Blaine: After “The Avengers” became very successful, Marvel was thinking about putting more of it’s comic book characters on the big screen. It was announced at Comic-Con 2012 that they would do “Guardians of the Galaxy” and “Ant-Man”. I was the only one at the time who was interested in it. My friends, who are comic book experts didn’t think Ant-Man was that great of a comic book character. I was interested in “Ant-Man” because it was something different. Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead & Hot Fuzz) was originally supposed to direct “Ant-Man”, but Marvel wanted to make changes to his script and he didn’t like that so he left, but they kept his screenplay. Adam McKay (The Other Guys & The Big Short) was brought in to make some of the changes and Paul Rudd made some changes himself. I was amazed to find out that Paul Rudd was going to play Ant-Man because this is a man who is best known for being in a lot of comedies like “Knocked Up”, “40 Year Old Virgin” and “Anchorman”. Now he’s joining the Marvel universe. It was a mind bender for Paul to know he was joining the Marvel Universe and that he would be playing this character in the future in sequels and other movies with the other Marvel heroes.
Plot(Spoiler Alert)
Scott Lang is trying to leave his criminal past behind and provide child support for his daughter. A moment comes when a scientist, Dr. Hank Pym offers him a job to help him pull off a heist that could save the world while wearing this suit that helps him shrink and a device that helps him control ants.
Blaine: Marvel has expanded it universe and introduced several of it’s comic book heroes through these movies and when it came to “Ant-Man” they felt they needed to find a way to do something different that hasn’t been shown before. Director Peyton Reed wanted “Ant-Man” to be a shrinking movie instead of just being another super hero movie. Technology has enhanced a lot since “The Incredible Shrinking Man” and “Honey I Shrunk the Kids”. Paul Rudd would have to bend down quickly for some of the shots where Ant-Man shrinks down and then later the visual effects department would make it look like he was shrinking down to size. They would shoot close up shots of objects from an ant’s point of view. It was a combination of motion-picture and macro photography.
They spent weeks filming the tiniest details within bank vaults, ATM machines, the tile work of bathrooms, pipes, the areas between the first floor and second floor between buildings. They did that using very tiny lenses and then sometimes they would have a tiny figurine of Ant-Man that was standing still to shoot on the floors. They even built these miniature sets to shoot. Peyton wanted to feel all those textures and make it feel really tactile when Ant-Man is running, jumping or falling down these sets. They shot footage of objects blowing up for when Ant-Man is trying to dodge Yellowjacket’s blasts.
Paul Rudd has never had a job where it requires him to be in shape. The year before “Ant-Man” began principal photography, Paul would go to the gym a lot to lose weight. He lost 5.5. inches off his waist. Paul also had to take tumbling classes, learn how to do flips and parkour. Early on the first week of shooting, Paul did the motion capture (recording of movement of objects or people). Paul would get exhausted after rolling around, doing flips and running around for thirty minutes. They did motion capture of Paul’s stuntman falling three stories and landing on a metal bar and flipping in the air with a wire attached to him. Paul really admired his stuntman for doing all that work without complaining. He thought of his stuntman as the real superhero of the movie. Paul would do wire work while they were shooting scenes of him in the Ant-Man suit and that was hard for him because it was uncomfortable especially towards the crotch, but it wasn’t all that bad. Plus Paul thought it was fun at times.
Michael Douglas’ son recommended that he take the job of Dr. Hank Pym when he was offered the job. Michael has never done a movie with action and visual effects and Marvel has done so well with the movies it’s made that Michael’s son informed him that this would be a new audience for him compared to all the thrillers and dramas he has done in the past. Michael’s character, Dr. Hank Pym, was the original Ant-Man in the comic books in 1962 and so on until he passed it on to Scott Lang in the “Avengers #181” comic book in 1979. The story to this film talks more about Scott’s story, but it also mentions Hank's days of wearing the suit.
Evangeline Lilly feels Marvel really knows how to make movies and tell these wonderful stories. One of the things Evangeline had to learn for this role was Muay Thai and move in a convincing way when her character, Hope van Dyne is teaching Scott how to fight. Evangeline said that Marvel wrote such a great character even though she doesn’t have a suit or super powers, but still a force to be reckoned with and fun to play. Evangeline wanted Marvel to make something of Hope by giving her the suit she desires in the future and in the mid-credit scene it shows her father, Dr. Hank, finally giving her a suit of her own. Fans will see both Ant-Man and The Wasp in 2018’s “Ant-Man and The Wasp”.
Marvel wanted an opportunity to introduce Ant-Man into the Avengers world because he is an Avenger in the comics, so they had a sequence where Ant-Man needs to get a device for the mission and it’s located at the Avengers’ headquarters. He runs into Falcon, played by Anthony Mackie and they have a little fight. It was very exciting for me to find out that Ant-Man was going to be in the third “Captain America” movie, “Civil War” because that meant he would be with the other Marvel superheroes and they were already putting together a great ensemble.
My rating on “Ant-Man” is five out of five stars
The cast and director of “Ant-Man” at Comic-Con 2014
