Marvel’s new film clearly falls short of its best predecessors in terms of drama, character vibrancy, and adventure ingenuity, but it remains an impressive spectacle, made on a grand scale with serious groundwork for the future.
A virtuoso burglar, Scott Lang, recently released from prison, decides to take on one last job for the chance to see his daughter and… steals a strange-looking suit from the house of a famous scientist. The loot turns out to be not just a funny outfit, but a device capable of shrinking a person to the size of an ant. It soon becomes clear that the suit did not fall into Scott’s hands by chance; the new superhero must stop the mercenary Dr. Cross, who intends to use this invention for military purposes. Together with the discoverer of the shrinking particles, Dr. Pym, and his daughter Hope, Scott sets off to a heavily guarded laboratory to stop the mad scientist.
Let’s be lenient. In the past year, Marvel has faced tasks that any company would have balked at: launching a new team of superheroes in “Guardians of the Galaxy,” repeating the success of the highest-grossing film in the world after Cameron’s creations with “Age of Ultron,” and starting to recruit fresh characters into Phase Three of the Marvel Cinematic Universe with “Ant-Man.” All three points can be checked off; these tasks have been brought to their logical conclusion, although not everything that the producers and authors had in mind was achieved. And it was “Ant-Man” that was least fortunate here, on which the titan, if not overturned, then stumbled and faltered somewhat.
Specifically for the film, designers and artists created 13 costumes, 17 helmets, 17 belts, 8 pairs of gloves, 6 pairs of shoes, 15 backpacks, 15 balaclavas, and 14 collars for Ant-Man.
Production Challenges
“Ant-Man” was plagued with problems from the very beginning – there were issues with the choice of actor for the main role, and the replacement of the too-independent Edgar Wright with the more compliant but by no means as talented Peyton Reed could not have been beneficial. Even the Marvel machine itself became a problem for the new film: expectations are high, and it is not always possible to meet them. “Ant-Man” catastrophically lacks talent and ingenuity; it is the simplest, most clichéd, and most boring film in the Cinematic Universe. Alas, but it is so.
The wig that Michael Douglas wears in the scene where he plays the young Hank Pym was bought by the actor for a film about President Reagan that he was going to make.
Character and Plot Weaknesses
To begin with, the authors managed to create a hero who is completely unsympathetic. Scott does not cause disgust, no, but he cannot be called a full-fledged character either. He has no distinguishable character, no special goals in life, except for the hackneyed plot trick with his daughter, left in the care of his ex-wife. He is not the likeable oaf Star-Lord, not the self-loving Stark, not the unyielding Steve Rogers; Lang is a hero of the second or even third tier, who would be good for carrying shells or being the victim of Iron Man’s constant pranks. But no, here he needs to play the first fiddle, and he doesn’t have the skills.
With such a sluggish main character, colleagues, humor, or special effects should come to the rescue, but here too, “Ant-Man” is not all tip-top. Of course, it is pleasing that actors of the level of Michael Douglas or previously Robert Redford have joined the global superhero franchise, but by and large, the veteran has nothing to play in this film, and, except for the youth of his character in the opening episode, Douglas does not surprise in any way. Evangeline Lilly’s heroine is slightly less clear-cut, but only due to the contradictory nature of her character, her explosive energy, and militancy. However, this is not enough for a cheerful, original, exciting plot, especially since the villain also turned out to be a sad miss – it seems that for the first time in Marvel history, he turned out to be so one-dimensional, obvious, and uncomplicated.
Humor and Special Effects
In previous films in the franchise, such plot bumps were leveled out with varying degrees of success due to humor, but “Ant-Man” is also small in this regard. Moreover, even the specially artificially introduced trio of comic heroes – Lang’s accomplices – does not save the situation: most of the jokes are too broad and obvious. Special effects, which have taken a big step forward since “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids,” do not help either, but by and large, they are not very impressive. This is generally a problem for a shrinking superhero – after all, when Bruce Banner turns into a green giant, it is truly terrifying, but a hero who becomes an “insect,” albeit an energetic one in size, evokes not awe, but a smile. For a fighter for justice, this is a complete failure.
Final Verdict
However, let’s not paint everything black; the new Marvel film is still a big, spectacularly beautiful attraction with a sea of stunts, chases, fights, and emergencies when the world needs the help of the best of us. And let physicists faint from the explanation of the principle of operation of the Ant-Man suit, let the viewer sometimes fall asleep from stories about different types of insects, let the supervillain shoot mosquitoes with a pistol and hit them – we are ready to endure a lot on the way to the next adventures of the Avengers. “Ant-Man” turned out to be a passing, not the most obligatory two-hour stage in a big journey through comics; perhaps it can even be called the worst in the franchise. But this is by no means the end of the topic and far from the end. These ants are not so easy to get rid of, especially if they are part of a large Marvel ecosystem.