That title reminds me, did I miss out on all the think pieces written in honour of “Vitalogy” turning twenty years old? And if not, why weren’t there more think pieces on “Vitalogy” turning twenty years old?

So just after dinner time last night, the world got it’s first collective look at ANT-MAN, which will be the first offering in Marvel’s “Phase Three” after we get done with the next Avengers movie in late April. And two minutes after “just after dinner time”, something funny happened…the online universe collectively shrugged, snickered, and scrunched-up its face. For the first time since this train started rolling, a new trailer was met with a wild amount of disinterest and confusion.

Now allow me to pause here and re-iterate that I don’t judge films based on their trailers, I’ll be seeing this no matter what.

But…

Marvel had seemed all but bulletproof after GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY – the film with the walking tree and talking racoon – looked like a romp based on that first Blue-Sweede-fuelled trailer. After a bit of flagging interest in the late going of “Phase One” it looked like there was no basket they couldn’t make…no high note they couldn’t hit.

With the odd first-reaction to ANT-MAN, a crack in the dam has appeared…and one wonders if the goose is starting to run out of golden eggs.

Here’s what I know; if there’s a failing today, it’s a failing of ANT-MAN’s publicity department for cutting a humourless and (let’s face it) weird-ass trailer. And even if the film trips and brings in a “piddling” $175M, Disney will have more than enough capital to absorb the loss with Avengers and Star Wars both dropping next this year. But one wonders – could this possibly be a true indicator of the actual quality of the film?

9 Replies to “Bugs: Marvel’s ANT-MAN Trailer”

  1. I was a bit skeptical about the trailer but then they showed shirtless Paul Rudd 😀 Kidding. I’m still not too sure but I love Paul Rudd and I like that in this whole superhero genre, Marvel is still trying different approaches. Like how this is a crime movie and Winter Soldier was a spy movie and so on. This went from being my most anticipated film of the year when Wright was attached to it to something I’m cautiously optimistic about, but then that’s how I felt about GoTG too. Idk, lessee.

    1. I hear you. In a Post-Groot World, I’m willing to give anything the benefit of the doubt, but I can’t help but wonder what Edgar Wright’s version of this would have been like…

  2. Found the trailer a bit lacklustre. I will be seeing the movie but it isn’t up there on my “can’t wait” list. It isn’t a property that I know anything about or have any interest in. But I thought the same about Thor (the first one) and Guardians of the Galaxy and was very pleasantly surprised. My only concern, I see more average movie were the trailer looks really good than I see average trailers were the film turns out to be good.

    It centainly wasn’t intended as a slow burn, teaser followed by a full blown trailer. They wanted this trailer to be big news, so much so that there was a trailer advertising the trailer. What is that all about? Knowing the way they work, assuming the film is any good the second trailer will correct the failings of the first. It will probably concentrate more on the action scenes.

    By the way Ryan, hate to break it to you, its 2015, Avengers and Star Wars both come out THIS year.

    1. You know that every note I’ve made at work the last two weeks has ended with “14” right? One of these days I’ll get the hang of this.

      I’m sure the film will be fine, I just need to stop paying attention to trailers.

  3. Yeah, that trailer is kind of…meh. I’m a HUGE Rudd fan though, and I really want him to be a bigger celebrity, so I’m all for this breaking out for him…I just hope it’s better than it looks. I’m not familiar with Ant-Man, but with a name like that I’d assume it would be more colorful and fun looking. This looks so drab…

    It reminded me of The Rocketeer a little bit, which I loved, but that was in the 90’s and this is a new era…so this looks rather…dated.

  4. I thought the trailer was weird and really didn’t show any plot. The most we got to see were skyline pictures it seemed like. I’m just disappointed they aren’t putting Wasp into this movie, but I really love her character. I think they’re going to need to give us a better trailer in the future . . .

    1. Evangeline Lilly has singed on for multiple movies. In interviews she described it as a physical role with a lot of action. If she isn’t Wasp, she soon will be.

    2. Yeah, what Andy said. At least we get a glimpse of her brandishing a gun in this clip, so we know she’s not just hangin’ around to be Rudd’s damsel in distress

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