Ant-Man

Ant-Man was the Marvel movie I really wasn’t looking forward to. The signs were not good. Hank Pym has been a long-time regular in the Avengers, of course, though he is now somewhat tarnished by repeated bouts of madness and wife-beating (especially in the Ultimate version) – but he hasn’t held down his own series since 1965, and neither have his successors been particularly successful as solo stars rather than team members. True, many of Marvel’s successful solo stars either have already got their own movies in the MCU, or are tied up with the various agreements with other studios that Marvel haven’t been able to get out of, but it still seems strange to go to Ant-Man before, say, the Sub-Mariner, Black Panther or Captain Marvel (admittedly, some of them are getting movies, but only after Ant-Man). One suspects that the movie would never have got made at all were it not for the enthusiasm of director Edgar Wright and co-writer Joe Cornish – so it was a worrying portent when they left the project just before filming began, a project that they had been trying to get made since before Iron Man had been released, to be replaced by Peyton Reed. There was then a worryingly incoherent appearance of the cast and crew at the 2014 San Diego Comic-Con, which revealed that there was at that point no script (Wright and Cornish’s story was eventually rewritten by Adam McKay and star Paul Rudd), and Michael Douglas, cast as Hank Pym, had no idea who his character was.

It is therefore quite a pleasant surprise to be able to say that, actually, Ant-Man is okay. It’s by no means perfect, but it certainly isn’t as bad as, say, Incredible Hulk. Paul Rudd is good as Scott Lang – he essentially plays on his standard comedy persona, but that is actually what the movie needs. The plot is fairly minor – Hank Pym has been forced out of his own company which is now in the hands of Darren Cross (Corey Stoll), who is trying to replicate Pym’s research into shrinking objects. But it allows for a variation on the standard superhero battles, with some amusing moments featuring Thomas the Tank Engine. There’s quite a bit of tying in to the main Avengers/MCU continuity, including what seems now to be the obligatory (and who are we to complain?) Hayley Atwell appearance (in a scene which features some excellent de-aging of Douglas). Marvel have clearly decided that the cost of having so many stars in each movie is outweighed by the benefits to be gained from increased audience, and only scheduling conflicts (such as that which scuppered Hawkeye’s appearance in Winter Soldier) will prevent such appearances – and the Avengers cameo in Ant-Man serves as an excellent link into Ant-Man’s forthcoming appearance in Captain America: Civil War. There are many other moments that will please most Marvel fans. Even one development that was heavily controversial in the run-up to the movie, the death prior to the main action of Janet van Dyne, turns out to be less annoying that I expected, as the door is very clearly left open for her to return in the future, even though Evangeline Lilly, as Hank Pym’s daughter Hope, is set up at the end of the movie to be the new Wasp (to the surprise of no-one).

The movie’s been accused of sexism, and it is true that Lilly is underused, though the script comes up with a reasonable explanation of why Pym should turn to Scott Lang rather than his daughter to wear the Ant-Man suit. It is also true that the main comic relief characters all being ethnic is unfortunate, and emphasises the overall whiteness of the MCU and its movies.

But this movie could have been so much worse than it actually is. Marvel’s movies will jump the shark eventually, but it hasn’t happened yet.

(Also, I want to see the 1980s Ant-Man series now.)