With a cinematic universe that includes Gods from other realms, giant green rage monsters, genetically enhanced super soldiers, and many more outlandish creations, the idea of a movie about a criminal trying to go straight but struggling, who can also turn really, really small, seems like the odd man out. While it may have been an inherently silly idea, that’s exactly what Marvel did with this year’s Ant-Man, and their latest endeavor just got taken to task with a new Honest Trailer. Check it out below.
Though the latest in the fan favorite series of Cinema Sins videos does poke fun at the intrinsically ridiculous nature of the character (though I don’t know that it’s that much more absurd than just about anything else that Marvel has done up to this point—a talking raccoon from space is pretty out there), they also admit that despite all of that, Ant-Man actually works pretty well. Even if they did decide to make it on a dare, and no one can keep a straight face when they say the protagonist’s name.
If nothing else, it represents something different for the movie arm of the comic book giant. The comedic and heist elements are not necessarily things that Marvel is known for, though both work well, in large part because of the charming affability of star, and co-writer, Paul Rudd doing "Paul Rudd things."
While this video does praise Ant-Man for doing things like making you care about "disgusting insect monsters," they also point out that the plot may feel somewhat familiar, at least for those of us who watched the first Iron Man movie. I hadn’t thought about it before, but there are some obvious parallels, like the wealthy industrialist who loses control of his own company to former friend and ally, a bald former friend and ally at that, who wants to use his technologically advanced suit for militaristic reasons. Both movies even have scenes where their friends look at the suit we all know they’ll wear sometime in the future and make a crack about it.
Whatever your feelings on the movie, I hope you’re prepared to get even more Ant-Man in the future. Not only will Rudd’s Scott Lang, perhaps the worst master burglar of all time (seriously, he gets caught every time) show up next year in Captain America: Civil War, he gets another solo, or at least solo-ish outing, teaming up with Evangeline Lilly’s Hope van Dyne as she assumes the mantle of her mother, the Wasp, in 2018’s Ant-Man and the Wasp.
