The Flickering Myth team react…
As with every new trailer for a superhero movie, there are those who like it, and those who don’t. In the case of Ant-Man, the feeling across the Internet has been more or less the same: it’s okay.
SEE ALSO – Watch the first trailer for Marvel’s Ant-Man
But what about the writing and editorial staff of Flickering Myth? Did they join the consensus of, “it’s okay”, or did they have other thoughts?
Ozzy Armstrong: While I think the film may be decent, I was a little underwhelmed by this trailer. It had everything I expected – mild humour, sagely wisdom and insect related action, but it fell a little flat. Still, definitely not writing it off yet and will still happily toddle off to the cinema to watch it.
Kris Wall: It looks enjoyable, certainly not the showstopper I’ve come to expect from Marvel trailers but it does look like fun. I really like Corey Stoll so having him as a villain is enough to get me in the cinema. And everyone likes Paul Rudd, how can you not?!
Chris Cooper: Coming off the back of Guardians of the Galaxy and the trailer for Avengers: Age of Ultron, I may have been expecting too much, so I was left a little flat. It ticks all the boxes a first trailer needs to and I think the cast look great, but it just didn’t wow me. But, I have complete faith in Marvel. If someone can make it work it will be them.
James Garcia: I actually really liked the trailer, and am one of the few human beings who wasn’t blown away by the Avengers: Age of Ultron trailer or the first Guardians of the Galaxy teaser trailer. I know that some found Ant-Man‘s teaser to be underwhelming, but for some reason it really resonated with me and got me excited about the film.
When Wright left the project and Marvel turned instead to people like Adam McKay, I was worried that the film would wind up being overly comedic. That may still be the case, but I think this trailer showed that beneath that humor and goofiness is a human story about fathers and daughters and about a con-man becoming a hero. A hero with a family isn’t something we’ve really seen from Marvel yet (Thor has this element, but it’s different when it’s a human father and his little girl), so Scott Lang immediately stands apart from the rest of the Avengers in that respect. I’m really looking forward to seeing how that story plays out, and hope that it’s given its due in the film.
Overall, the trailer didn’t have a ton of flashy moments or spectacle, but it did its job in teasing the film and selling me on the premise/set-up and easing my initial worries about the project.
Scott J Davis: Suitably teased, but was only okay. It’s a hard sell again for Marvel, so they are “playing it safe” with the trailer, going more for type than playing up the comedy elements. But Rudd is great in everything, and It’s nice to see Douglas on the big screen again, as well as the lovely Evangeline Lilly and the rest. Teased, but imagine there is so much more to come…
Luke Owen: I felt it was pretty flat and underwhelming. Not the trailer I was expecting to be honest, given the cast, director and writer. I do wonder whether two trailers were cut (a comedy one and the serious “Marvel” trailer) and they just went with the easier sell? It’s what they did with Guardians of the Galaxy until James Gunn put his foot down and went with the Hooked on a Feeling trailer.
James Garcia: I get what you’re saying about this maybe being an easier sell, but keep one thing in mind: Marvel is fighting a different battle here than they were with Guardians of the Galaxy. With Guardians of the Galaxy, they had to sell us on the premise and wacky characters. It was like they were saying ,”We know this is goofy, but trust us, it’ll be fun!” The film ended up having more heart than that and was more character-driven, but the marketing mostly relied on selling the premise and getting us to give the characters a chance.
With Ant-Man, Marvel isn’t selling us on the goofiness of the character. Sure, they’re playing that up a bit, as seen by the posters and “ant-sized” trailer, but their mission statement here has to be different. It’s not, “look how goofy and fun this is!” It’s, “We know that Ant-Man is a goofy idea. HERE’s why you should look past that and actually care about this story.” By giving us a more serious trailer, they’ve established that it’s not just a movie about a guy that shrinks and has a funny name. He’s got a daughter and there are bigger emotional things at stake here.
Luke Owen: That was more or less my point though. Having spoken to people who like Marvel movies but don’t read comics, the idea of Ant-Man does not appeal. They just think he’s a goofy character with lame powers. So, by cutting a trailer that is more serious in tone and focuses on the family element and backstory, you present something that isn’t, “hey this guy shrinks and says funny things”. My point really was wondering whether there were two trailers cut as, a lot of the pre-trailer buzz (given the talent in front and behind the camera pre and post Wright) was that this would be more comedy-driven, Now, I could be way of base, but it wouldn’t be the first time that Marvel cut a trailer to appease an audience rather than stay true to the movie.
James Garcia: Ah, I see what you’re saying. Reminds me of what happened with the trailers for Iron Man 3, which also hid a lot of the comedy and focused more on the dramatic elements that more or less weren’t present in the final product.
