Anthony Stokes on why the Ant-Man trailer is so serious…
The Ant-Man teaser has dropped and the reactions are quite predictable. Generally most people are pretty happy with it. There was some mention of Marvel basically doing the same thing over again, which has seemed to work pretty well for the studio so far, and some criticism of the trailer as bland and generic. As a Marvel fan, more of the same is fine for me as long as it’s good; I can possibly see where someone may call it generic, but I think that’s more because it’s just a teaser and some viewers are getting tired of Marvel movies. But the one thing that gets me is that people are claiming it’s too serious of a teaser.
First of all, I can understand why some people are expecting Ant-Man to be some kind of light-hearted comedy. All the elements would suggest this to be clever, witty and borderline farcical fun. You have Paul Rudd in the lead, with most of the supporting cast being involved in comedy at some point including Michael Pena and Judy Greer. You have Marvel who specializes in action comedies. Then you have Edgar Wright, Paul Rudd, Adam McKay, and Joe Cornish all working on the same script. But we have to set this aside and let the movie dictate its own tone, rather than relying our preconceived notions.
The reason the Ant-Man teaser is dark is because it needs to sell itself to general audiences. Guess what general audiences like? A good blend of action and comedy. It’s the reason why the two biggest genres right now are 3D animated movies and comic book movies. While I don’t think Ant-Man is as hard a sell as Guardians of the Galaxy, I don’t think it’ll be an easy sell either. So I’m guessing Marvel’s strategy is to focus on the character drama and then slowly bring out the comedy later in the marketing stages. But isn’t having such a heavily dramatic tone a mismatch for Ant-man?
Well, no. Anybody who thinks Ant-Man is a character who shouldn’t be taken seriously is vastly unfamiliar with the source material. Let’s do a checklist of what the character is most notable for.:
A. Creating particles that can shrink somebody whilst retaining their mass
B. Creating Ultron
C. Spousal abuse
D. Having psychotic breaks and multiple personalities
E. Being a thief
F. Becoming a villain
G. Being irredeemably self-centered and having little if any moral fibre
The one thing that defines every character who has donned the Ant-Man suit is that they’re anti-heroes. Even Eric O’Grady’s hysterical comic Irredeemable Ant-Man still had incredibly dark moments.
It seems as if people are writing off Ant-Man as a silly character because of his premise. Any comic book character concept can sound silly (i.e. “Man dresses up like a bat and chases around a clown and a luchador”). I’m certain the movie will have a great blend of comedy, action, heart, and drama that Marvel is so well known for. As for most of my earlier doubts about the movie, they have been dispersed by what I believe is a pretty solid teaser.
Anthony Stokes is a blogger and independent filmmaker.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PL18yMRIfoszFJHnpNzqHh6gswQ0Srpi5E&v=Z2vq4CudKRk&feature=player_embedded
Originally published January 9, 2015. Updated April 13, 2018.
