We got a brief glimpse of the new Ant-Man trailer last night during the MTV Movie Awards/Game of Thrones season 5 premiere (depending on which you chose to watch), and now the full footage has been released online. Watch it now!
From Paul Rudd running around in his ant-sized superhero suit, to Corey Stoll's villainous pre-Yellowjacket phase, to Michael Douglas warning us about what the future could hold, there's tons more to see from Peyton Reed's vision. If you weren't too familiar with the storyline for Ant-Man, the new plot lays it out rather nicely. Hank Pym (Douglas) is the original Ant-Man and he's been hiding his size-shrinking, super-powered technology from Darren Cross (Stoll). Unfortunately, he could only keep this secret for so long. Now Cross is hellbent on transforming Pym's invention into a mass-produced weapon. To get it back, Pym and his daughter, Hope van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly), enlist the aide of a reformed master thief, Scott Lang (Rudd). In bestowing him with a suit that allows Lang to change in size, communicate with ants and wield super-strength, Pym grooms Lang to become the new Ant-Man.
One of the more enticising aspects of the Ant-Man trailer, though, is the reveal of Cross suited up as Yellowjacket, Ant-Man's comic book archnemesis. Marvelites got a look at him in costume last week, but there's nothing like seeing him fire off his canons as he duels with Ant-Man on the back of a toy Thomas the Tank Engine train.
That's what makes this new look so silly -- the accompanying music is quietly thrilling, but it's more befitting of an Avengers movie. When you realize that all this hype is being made over a guy who's mentally commanding ants to spin a coin for him, you kind of can't help but laugh.
Still, the Ant-Man trailer already has implications for what this MCU installment might mean for the Phase 3 slate on the docket. "Imagine a soldier the size of an insect," ponders Cross, "the ultimate secret weapon." We then hear Douglas warn that there will be chaos if everyone is given god-like powers. This theme of man's desire to play God is a great arc to set up Captain America: Civil War, a film that will see Iron Man and Cap fighting each other over a government action to unmask all super-powered beings. When Edgar Wright bailed on Ant-Man over creative differences with Marvel, we were already worried for the future of this film, but this trailer is helping to turn views around. If Marvel can make a gunslinging raccoon and a talking tree the biggest things since sliced bread, then they can sell Ant-Man.
