Marvel’s latest hit brings the shrinking wonder to the big screen.
[dropcap size=small]M[/dropcap]arvel’s newest addition to their ever growing cinematic universe, Ant-Man, hit theaters last week and has quickly become a box-office hit. Many, including myself, were skeptical of the movie when it was announced. Ant-Man? Really Marvel, this is what you came up with? Although the original Ant-Man, Hank Pym who is portrayed by Michael Douglas in the film, was a solo comic in Tales to Astonish, the pint sized hero was also a founding member of the original Avengers team. Although the movie does not focus on Pym in the role of Ant-Man, he is still at titular character. The man taking up the helm of Ant-Man is Scott Lang, played by Paul Rudd, who is the second Ant-Man in the comics. Scott begins the movie as a thief who has just been released from prison but takes a path of redemption to become a hero.
Synopsis AKA spoilers ahead!!
The movie opens up with Hank Pym resigning from his position at S.H.I.E.L.D. when he discovers that they are trying to recreate his Pym-Particles, which is the technology that gives the Ant-Man suit the power to shrink. Howard Stark and Peggy Carter have a cameo in this scene and Pym punches Mitchell Carson in the face before walking out of the building (Carson comes back into the picture later in the film). Pym vows to never tell anyone the secret of the Particles because he fears what could be done with it.
Flashback to present day, Pym has been forced out of his famous company, Pym Technologies, by former protégé Darren Cross and his daughter Hope Van Dyne, who he does not have a wonderful relationship with. Cross is very close to creating his own shrinking suit, the Yellowjacket, which alarms Pym.
The introduction of Lang opens up with him in prison in a sort of Fight Club-esque situation with him trading blows with another man. It ends up being a ceremony that Scott goes through because he is leaving prison. He is then picked up by his former cellmate, Luis, who he lives with. Scott tries to go visit his daughter, Cassie, on her birthday but is stopped by Maggie’s (his ex-wife) fiancé, Paxton. Maggie tells Scott that he will be able to visit Cassie if he pays child support. The only problem with this is he can not hold a job due to his criminal record. In his desperation, Scott agrees to join Luis and his crew in a house burglary that Luis was tipped to by his cousin. Scott breaks into the house and amazingly cracks into the safe only to find the Ant-Man suit, which he thinks is an old motorcycle suit. He tries the suit on and accidentally shrinks himself. Pym contacts him through the suit and tells him that this is his first test, although Scott has no idea what this means. He then has to navigate himself out of a bathtub, through a rave, and then lands on top of a car where he grows back to full size. Thoroughly freaked out, Scott breaks back into the house, which is now known to be Pym’s, and returns the suit but is then arrested by none other then Paxton. Pym poses as Lang’s lawyer to bring him the suit while he is in jail and then helps him break out. After a vertigo inducing escape on the back of a flying ant, Lang passes out and wakes up in Pym’s home.
Pym explains that he wants Scott to become the new Ant-Man to steal the Yellowjacket suit from Cross. Hope is actually working with her father to steal the suit, despite their rocky relationship, because she also fears what Cross will do with the suit when it is completed. Pym and Hope both help Scott try and learn to control the suit and hone his ability to control the ants. A device that is in an “old” Stark bunker in upstate New York is needed to carry out the heist of stealing the Yellowjacket suit. The bunker actually turns out to be the new Avengers headquarters and Scott has a brief fight with Falcon and somehow gets out unscathed and with the device. Pym explains to Hope exactly what happened in the death of her mother. Pym never really told her anything but explains how her mother Janet Van Dyne, who was actually the Wasp, shrunk to a subatomic level to stop a Soviet nuke from hitting the US. She was stuck ever shrinking in a quantum realm with no real way of getting back. Pym warns Scott that the same may happen to him if he tampers with the suits regulator.
During this time Cross perfects the shrinking ability on the Yellowjacket suit and intends to unveil it in a ceremony at Pym Tech. With the help of Luis, Pym, Hope, and hundreds of ants, Scott breaks into the event, shuts down the servers, plants explosives, and then attempts to steal the suit only to get himself captured. Cross knew about the plan all along and intends to sell both suits to Hydra, led by Mitchell Carson. Scott breaks free and subdues most of the Hydra agents except Carson who is able to escape with a vial of Cross’ particles. Scott pursues Cross as he tries to escape while the building is destroyed by the explosives.
Cross dons the Yellowjacket suit and fights Scott with it before Scott is arrested by Paxton. Cross goes after Cassie in an attempt to lure Scott into a battle. Realizing there is no way to beat Cross with the tactics he has, Scott shrinks to a subatomic level to go inside of the Yellowjacket suit and destroy it from the inside out. The suit shrinks uncontrollably and ultimately kills Cross. Scott is stuck in the quantum realm, endlessly shrinking but is able to use the regulator in reverse to grow back to normal size. Paxton clears Scott of all charges because of his heroism and Pym wonders if Wasp could still be alive somewhere inside the quantum realm. Scott then meets up with Luis who tells him that Sam Wilson aka Falcon, is looking for him.
In the mid credit scene, Pym shows Hope a new prototype of the Wasp suit.
In the post credit scene, Cap and Falcon have a captured Bucky Barnes in a warehouse. Unable to contact Tony Stark due to “the accords”, Falcon mentions that he knows a guy that may be able to help them out (Ant-Man).
The movie set up the character of Scott Lang well. It shows why he became Ant-Man and what he can bring to the table for the Avengers. The fight scenes were also very well done. Both battles between Ant-Man and Yellowjacket were hilarious due to the tiny nature of the battles but the shrinking and growing brought new visuals that have never been scene before in the MCU. That scene with Thomas the Tank Engine had me dying laughing. One of my favorite parts of the movie came with the character Luis. He is Lang’s hispanic partner but in my opinion one of the funniest characters Marvel has ever come up with. His way of explaining how he heard about the job to steal the suit and also how he heard that Falcon is looking for Scott brought a lot of humor to the film and explained things in a more entertaining way. The other supporting characters like Hank Pym and Hope Van Dyne portrayed well and set up the characters to appear in future movies. Well at least Hope Van Dyne since she will be donning the helm of the new Wasp. One of the biggest things that was apparent in the film is that the movie is part of a larger world. With various comments and cameos, like Scott saying to Pym that instead of them trying to get the Yellowjacket suit they should just call the Avengers, Ant-Man is a good bridge in between movies and sets up the future of the MCU in a good way.
Ant-Man did have a few flaws though. It was an origin story, an entertaining one, but still an origin story. The middle of the movie seemed to drag on at times and at the end there was a wish for a larger climatic fight scene in between Ant-Man and Yellowjacket. The character of Darren Cross/Yellowjacket was not as developed as it could have been. This could be the Marvel Villain syndrome where many of the Marvel villains are underwhelming or underdeveloped with the exception of Loki and maybe Ultron. There was not enough Ant-Man vs Yellowjacket scenes but that goes back to the origin story aspect.
Ant-Man had some big shoes to fill, coming only a few months after Age of Ultron and personally I think it filled them pretty well. The movie was entertaining and introduced a lot of characters to the MCU and moved along the universe towards Phase 3. It was everything you could ask for in a Marvel movie, action and hilarity all rolled into a pint sized hero that can talk to ants.
