Trailer Trashin’: Meet the Size-Changing Avenger in Ant-Man

It’s not even halfway through January, dear readers, and we’ve already seen trailers for many of the year’s big movies. Such is the case with this week’s Trailer Trashin’ column, which examines our first look at Marvel’s upcoming July release Ant-Man.

Premise: Petty thief Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) must aid his mentor Dr. Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) in safeguarding the mystery of the Ant-Man technology – which allows its user to decrease in size but increase in strength – from various new threats, and plot a heist that will save the world.

My take: It’s been a long, strange journey to the silver screen for Marvel’s size-changing hero Ant-Man. Marvel Studios began developing the project way back in 2006, when they hired English filmmaker Edgar Wright – the man who brought us Shaun of the Dead (2004), Hot Fuzz (2007), Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010), and The World’s End (2013) – to direct the film and co-write it with his friend and collaborator Joe Cornish. As the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) took off, Wright and Cornish finished three drafts of their Ant-Man script and Wright shot test footage.

Finally, Marvel announced in fall 2013 that pre-production had begun on the film, which was scheduled for release in 2015. But in May 2014, Edgar Wright left the project over creative differences. A month later, director Peyton Reed – who helmed Bring It On (2000), Down with Love (2003), The Break-Up (2006), and Yes Man (2008) – was brought in as Wright’s replacement. At the same time, Adam McKay – best known for directing and/or producing many of Will Ferrell’s movies – was hired to contribute to the screenplay. Now, the first trailer for Ant-Man is finally here, and while it does leave us with some questions, it definitely looks like another good entry in the MCU.

All the films in the MCU have had great casts, and this is no exception. The main focus is on the two versions of the titular hero who appear in the film: Michael Douglas as Dr. Hank Pym, the original Ant-Man, and Paul Rudd as Scott Lang, Pym’s successor. Paul Rudd is mainly known for comedy, but I think he’ll do a good job with the action and more dramatic parts here. This is the most high-profile thing Douglas has done in a while, and I think he looks like a great fit for the role. We only see a little bit of Evangeline Lilly as Hope Van Dyne, the daughter of Hank Pym and his (late?) wife Janet Van Dyne/The Wasp. Lilly has said interesting things about her character, mainly how being raised by two super heroes has left Hope pretty screwed up. And I’m not the only one who’s said this, but I predict that Hope will take up the mantle of the Wasp and become Scott’s crime-fighting partner/possible love interest. We only see two quick shots of Corey Stoll as our villain, Darren Cross/Yellowjacket. In the comics, Cross is the founder of Cross Technological Enterprises, one of the leading tech companies of the Marvel universe; while the name Yellowjacket has been used by a number of super heroes, including Hank Pym at one point. The two have been combined for the movie character, similar to how Mickey Rourke’s character Ivan Vanko in Iron Man 2 (2010) took elements from both Whiplash and Crimson Dynamo in the comics. In this film, Cross is a former protégé of Hank Pym, who has taken over Pym’s company and plans to weaponize the Ant-Man technology, which he uses to create his Yellowjacket battle-suit. And while I don’t know the name of the actress playing her, the little girl we see with Scott several times is clearly his daughter Cassie Lang; in the comics, Cassie eventually gains the same size-changing powers as her father and becomes the super heroine Stature, a member of the Young Avengers, but I highly doubt anything like that will happen in this movie.

When this trailer first came out, a big part of the conversation was about the tone. Simply put, it looks more serious than a lot of us were expecting. Because the key people involved with the project are mainly known for their comedic work, the assumption was that Ant-Man would be more of an out-and-out comedy than the other Marvel films. But that’s clearly not the case, and the movie seems to be playing things straight for the most part. Of course, all the MCU films have had their share of humor, and this trailer does end on a joke, so I highly doubt the final film will be all dour and serious.

I really like the visuals on display here. When you first hear about a super hero with the power to shrink, that sounds kind of boring. But if you stop and think about it in cinematic terms, it opens up all kinds of possibilities. When a human is shrunk down to the size of an insect, mundane things become epic. A bathtub becomes a huge, slippery crater. A computer server farm turns into a glowing cityscape. A winged ant becomes a flying beast the size of a helicopter. And this is all on display in just a teaser trailer, so you know there’s a lot we haven’t seen yet.

If nothing else, this teaser has given us a lot to chew on. While it hasn’t allayed all my concerns, it definitely shows that the movie appears to have come out the other side of all its production woes in one piece. Of course, we won’t know for sure until the film is actually released, but for now, I’m optimistic. When the middle of July rolls around, I’ll definitely be checking out Ant-Man.

ANTICIPATION: My excitement is growing, not shrinking.