved for villains in cinema (and also Batman), which makes sense as Scott Lang is a criminal and the whole enterprise of the film is criminal activity. The relationship between Hank Pym and David Cross is well done, with the failed father/son dynamic driving both characters and making for some great scenes. And then there's Luis, one of the greatest support characters in the MCU, making up for his (slightly racist) criminal past tropes by having diverse interests in wine and neo-cubist art and some great running comedy bits. Hopefully Marvel gets around to releasing the promised "Luis Recaps the Marvel Universe" segment by the time this article makes it through the backlog, I'd really like to see it.
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