Ant-Man earns his Avengers stripes in Ant-Man and the Wasp...
I’m currently sat in my garden recruiting ants to join my superhero team. You see, I’ve just seen Ant-Man and the Wasp, and I’m running round like a little kid playing out my favourite scenes (haven’t seen the movie yet? Don’t judge!).
For those of you who only joined the MCU ride because of the hype of Black Panther and have no idea who Ant-Man is, let’s do a quick catch up…
Civilian name: Scott Lang
Ability: Shrinking and enlarging thanks to a special suit (not Moss Bros) that changes the wearers molecular structure
Back story: Went to prison for burglary, came out and went back to stealing (he has child support to pay and can’t hold down a job thanks to his criminal record, alright!). Ends up stealing the special suit from scientist Dr Hank Pym – but it’s all a set up. Hank recruits Scott to be Ant-Man and the pair join forces to take down the bad guy (Pym’s old protégé, Darren Cross, who’s created his own shrinking suit, the YellowJacket).*
*Hold on, this sounds like the plot of the first Iron Man movie. Anyway…
Right, so now we’re all at the same place, let’s get back to the job at hand - the movie.
In my opinion the first movie – Ant-Man, which was released in 2015 - was childish, and reminded me of Disney’s Flubber starring the late, great Robin Williams. So I walked into the Ant-Man and the Wasp screening expecting more of the same.
But as my recruiting of ants will probably indicate, my feelings are very different this time around.
Historically, Ant-Man has always been overshadowed by the rest of the Avengers - and not just because he has the worst name out of the crew, but because… actually, I don’t know why, he just doesn’t have fans like that.
But this movie’s set to change all that.
In Ant-Man and the Wasp, Ant-Man finally steps up and proves he’s worthy of his place at the Avengers table. Actually, I’d go so far as to say that Ant-Man and the Wasp (or AATW as I’ll refer to it from here on in, because my fingers are getting tired) actually shows some of the bigger name Marvel movies how things should be done. In fact…
Big boy Marvel films that get schooled by Ant-Man and the Wasp
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2: AATW is full of the humour that we expected (but didn’t get) from GotG Vol.2 based on the first film’s surprisingly hilarious script. It’s also waaay prettier in the CGI stakes - from the shrinking and enlarging, to the dive into another dimension.
Captain America: Civil War: Yeah, I said it! AATW is better than Captain America: Civil War! CA:CW promised a great battle of epic proportions, but instead we were given a tussle in Terminal 5 by the baggage collection (WHY was nobody there screaming World Star!). Ant-Man delivers one of the longest fight scenes in the MCU, with one of the best villains/anti-heroes we’ve seen yet, bar Thanos.
Iron Man 2: We wanted a buddy movie where the buddies fall out and save the day together, but War Machine was a waste! But AATW delivers on that with the relationship between Ant-Man and Wasp. Backstory: they dated for a while, but he stole from her and then lied to her to go the tussle at Terminal 5. And you know what they say, a woman scorned and all that. The resulting quips, fights and the cold silences are fantastic.
Finally, I need to talk about the bad guy some more. I got all Scarface whilst watching AATW and started rooting for the bad guy because, quietly frankly, they’re bad (meaning good). Let’s remember these are comic book adaptations, and for once I really felt like I was watching a comic book, with the antics and visualisation of… dammit, saying their name is a spoiler! But trust, this is a bad guy only out for themselves who puts everyone on their ass with no holds barred.
Oh and the ants! They really get their moment in the spotlight this time around, which is why I’m going to go back to looking for ants for my team…