David Fleming: I like it as a first glimpse, though I imagine the next trailer we see will show us a lot more in terms of impressive visuals. The old Edgar Wright test footage was enough to make me believe that Ant-Man could work as a movie. I hope we see a little more of that in the next trailer. Aside from the “hero” side of things, the trailer looks like it could have some good human story elements.
Andrew Newton: Ant-Man?? Oh dear!
Gary Collinson: I thought it was okay for a first trailer, but not sure how effective it would be introducing the characters to people unfamiliar with Ant-Man. Certainly nowhere near as impressive as the first trailers for Guardians of the Galaxy, Avengers: Age of Ultron and Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Although I did love seeing him flying around on the ant, and the suit looks great.
Gav Logan: I’ll echo what most of you are saying. Was okay but didn’t blow me away with excitement. I guess they don’t want to include everything in the first trailer.
Ben Rayner: This was a bit of a miss for me. Struggling with them trying to slap a gritty Dark Knight tone onto a hero that shrinks and rides flys like falcor…
Chris Cooper: I didn’t see it as gritty as all. They just played it straight with a couple of smirks.
Anthony Donovan Stokes: Ant-Man is actually a pretty dark character, so I didn’t mind the tone. Overall it was more setting up Lang’s character as an anti-hero more then anything else. Pretty good teaser.
Villordsutch: I have to say this barely registered anything of an interest with me, nothing came along and made me think, ‘I really need to see this!’ like Guardians of the Galaxy did. If anything this felt like a trailer for a TV pilot coming soon to the SyFy channel.
Helen Murdoch: Found the trailer quite dull in all honesty. I think that Paul Rudd and Michael Douglas will put in good performances but I’m not holding my breath for this one. The initial footage that was released when Edgar Wright was directing was a million times more interesting.
William Fanelli: Didn’t grab me as far as the mixed tone they’ve displayed here… but Douglas and Rudd are certainly good selling points.
Chris Cooper: I think I’ve realised the problem I might have, and why this is different for me. It’s Brian Fantana/Mike from Friends. Though most of the heroes in the Marvel Cinematic Universe are well known to me, he’s the first one who really has baggage. My hope is that he’ll lose it pretty sharpish, much like how I don’t see Johnny Storm in Chris Evans now.
Anghus Houvouras: The one hope I have for all these Marvel movies is that they don’t get trapped doing one type of film. This is the first Marvel trailer that has been declaring ‘Deja Vu’ Shades of Iron Man. A protagonist who may be uncomfortable in the role of a hero. We’ve seen that before. It felt a little like Batman Beyond with Douglas in the Bruce Wayne role and Rudd playing Terry McGuiness. With that said, this teaser will probably be about as well received as a fart in an elevator. Less that two minutes but it felt long. At the same time, not a lot of information. Heavy on exposition, light on the action, and strange cuts. “Look kids, it’s Michael Pena with a machine gun!” Too much Michael Douglas, not enough Paul Rudd.
Matthew Skeen: I agree on the too much Douglas and not enough Rudd. Trailer is merely suitable, although I do like knowing we’re getting another change of scenery with San Francisco. Think Marvel have done a good job of mixing different locations into the films.
Oliver Davis: It feels as though they’ve tried to have the best of the serious and comedic worlds. The ‘too late to change the name, BOOM – title card’ gag was great, as was the ‘huh?’, but they felt disjointed. As Luke said, Marvel seem to have distanced the movie from Guardians of the Galaxy, but still included a few mood-jarring jokes as a halfway house.
Martin Deer: Looks really unique compared to all of the other Marvel films. There’s a real sense they’re doing something different from all other comic book movies and really breaking new ground. Excellent, excellent trailer.
Jake Peffer: Great preview for what’s to come. It does leave a little to be desired but I’m sure we will get much more with the next couple trailers. Paul Rudd looks like he will be great in the lead role and it does have a different feel for Marvel which I look forward to seeing.
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So, a fairly mixed bag – but leaning towards the “meh” side of things. What did you think of the trailer for Ant-Man? Let us know in the comments below and be sure to check out the Flickering Myth Podcast thoughts on the trailer as well, by using the player below:
Ant-Man is set for release on July 17th , 2015, with Peyton Reed (The Break-Up) directing a cast that includes Paul Rudd (I Love You Man) as Scott Lang, Michael Douglas (Behind The Candelabra) as Dr. Hank Pym, Evangeline Lilly (The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug) as Hope Van Dyne, Corey Stoll (House of Cards) as Darren Cross / Yellowjacket, John Slattery (Iron Man 2) as Howard Stark, Hayley Atwell (Captain America: The First Avenger) as Peggy Carter and Bobby Cannavale (The Long Play), Michael Peña (American Hustle), Abby Ryder Fortson (Togetherness), Judy Greer (Dawn of the Planet of the Apes), David Dastmalchian (The Dark Knight), Wood Harris (The Wire), Gregg Turkington (The Comedy) and T.I. (American Gangster) in as yet-unrevealed roles.
