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What We Learned From the New Ant-Man Trailer

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The first teaser for Marvel's Ant-Man was maybe not all it could have been, so does the new trailer offer anything more exciting?

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It's fair to say that the first Ant-Man teaser did very little to excite anyone who wasn't already on board with the film. Previously most prominent for having a public split with its writer-director of several years just days before production was supposed to start, the anodyne nature of theAnt-Man footage we saw was only broken by a couple of jokes at the property's expense. That, combined with the absence of any sequels from the forthcoming slate of movies, made it look like the film might just be the Marvel cinematic universe's first flop.

It's with great pleasure that we can say the new trailer does a lot more to ease any concerns. A showcase of cliché-subverting moments, snappy dialogue and scale-based comedy paint a picture of a film much more in keeping with the Marvel cinematic universe as it's currently established: fun, funny, and totally at ease with the suspension of disbelief required to invest in the character.

But what are we actually seeing?

Soldier Ants

The introductory narration makes it seem as though the original purpose of the Ant-Man technology was weaponisation. Perhaps that explains why Pym needs someone to steal his own work back. He doesn't want to be responsible for the deaths that'd occur if he didn't. Unlike Tony Stark, who grew a conscience through suffering, it seems like Hank Pym might be suffering because he already has one.

Ant-ics

The ability to communicate with and control insects using what is essentially a form of insect telepathy is an element of Ant-Man that could easily have been left by the wayside. After all, the movie version of Falcon lost his ability to communicate with his pet, Redwing, and it's pretty unlikely we'll ever see Joe Fixit Hulk on screen. Some things from the comics just don't translate. But Ant-Man is retaining this non-essential power. Good news for comics purists, though bad news for anyone who can't stand the things.

Yellowjacket

Aside from the odd leak or two, the villain for Ant-Manhas been kept under wraps for some time now. This trailer gives us our first good look at Yellowjacket. In the comics, Yellowjacket is another of Hank Pym's alter egos and one primarily associated with his time as a villain, so it's not a complete surprise that they confer that onto another character given the lack of any iconic foes for Ant-Man (other than perhaps Ultron, who's Pym traditional nemesis. He's currently otherwise engaged, in case you hadn't noticed.)

As in the comics, Yellowjacket's going to have a similar power set to Ant-Man. Unlike the comics, he's got a techno-based redesign. Again, purists might scoff, but you can't fault how menacing that yellow-and-black colour scheme looks.

New MCU Additions

Obviously we're getting Hope Van Dyne added to the Marvel cinematic universe (with the implication that Janet Van Dyne will, in some form or another, be parcel with that) but you can't fail to have noticed the addition of Thomas the Tank Engine as well, in one of the trailer's most amusing moments. Does this mean that all of Rev. Awdry's work now part of the MCU, or have they done a single character deal like with Sony andSpider-Man? Will the Fat Controller be replaced by Agent Coulson? Start your speculation now.

Miniature Heroes

One thing you can definitely say about Ant-Manis that it's going to give us a spectacle we haven't seen recently. Movies with shrinking protagonists have taken a back seat since the glory days of Innerspaceand Honey I Shrunk the Kids, and we've never seem a miniature superhero. A film like this is going to rely more heavily than ever on its visual style, and from the trailer, at least, it appears that it's got that worked out.

Ant-tastic

One of the biggest problems about the Ant-Man teaser was that it took a script from a comedic writer, with a comedic director and a comedic actor, then sucked all the fun out of it. There were precisely two jokes, both of which were at the expense of the property's name. It didn't just seem apologetic about its existence: it looked actively embarrassed about it.

Luckily, this trailer gives us a few more reasons to laugh and only one crack at the expense of the name, which is encouraging. This is doing what the firstGuardians Of The Galaxy trailer did: making the film look like it'll show you a good time even if you've never heard of the thing it's touting.

So that's Ant-Man, then, looking a lot less like easy meat for any critics waiting for the chance to savage Marvel after their string of hits. Obviously, a good trailer doesn't mean a good film any more than a bad trailer means a bad film – but at the very least this should dispel a healthy amount of scepticism around the endeavour. Certainly, it's exciting us.

Ant-Man will be in cinemas this July

James Hunt4/14/2015 at 9:29AM

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