Syan Rican Vs Movies: Ant-Man

  Ever since Marvel announced plans to make an Avengers movie, the question in fans' mind has always been about how Ant-Man and Wasp would fit in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Fast forward to two Avengers movies and Ant-Man had yet to make his MCU debut. Ultron, the creation of Hank Pym in the comics has already appeared in this Universe but his "father" had yet to grace out screens. But Marvel didn't sit on their laurels for long, the story of Hank Pym and the Pym Particles had yet to be told. Enter the last film of Marvel's Cinematic Phase Two: Ant-Man.

"So.. We're calling the Avengers, right?" 

  The first main difference in the MCU's Ant-Man and regular Marvel continuity (which, I won't even attempt to explain the current state of affairs there) is this: Hank Pym (Michael Douglas in fine form) is now an old retired scientist, his daughter Hope vanDyne (Evangeline Lilly) works for his successor Daren Cross (the best Lex Luthor cosplayer ever Corey Stoll), who has discovered Hank's old Pym Particles formula and is trying to recreate them to create an army of Ant-Men suits and sell to the highest bidder. Newly freed burglar, Scott Lang (Paul Rudd, playing Paul Rudd) is chosen by Hank to break into Cross Industries to steal the formula and the Yellowjacket suit, while taking the mantle of Ant-Man. And so the heist is on!

  Ant-Man is a very different Marvel movie. In fact, it's almost a straight up comedy (not unlike Guardians of the Galaxy) with a heist subplot hearkening back to Ocean's Eleven. Scott is easily Marvel's most approachable, and relate-able lead since Captain America's Steven Rogers, his sole reason to don the suit and help Hank Pym (and before that, his only reason to resort to burglary in the first place) was to provide for his daughter Cassie and be able to be a better father for her. Scott is an imperfect man, much like most of Marvel's heroes, but at his core there's a good person with a very pure soul, reminiscent of Roger's love for his country.

This is how you get ants.

  Much of the movie is spent with Hope and Hank trying to train Scott how to both use the Ant-Man suit to his advantage and to communicate with ants to properly strategize his heist. There's a sub-plot involving the death of Janet van Dyne (the original Wasp) that opens some doors to the world of future Marvel movies (mainly Doctor Strange) and it also opens the door for a new Wasp to eventually take the mantle, the same way Scott has taken the mantle of Ant-Man. The halfway scene features a mistake by Hank Pym that leads to a fight between Scott and an Avenger, which is easily worth the price of admission alone. Scott's constant apologies while fighting said Avenger is fairly funny, and it also helps establish him for the fans that didn't believe Ant-Man would be a serious contender in the MCU. He may be a nice guy, but when the pressure is on, it's on!

  The finale of the film is the showdown between Darren Cross' Yellowjacket suit versus Scott Lang's Ant-Man. The trailer for the film had spoiled this for months now, but it's actually a very good finale that ranks up there with other final encounters in the MCU; not quite Avengers Vs. Ultron, but better than damn near most solo hero fights in the individual Marvel offerings. Overall, a very fun action comedy that hits all the right notes while establishing new ideas, and some interesting threads leading to Phase 3, in an already extensive movie universe. The biggest superhero of them all is here!

SHR Rating:

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Look into other Syan Vs Movies reviews: Jurassic World, San Andreas, Tale of Princess Kaguya, Mad Max: Fury Road, and Ex Machina

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