Written by Bill Bodkin & Justin Matchick
Release Date: July 17th, 2015
Starring: Paul Rudd, Michael Douglas, Evangeline Lilly, Judy Greer, Corey Stoll, Bobby Cannavale, Michael Peña, Wood Harris, T.I.
Director: Peyton Reed (Yes Man, The Break-Up, Bring it on)
Pre-Trailer Thought: The Ant-Man film has been through a lot of behind the scenes drama, most notably director Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz) leaving over creative differences. I’m hoping that the movie will still carry over some of his comedic charm and energetic visual style. – JM
Pre Trailer Thought: I’ve been down on Ant-Man since Edgar Wright left the project. I’ve been even more down on it since that teaser dropped a few months ago. This whole thing has got me kinda bummed. -BB
Rate the Trailer: 3 out of 5. It’s nice to see that the film will still have a sense of humor about itself, no doubt helped by writers Paul Rudd and Adam McKay. Rudd, who also plays Ant-Man himself, seems to be easing nicely into a heroic role after years of comedies. Aside from that though, this plays out like any other Marvel movie trailer, from the explosions to the establishing city shots to the scenes of shadowy high-tech corporations. It feels trivial to criticize an action movie trailer for showing us slow-mo snippets of action scenes, but with each successive year bringing us more and more superhero films everything is starting to feel a bit..samey. – JM
Rate the Trailer: 3.5 out of 5. Much better! After the self-deprecating and kinda ‘meh’ teaser trailer, this go-around was what we all needed. We have a backstory to our hero, we have the conceit of his powers, and the plot of what he must overcome. The humor is dialed down a bit, especially the ‘Ugh, I’m called Ant-Man’ humor, which was really needed. As Justin said, it does have a feeling of been-there, done-that, superhero trailer syndrome, but this film really needed to dig its heels into the ground and say, ‘Hey, this isn’t a comedy, this is going to be a caper film and superhero flick rolled into one.’ -BB
Theater, Rent, Undecided, No Thanks: Rent. Although its humor will hopefully distinguish it from the rest of the glut of superhero films, I can’t help but feel absolutely burnt out on big budget superhero movies (and this is before seeing the biggest, most budgety, most superhero-y film of the year in Avengers: Age of Ultron). I’ll likely catch up to it one day as I still enjoy the continuity of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but I’m not in any rush to see it once it opens. – JM
Theater, Rent, Undecided, No Thanks: Rent. Right now, this is going to be high on my list to rent. I’m a sucker for a superhero flick, so of course I’ll see this one. What needs to happen here is, we need to see more trailers offering something a little bit more. Guardians did this brilliantly last year – giving us new bits and pieces and nuances and new songs every time there was a new trailer. That’s kinda what Ant-Man needs to do. It needs to give me a reason to care, besides it being a superhero film, because as Justin stated, we’ve got a ton of them on the horizon. So until Ant-Man gives me a bit more, I’ll stick to a rental for this one. -BB
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